year," citing the album's "sheer throbbing sensuality," and concluding: "Put simply, if Hot Trip To Heaven doesn’t make your body want to dance or make love (or both) you’re dead." Greg Fasolino and Ira Robbins of Trouser Press wrote: "Beyond the simple surprise of resurrection, Love and Rockets' Hot Trip to Heaven is a radical rethink." They said the album was an unusual case of a band creating "something vital and new after such an extended hibernation," and praised the band's "penchant for diversity [working] hand in hand with the band's fresh, creative ideas." New York Magazine called the album "hypnotic, glistening, dark and crashing–everything you'd expect from the musician side of goth rock progenitors, Bauhaus [Love and Rockets' previous band.]" AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was less receptive, saying "they sound like they're trying to figure out what the hell is going on," though colleague Bill Cassel wrote that the album, "though flawed, boasted strong songwriting and an intriguing mix of electronics and old-fashioned instruments." Legacy and aftermath Hot Trip to Heaven has been hailed in retrospect by some critics in ways it had not been upon its release. Chris Molanphy of CMJ New Music Monthly wrote in 1998 that the album reimagined the band "as an electronica collective before that term had been coined." Meanwhile, Westword called it one of Ash's "best and most interesting albums," later noting in 2013 that "Love and Rockets all but committed career suicide with its daring, largely synth-driven 1994 album Hot Trip to Heaven, but like OMD's Dazzle Ships, the project is coming to be seen as a masterpiece ahead of its time." Sandy Masuo of the Los Angeles Times wrote that with Hot Trip to Heaven, "the group demonstrated that the suave, gritty pop it's cultivated is as effective stretched across wide, ambient spaces as it is compressed into more concise, rock-related forms." In 2002, critic Dave Thompson praised Hot Trip To Heaven, saying it "should have been Love And Rockets' biggest album yet." Ash reflected on Hot Trip in Heaven in 2013, saying "as a band we needed to do that to keep it fresh for us. But, you know, I was hoping it was going to be our Dark Side of the Moon. It was either going to be that, or it was going to be a flop. Unfortunately it was a flop. But I'm still proud of the record."