and percussion for the first two minutes, and was noted in Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song as "strangely unfocused", also noting that at the 3:18 point of the song, Alexander "steps out of character" with the lyric "This may not be true, but I said it so you'd feel involved with the song"; Spin commented that the song contains "rangy slurs". The lyrics to the album's lead single, "You Get What You Give", drew much attention—particularly its bridge, which contained insults directed at Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, and Marilyn Manson. Alexander stated in a 1998 Billboard interview that the song's lyrics are "mostly about remembering to fly high and be completely off your head in a world where we can't control all the elements. You have to maintain balance because you only get what you give." Spin compared the song to Sister Sledge's "Lost in the Music", while Gerber noted that it is virtually expletive-free. Critical receptionEntertainment Weeklys Tom Sinclair called the album "filler-free" and praised the album's positive messages. The Village Voices Robert Christgau praised the songwriting and lyrics, which he called "lovable" despite their "paucity of meaning". Writing for WXPN, Bruce Warren remarked that the album's lyrics, with Alexander complaining about the commercialization of Western society, media and religion, aren't clichéd because they are "insightful" and truthful. In a mixed review, NMEs Kitty Empire felt that the album is occasionally interesting but then "freefalls like a shot duck". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Alex Henderson commented that although Alexander clearly has a "left-wing point of view", the album "doesn't beat listeners over the head with a sociopolitical agenda", going on to praise the album's 1970s sound and Alexander's vocals, calling it "one of the most promising" albums released in 1998. Colin Larkin's review for the Encyclopedia of Popular Music called Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too "an uplifting combination of sweeping melodies, aggressive harmonies and large dollops of stream-of-consciousness soul", likening the album to those of Chumbawamba and praising Alexander's vocal range. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too at number 23 on their list of "40 Greatest One-Album Wonders", reflecting that "A bubbling stew of influences that had glossier production and more pointed lyrics about corporate America than its alt-rock-radio brethren, Brainwashed could have been the beginning of a new pop order." Commercial performance In the United States, the album debuted