 In his album review for Rolling Stone , Stephen Holden wrote of Harrison having " inherited the most precious Beatle legacy – the spiritual aura that the group accumulated " and suggested that he had " maintained its inviolability with remarkable grace " . Holden described " Living in the Material World " as " an incantatory , polyrhythmic rocker with a falsetto @-@ on @-@ sitar refrain " and viewed the music as " some of the most complex on the album " . Billboard magazine listed the song first among the " best cuts " on a collection whose themes included " the Beatles and their mish @-@ mash " and a " spiritual undercoat " . In Melody Maker , Michael Watts described " Living in the Material World " as " brilliant " and suggested that it might have made a superior lead single to " Give Me Love ( Give Me Peace on Earth ) " . In his 1981 book The Beatles Apart , Bob Woffinden wrote admiringly of Harrison " grappling with the problem " of " striving for spiritual goals when you 're a young and famous multi @-@ millionaire " . Woffinden dismissed the title track as a " flop " , however , citing Harrison 's failed attempts " to elide the syllables of ' material ' " with the melody . 
