The album is a double album, which is apocryphally said to have been the second-lowest selling album in Columbia's history, second only to a yoga instructional record. Despite this, Music to Eat has since garnered enough of an interest to warrant Columbia to officially re-issue the album on vinyl in 2018. Music to Eat compares with the likes of Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, and Pere Ubu in establishing a quirky, experimental version of rock and roll. Critic Richie Unterberger wrote that while the Hampton Grease Band could not quite match the levels of instrumental virtuosity in Zappa or Beefheart's bands, they were even closer to the "lunatic fringe" than those performers.[2]