Washington Post writer Chris Richards called Personal Best "a fiery, all-but-forgotten punk masterpiece".
Reception
Allmusic declared the album is a "call to arms" that "explodes on contact", saying: "Of all the punk records to come out of the 1990s, Personal Best comes closest to actually recapturing the sheer passion and rage which originally spawned the movement two decades earlier..." and praised the band's all-encompassing fusion of the dual emotional and polemical issues felt within the LGBT community, as well as how the band "never put their politics ahead of their songs — each of these ten tracks is airtight, with melodies as blistering as the lyrics".