The album received mixed reviews. Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

described it as "a novelty record" and wrote,“Collaborating with Joel McNeely on arrangements, MacFarlane casts Music Is Better Than Words as a tribute to the big-band swing and sterling pop of the Rat Pack

Rat Pack

The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...

, but he wisely avoids choosing songs that were recorded by his musical idols. There's a timelessness to the melodies of James Van Heusen's "It's Anybody's Spring" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Something Good," and McNeely's tasteful horn and string arrangements are flawless recreations of the sounds of Sinatra's mid-century records.” "...the album has nothing to offer beyond MacFarlane's attempts to preserve and honor this particular style of music." concluding that "Music Is Better Than Words doesn't have any greater purpose than to allow MacFarlane the opportunity to indulge in his desire to record an album of standards." Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

expressed a dissenting opinion, calling the album "alternately audacious and befuddling...Devotees will search in vain for the necrophilia punch lines, while Sinatra fans will search in vain for a plausible explanation."

Track listing

Chart positions

Chart	Peak position
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	111
Billboard Jazz Albums	2