Record Mirror ranked it the best album of 1980.
In 2006, Q placed Sound Affects at number 15 on its list of the "40 Best Albums of the '80s". In 2013, NME ranked Sound Affects at number 487 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2020, Rolling Stone included Sound Affects in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for crafting their "finest album", while encapsulating "the classic English songcraft of the Kinks and the Small Faces, singing about working-class anger". The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
In BBC Radio 6 Music's documentary The Jam: Made in Britain, Paul Weller cited Sound Affects as his favourite Jam album. and AllMusic.
The Jam
- Paul Weller – guitar, vocals, keyboards, sitar
- Bruce Foxton – bass guitar, vocals
- Rick Buckler – drums, percussion
Technical
- The Jam – production, sleeve design
- Vic Coppersmith-Heaven – production
- George Chambers – assistant engineering
- Alan Douglas – engineering
- Bill Smith – sleeve design
- Andrew Douglas – photography
- Martyn Goddard – photography
- Andrew Rosen – photography
- Pennie Smith – photography
- Laurent Locher – French spoken vocals on 'Scrape Away'
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
!scope="col"| Chart (1980–81)
!scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|style="text-align:center;"| 53
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Finnish Albums (Soumen Virallinen)
|style="text-align:center;"|27
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1981)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 38
|-
|}