The album consists entirely of cover versions of R&B songs. Like its predecessor, Blow in the Wind, several tracks lead off with appropriations of classic punk (or related genres like new wave) riffs ("Crazy" incorporates "Six Pack" by Black Flag, "Save the Best for Last" includes "Pretty Vacant" by the Sex Pistols, and "I'll Be There" borrows the intro from the Cars' "Just What I Needed").
Production
The band had trouble selecting songs for inclusion, at first attempting upbeat songs such as "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", but found that they did not translate well to sped-up punk rhythms. They eventually settled on ballads with "no real time signature" that were more amenable to rearrangement.[1] When the band first finished recording and submitted the album to be pressed and distributed, the record label, Fat Wreck Chords, initially refused to distribute it; this was at the behest of the label's employees and was despite label owner Fat Mike being a member of the band. This prompted the Gimme Gimmes to record five additional songs to make the album acceptable to those employees. Even after the addition of the new recordings, guitarist Joey Cape felt that Take a Break was the band's "worst record".[2]
Mackenzie Wilson of AllMusic praised Take a Break as superior to the band's previous outing, Blow in the Wind, saying it was rock & roll done "the right way".[4] Andrew Parks of the Buffalo News praised the "infectious takes" on R&B songs, and the "sly songwriting touches" that the Gimme Gimmes included,[6] while Roger Catlin in the Hartford Courant described it as "giddy fun".[7] Richard Baker of The Age described the middle section of the album as "the Gimmes at their best",[3] and Darryl Sterdan in the London Free Press was similarly positive about the middle tracks "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Isn't She Lovely", and "I'll Be There".[8] Dan MacEachern of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald and Jeremy Plothow of the Post Register gave negative reviews, each saying that the band's formula had become tired,[10][11] and Mark Robison in the Reno Gazette-Journal wrote that the song selections were uninspired.[12]
