James Hamilton from the magazine's RM Dance Update deemed it a "stunningly catchy "nothing can stop me" chanter". A floor filler annex airplay hit is born!" Andy Beevers from Music Week rated it five out of five and complimented it as "another dead catchy radio-friendly tune". These people restore Funky Town as the capital of good old disco. Pan-European magazine Music & Media stated that "the '90s will be type-cast as the age of retro, both in rock and in dance. The song – an I Will Survive for the '90s – is the highlight of M People's Elegant Slumming". Howard Cohen for The Miami Herald wrote, "The song's got a sassy hook, paired with a glossy fat beat and infectious melody. Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report said that "excitement about this uptempo winner is spreading fast and one listen should explain why." John Hamilton from Idolator praised it as "a confident pop-soul kiss-off", adding that "its funky sax and Small’s pissed-off vocals combined to create nothing short of a club classic, one that provided ample opportunity for gay and straight clubbers alike to bust a move on dancefloors across the nation." Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times deemed it a "glorious dancefloor record – as spirited a declaration of independence (from a bad relationship) as Gloria Gaynor's " I Will Survive"." Music writer James Masterton viewed it as "another piece of classic dance pop" in his weekly UK chart commentary.
Anderson Jones from Entertainment Weekly noted it as a number "that has set disco balls spinning across Europe". After one spin, you'll be humming the chorus for a week, which is the mark of a true smash." Kendall Morgan from Dallas Morning News called it "ear candy".
Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that frontwoman Heather Small and the band "deftly blends state-of-the-charts club trends with a reverence for classic Motown and R&B sounds.
Keith Farley from AllMusic described the song as a "nu-disco slant". The song also became a Top 40 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the Billboard dance chart. The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and was the biggest selling M People single. Written by Mike Pickering and Paul Heard and produced by M People, it was released on 13 September 1993. If you need a blast of early 90s diva-house but don’t want to be as obvious as C+C Music Factory or Snap!, reach for M People’s Elegant Slumming.Moving on Up is the seventh overall single from British band M People, and the second single from their second album, Elegant Slumming (1993). While maybe not an essential listen, Elegant Slumming is proof positive that there was more happening in the UK in ‘93 than boys making guitar sounds. Smooth R&B joint “Natural Thing” and the proto- Remedy “La Vida Loca” also guaranteed interest once the singles have been left behind. Mike Pickering and Paul Herd take up their role as shadowy producers and turn in beats that bear the distinct marks of early 90’s pop-dance (were producers passing around keyboard patches or something?) but make room for live saxophone and flute solos to spice things up. She sounds amazing deliver the confident get-the-***-outs of “Movin On Up” (“Take it like a man baby if that’s what you are”) as she does calm and collected on the quiet storm “Love’s in My Soul”. Opening with the mighty “One Night in Heaven”, which I can only assume used to send packed clubs into bedlam, M People present their key strength in Heather Small’s powerful, distinctive vocals.
One as the most solid full length the genre produced. It’s a shame because as a pop-dance album Elegant Slumming might even surpass Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Vol. It’s been quietly forgotten about and it’s only real claim to a legacy today might be that it upset Blur’s Parklife for the 1994 Mercury Music Prize. M People on the other hand, were too pop and too frivolous to have any serious stake in the times. With Blur’s Modern Life is Rubbish and Suede’s debut album setting the stage, 93 was the primer to Britpop’s formal 94 breakthrough. Despite spawning nothing but top 10 hits (including two US dance number ones) and going triple platinum, Elegant Slumming’s diva house doesn’t fit in with the britpop ascendancy narrative prescribed to 1993. M People’s Elegant Slumming has no legacy. Review Summary: For Tomorrow: A Guide to Contemporary British Music, 1988-2013 (Part 7.5)