Da Capo has been largely overshadowed by Love's third album Forever Changes, widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. Spevack writes that many fans and critics who have given Forever Changes that title have also declared Da Capo "the perfect album side", and that the decision to devote the entire other side to "Revelation" instead of a potential six further songs from Lee or MacLean has resulted in Love "only having one universally beloved masterpiece LP and not two." Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger said that although side one stands as "a truly classic body of work", side two keeps the album as a whole from attaining that status. Mike Segretto called the album "frustrating" due to it not "follow[ing] through on its tremendous promise." He said that the first side "may be the best run of Love songs the band ever recorded", and that the album may have ended up being their best if the second side "had some songs on it." Despite this, Segretto said that the strength of side one still set the album "well above the majority of its contemporaries."
