In 2013, in a ranking of Bowie's albums up to that point, Gabriela Claymore of "Stereogum" placed "Pin Ups" at number 18, calling it "The only one of Bowie's '70s records you can safely call 'inessential'. She felt it was out of place coming off of "Aladdin Sane", but nevertheless stated, "For what it is, it's quite good". Following Bowie's death in 2016, Bryan Wawzenek of "Ultimate Classic Rock" ranked all of his 26 studio albums from worst to best, placing "Pin Ups" at number 21. He praised the song choices as "excellent", describing "Sorrow" as the highlight. However, he found that Bowie went "way, way, way over the top" on every other track. He concluded by stating: "In spite of all the effort, "Pin Ups" remains a slight affair." In the context of Bowie's entire career, Eder views "Pin Ups" as an artistic statement, in that it represented a "swan song" for the Spiders from Mars and an "interlude" between the first and second phases of his international career, with his next album "Diamond Dogs" being the end of his glam rock era: "It's not a bad bridge between the two, and it has endured across the decades."