In his review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stated, "It is fully a jazz album, and a completely funky soul-jazz disc as well ... Smith plays both piano and electric keyboards and keeps his compositions on the jazzy side -- breezy, open, and full of groove playing that occasionally falls over to the funk side of the fence ... Summery and loose in feel, airy and free with its in-the-cut beats and stellar piano fills, "Expansions" prefigures a number of the "smooth jazz" greats here, without the studio slickness and turgid lack of imagination.