The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.[7]
Critical reception
The Washington Post wrote: "In many ways the chaotic and funk-soul soundscapes on MMW's The Dropper are not avant-garde but downright conservative, coming 40 years after the advent of organ jazz and 30 after free jazz."[8]Exclaim! called The Dropper "their crankiest, most difficult album to date, as they wade into pointy-headed jazz-funk realms, but that's only because they've burrowed more deeply still into the funk."[2] The Riverfront Times thought that "Medeski's particularly compelling in his style, banging on keyboards with a precise recklessness, and he expands his keyboard army by, it seems, dozens of instruments."[9]
