Secrets was released in September 1978 by Arista Records and debuted at number 31 on the Billboard magazine's jazz chart on September 9. According to Arista executive Clive Davis, the album was Scott-Heron's first since 1975's The First Minute of a New Day to reach the top 100 of Billboard's top albums chart, while the single "Angel Dust" nearly became a hit.

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave Secrets a "B+" and lamented the lack of hooks on songs such as "Third World Revolution", but appreciated "Show Bizness"'s "tribulations-of-stardom" theme and "educational refrain". His main point of praise was for Scott-Heron's political flair, writing that he "stokes the protest-music flame more generously than any son of Woody, and in sheer agitprop terms 'Angel Dust,' one of those black-radio hits that somehow never crossed over, is his triumph--haunting music of genuine political usefulness."People magazine appreciated the record's jazz sounds from Jackson and the Midnight Band, while calling Secrets "another angry, robust collection of song-poems, this time exploring injustice, drug addiction and revolution".Colin Larkin gave the album three out of five stars in his Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music (2002), while AllMusic's album entry assigned it three-and-a-half stars.

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