 According to AllMusic , Blur received generally positive reviews from music critics but at the time of its release , according to Q , the reviews were mixed in the UK press . David Cavanagh reported that The Guardian praised it , whereas The Times was more " ambivalent " and The Independent was negative . Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the album highlights " the band 's rich eclecticism and sense of songcraft . Certainly , they are trying for new sonic territory , bringing in shards of white noise , gurgling electronics , raw guitars , and druggy psychedelia , but these are just extensions of previously hidden elements of Blur 's music . " Margaret Moser of The Austin Chronicle praised the album for " unveiling a punchy brand of muscular Brit @-@ pop that dances around raucous , Kinks @-@ like garage @-@ pop ( " Movin ' On , " " <unk> " ) , tender , Beatles @-@ like harmonies ( " Beetlebum , " " Look Inside America " ) , punky quirk ( " Chinese Bombs " ) , soulful balladry ( " Country Sad Ballad Man " ) , obligatory space @-@ rock trip @-@ hop ( " Theme from Retro , " " I 'm Just a Killer for Your Love " ) , and a raise @-@ yer @-@ mug singalong ( " On Your Own " ) . " Jonathan Bernstein of Spin also felt that , " despite their traitorous pronouncements , Blur 's highlights are consistently British @-@ bred . " James Hunter , writing for Rolling Stone , claimed that " what still makes [ Blur ] great is their deep grasp of style and genre . What they haven 't done on Blur is roll out of bed , strum a few chords and loudly free @-@ associate about the first thing that pops into their heads . This is a record that inhabits current American rock biases as cogently and intelligently as Parklife corralled the last few decades of British rock . " 
