Blowback received generally positive reviews from critics, although many of Tricky's longtime fans disliked it. According to Encyclopedia of Popular Music writer Colin Larkin, it was hailed as Tricky's best record since his 1995 debut Maxinquaye, while PopMatters critic Jeffrey Thiessen later called it "a great pop album nobody liked". Simon Price regarded Blowback as Tricky's best album since 1996's Pre-Millennium Tension and "his most accessible since Maxinquaye." He wrote in his review for The Independent at the time that the artist's move to New York "away from the petty politics of the music business" had resulted in "a dark, dense album of future-funk and deep dub". In The New York Times, Neil Strauss called it a radical departure from previous Tricky records, "direct and upfront, the poppiest production Tricky has ever mustered". The Indianapolis Star described it as Tricky's attempt to "prove there's at least one more rap-rock album that's worth a listen". Writing for The Guardian, Dave Simpson was surprised by how "deliriously uplifting, even humorous", the music was, while encompassing "everything from rap-metal to ragga, US power-pop, granite beats, supernatural ambience and even New Romantic. At the same time, it is uniquely, inimitably Tricky." Some reviewers were more critical. The Wire said while "some of it is just odd enough to work", the album's fusion of hip hop, electro, dancehall, and, "most problematically, stadium alt.rock" proved to be an intriguing but frustrating listen. NME magazine's Sarah Dempster was disappointed in Tricky's choice of guest artists, who she felt came off as "market-friendly gimmicks, novelties that will afford his selective ramblings a wider audience". While viewing it as further evidence of Tricky's evolution from trip hop toward becoming "some sort of rap-pop revolutionary", Pitchforks Brent DiCrescenzo found much of the music "horrible" and plagued by the musician's poor lapses in creative judgment, particularly his duets with Anthony Kiedis and Ed Kowalczyk. Blowback was named the fourth best album of 2001 by Village Voice critic Robert Christgau. In retrospect, he viewed it as Tricky's most "songful" release, one that was "criminally neglected" by listeners. Bill Friskics-Warren later said Blowback was "an album of funk-rock by way of dancehall reggae" that relied on mainstream-rock guest performers but did not "forego incisiveness for accessibility, resistance for appeasement".
