[7] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Tim Sendra writing "if it's introspective, somewhat epic country rock balladry one desires, then Blu Wav might be just the thing" as "it's certainly the band's most focused record to date".

[10] Shawn Donohue of Glide Magazine characterized this as "a solid, restrained offering and a fitting coda to their catalog" in response to rumors that this may be the final Grandaddy album.

[12] The Line of Best Fit's Will Yarbrough gave Blu Wav a 6 out of 10, praising how the music "updates Grandaddy's core sound without overwriting the quirks in their circuitry", but critiquing that it "sticks to [its] framework a little too rigidly".

[4] Laura Barton of Uncut rated Blu Wav 4 out of 5 stars, summing up "The effect is to send the listener into a kind of emotional, geographical and chronological freefall, as if we might be passing through any decade, state or era in recent American history.

[18] A June 3 roundup of the best albums of the year in Spin included Blu Wav and Jonah Bayer stated that "Jason Lytle might sound better now than when the group supported Elliott Smith back in the early 2000s".