Producer Stephen Street claimed that lead singer-songwriter Damon Albarn had started writing about more personal experiences while Coxon revealed that listening to his lyrics it was clear to him that "he'd obviously gone off his head a bit more".

"[8] An early 1996 Q magazine interview revealed that relations between Blur members had become very strained; journalist Adrian Deevoy wrote that he found them "on the verge of a nervous breakup".

[8] Guitarist Graham Coxon, in particular, began to resent his bandmates; James for his playboy lifestyle and Albarn for his control over Blur's musical direction and public image.

[8] In February 1996, when Coxon and James were absent for a lip-synced Blur performance broadcast on Italian television, they were replaced by a cardboard cutout and a roadie, respectively.

"[8] Coxon struggled with drinking problems and, in a rejection of the group's former Britpop aesthetic, made a point of listening to noisy American alternative rock bands such as Pavement.

[9] In the 2010 documentary on the band, No Distance Left to Run, Coxon stated that he was getting more influenced by American guitarists as "a lot of them were doing very interesting stuff with guitars and I needed to be nourished.

Coxon, recognising his own personal need to, as drummer Dave Rowntree put it, "work this band", wrote a letter to Albarn, describing his desire for their music "to scare people again".

"[8] According to producer Stephen Street, "Blur had decided that commercial pressures and writing hit singles wasn't going to be the main consideration any more.

"[12] Street had acquired a new piece of hardware, described as "muso-ish to talk about but really useful" that enabled him to sample loops and otherwise cut-and-paste entire sections of the band's jam sessions.

I think [Albarn had] grown a bit and was prepared to start writing about his own experiences rather than transposing them on to a character like Tracy Jacks or Dan Abnormal."

[17] By contrast, Margaret Moser of The Austin Chronicle characterised its music as "a punchy brand of muscular Brit-pop",[18] while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it "may superficially appear to be a break from tradition" but is a "logical progression" from Britpop rather than an abandonment of it.

[19] In congruence, music critic Jim DeRogatis assessed that the album "introduced elements of American indie rock to the band’s veddy English sound.

[25] Erlewine described "Country Sad Ballad Man" as "bizarrely affecting, strangled lo-fi psychedelia",[19] whilst Collins claimed that "the seated intro is a rustic mess from which arises a simply beautiful, lazy riff.

[26] The song borrows the chord progression from David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Fantastic Voyage", the latter of which was co-written by Brian Eno.

Erlewine described the song as "an incredible slice of singalong pop spiked with winding, fluid guitar and synth eruptions.

[21] "Theme from Retro" was described as "obligatory space-rock trip-hop" by The Austin Chronicle,[18] whilst Collins claimed that it "presents Blur in dub", referring to it as "an unyielding, lovely row.

"[21] Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly described the song as recalling the "whacked-out plangency of Midwestern lo-fi heroes Guided By Voices".

[21] Sinclair described "Chinese Bombs" as sounding like a "Lower East Side mosh-pit den",[27] while Zoladz felt that "I'm Just a Killer for Your Love" was "exquisitely bleary-eyed".

"[19] Collins described "Strange News from Another Star" as "Blur's Space Oddity", stating that the "acoustic guitar, quiet intro, nutty mood-change into a darker passage [and] a melancholy report whose central thrust ("I don't believe in me") [express] further doubt from the troubled Albarn.

"[21] Originally performed as a poem at the Albert Hall in July 1996,[21] the studio version of "Essex Dogs" was described by Erlewine as a "six-minute slab of free verse and rattling guitar noise.

[32] The back cover and inside sleeve by Paul Postle depict sulphur fields in Iceland, where much of the album was recorded.

[30] Blur is also the group's first album not to have lyrics printed in the liner notes, instead having a composite photo of the band in the studio spread out over three panels.

These fears were also shared by James who revealed that the front rows of the gigs that the band were performing at during the Britpop years were primarily attracting 15-year-old girls and that he thought the change in style was a "fucking big balls move".

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.

"[19] 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," "M.O.R.

"), 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").

"[46] James Hunter, writing for Rolling Stone, claimed that "what still makes [Blur] great is their deep grasp of style and genre.

"[26] Many praised lyrics such as the ones in "Look inside America/She's alright", and noting Albarn's "obligatory nod to Beck, [and promotion of] the new Pavement album as if paid to do so", reviewers felt the band had come to accept American values during this time—an about-face of their attitude during the Britpop years.

Ed Masley wrote that "you can hear the new infatuation with indie rock stylings all over the latest release, with its clattering sonic collages and transistor radio vocals.

[56] Q writer Tom Doyle reflected that, with Blur, "it appeared to have dawned on [the band] that as long as they had three or four decent singles, the remainder of an album could become a playground for their art rock imaginations", a development he said paved the way for 13 (1999).