The album was released to rave reviews and critical acclaim. In a contemporary review for the
Chicago Tribune, music critic
Greg Kot wrote that the tension between the group's dreamy delivery and the seriousness of their questions about the African-American community gives substance to the music's elated mood. Heidi Siegmund of the
Los Angeles Times wrote that it maintains a subtle but consistent mood that, unlike their debut album, warrants repeated listening. Robert Christgau, writing in
The Village Voice, said that, although the raps are not as "
down-to-earth" and the music is less jazzy than their debut, Digable Planets sound surprisingly exceptional with a live band and less samples, and rap candidly and uniquely, particularly Ladybug, whom he cited as the "genius" of the group.
Blowout Comb was voted the 34th best album of the year in
The Village Voices annual
Pazz & Jop critics' poll.
Spin magazine named it the fifth best album of 1994, and editor Craig Marks wrote that Digable Planets improved drastically with boldly political lyrics and music that was as expressive as
Curtis Mayfield and
Stevie Wonder. In a retrospective review,
AllMusic's John Bush cited its production as some of the greatest beats ever on a hip hop album and asserted that, unlike
Reachin, the "underrated"
Blowout Comb has proven to be an enduring classic. Mark Richardson of
Pitchfork called it one of the more accessible albums in popular music history to relax to, although it offers a rich, underlying influence of history and knowledge for those who choose to listen to it as "a richly rendered world with so much to explore". == Commercial performance ==