Christina Kelly of "Rolling Stone" was largely positive, although she singled out Norton's production as distracting: ""Colour" has a big, radio-ready, modern-rock sound. Some might even call the album overproduced: On the ballads, the vocals are overprocessed and fake sounding." "Entertainment Weekly" praised the band's growth, but criticized the sound, which journalist David Browne described as "like much current alt-rock: been there, grunged that." In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described that production as revolutionary: "everything here wound up defining the sound of post-grunge modern rock, and it remains as perhaps the best example of its kind." In his review for "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau said the music was routine but elevated by Grohl's "marital breakup content/concept," which allowed him to "fully inhabit the music that meant so much to him and millions of other Kurt Cobain fans." Ryan Schreiber of "Pitchfork" was less favorable, rating the album 3.4 out of 10 and calling the music "sorely dated."