"The Great Escape" was met with widespread acclaim from critics. David Cavanagh in "Select" called it "a funny, brave and heartbroken record" that "has everything you could want", while "NME" reporter Johnny Cigarettes wrote: ""The Great Escape" is so rammed with tunes, ideas, emotions, humour, tragedy, farce, and edgy beauty that it's utterly beyond contemporary compare." "Melody Maker"s Paul Lester awarded the album an unconventional 12/10 and deemed it superior to celebrated predecessor "Parklife", while noting that "Blur understand the geometry of the song, and the basic principles of pop, better than anyone today". In response to "album of the decade" claims from "Melody Maker", J. D. Considine of "The Baltimore Sun" said: ""The Great Escape" may not be the defining work of the ‘90s, but it is the best Brit-rock release this year." Less enthused was "Spin" journalist Chuck Eddy, who felt the LP ranged from "wonderful" to "detached and emotionally stiff". "The Great Escape" was named as one of the 10 best records of 1995 in "Melody Maker", "NME", "Q", "Raw" and "Select". "NME" readers voted it the third-best album of the year.