It is an ambient-styled concept album featuring an extensive selection of samples, portraying a mythical night-time journey throughout the U.S. Gulf Coast states, beginning in Texas and ending in Louisiana.

The Deep South is variously represented using original pedal steel contributions from Graham Lee and emotionally charged samples of US radio broadcasts: an evangelist's sermon, a range of samples of a very intense salesman, and, in "Madrugada Eterna",[a] a detailed news report of the road accident in Wantagh that resulted in the death of 17-year-old Jack Atsidakos.

[10] Despite the specific US settings, Chill Out is multi-ethnic, its journey taking in pastoral shepherds, Russian broadcasts, Tuvan throat singers ("Dream Time in Lake Jackson"), exotic birds, and an African-sounding original female vocal from The JAMs' 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)

In particular, the recurring sampled sound effects of rolling stock and other transport illustrate the journey concept, often during segues between parts of the composition.

Some of the more obscure sounds (Tuvan throat singers and Basque shepherds in the Pyrenees) come from the Saydisc Records soundtrack of the 1980s Disappearing World series on Granada TV in the UK.

The composers of these hits receive co-writing credit for "Elvis on the Radio Steel Guitar in My Soul", "3am Somewhere out of Beaumont", and "A Melody from a Past Life Keeps Pulling Me Back" respectively, and the performers are thanked in the Chill Out sleevenotes.

Short samples from the Van Halen instrumental "Eruption" emerge throughout the song "A Melody from a Past Life Keeps Pulling Me Back".

Ian Cranna of Q, reviewing Chill Out at the time of its release, described the album as an "impressionist soundtrack" whose "spartan but melodic electronic strains ease gently through wide open spaces", and concluded that it is "both imaginative in itself and successful in inducing a blissed out mood of peace and relaxation (at least at night).

"[14] NME called Chill Out "a riot of running water, birdsong and electronic womb music";[21] reviewer Helen Mead said that the album, with its variety of sampled sounds, "not so much ... distracts you as envelops you".

"[16] Ian McCann of The Face proposed that if the listener is not under the influence of drugs, the album sounds "hopelessly pompous and almost classical.

[1] In an "On Second Thought" review in Stylus Magazine, writer Scott Plagenhoef found Chill Out to be "less a morning after and more the slow awakening to a new day" and an album which "slowly unfolds its charms".

[24] Ira Robbins of Trouser Press was less favourable, likening it to "an accidental recording of 1970 Pink Floyd sessions during which all the participants have either left or fallen asleep" and calling it "the pleasantly attenuated soundtrack to a non-existent film that is easily forgotten.

"[25] In a 1996 feature, Mixmag named Chill Out the fifth best dance album of all time, citing Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson as having "kickstarted" ambient music with their DJ sets at the "seminal" house night "Land of Oz".

Drummond credits the sleeve of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother as providing inspiration for the artwork of Chill Out.

Elements of Chill Out also featured heavily in The KLF's "UFO Mix" of "It Must Be Obvious" by Pet Shop Boys, released in September 1990 and incorporating "What Time Is Love?