The album received critical acclaim and was commercially successful throughout Europe, reaching the top ten in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

[19] Dana Poland of Slant Magazine opined that while it "may not boast the lo-fi grit of Slowdive's earlier work", nevertheless "the band's skill for scrupulous melodies is undiminished here.

[13] David Murphy of MusicOMH described it as a "joyful listen", writing that it "tak[es] the cloud tunnel bliss of the best shoegaze and add[s] some pure pop pleasure".

[20] Clash's Robin Murray found Everything Is Alive to be "at times experimental, it forever returns to their core values, with this tension supplying some of the album's finest moments", concluding that it is "enchanting and illuminating, [and] proves that Slowdive's pulse is still beating strong".

[21] Wayne Carey of Louder Than War called it "easily the best album of their career" as it is "heavy with experience, but each note is poised, wise, and necessarily pitched to hope".

[14] Tim Sendra of AllMusic characterised Everything Is Alive as "equally experimental and accessible, brimming over with aquatic atmosphere and pointed emotional feeling, and full of familiar joys and new surprises", calling it "the work of a group who are done reforming and have set their sights on brilliant evolution instead".