Seal had previously been singing in blues bands but a year spent travelling in Asia had changed his view of life and he had since become involved in the rave scene.
Adamski recounted his surprise at people singing the memorable bassline to him in the street and, in particular, at hearing the track played at a wedding in a hotel at which he stayed following a performance in Cambridge.
"[6] Seal explained that the words he provided for "Killer" were intended as an exhortation to freedom and overcoming; that "the lyrics are about transcending whatever holds you back".
After a four-week run at the top, the track fell one place to number two, being replaced in pole position by "World in Motion" by New Order.
Upon the release, Bill Coleman from Billboard found that this "enchanting techno-hip-house charmer from the keyboardist's Liveandirect project sports a languid vocal to complement the instrumentation.
It's a medium-paced dance track built around a rock-solid bassline, laced with eerie synthetics and topped with the plaintive voice of guest singer Seal — who sounds firmly in the grip of lovely desolution.
"[10] David Giles from Music Week called it a "strange release", adding, "It sounds as though a bluesy soul vocalist has become trapped inside a throbbing piece of machinery; it actually takes a fair while to warm up into the familiar pace of house rhythm."
"[11] Ian McCann from NME declared it as "a perfect pop moment, if Adamski never makes another record half as good it will stand as a testament to its time like Bowie's, Numan's and Human League's best.
"[12] Tom Doyle from Smash Hits remarked that the song is "a bit of surprise", complimenting Seal, "who turns in a fine soul-singing".
He explained that the song "builds up from a slow Depeche Mode-sounding beginning into a full-blown "rave" record and then drops down for the moody bit again at the end.
[14] In 2010, Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger commented, "What was startling about the record in 1990—and what lets it keep its charge now—is that the music simply refuses to get out of Seal's way.
In fact, if you only knew Seal from the rolling smoothness of his latterday career 'Killer' would come as a real shock: here he is, making his debut not as a highfalutin' loverman but as an isolated paranoid battling through a tangle of wires and buzz.
[16] They added, "Every part of Adamski’s production is perfectly designed: the sad chords, the funkily interrupted alien transmission of the synths, the prodding bassline with its edges almost imperceptibly corroded by acid.
[54] The music video for Seal's version was produced and directed by Don Searll, and used computer-generated science-fiction themed imagery, largely built around a partial re-creation of the M. C. Escher print Another World.
It has also been used in video games DJ Hero 2 (as a remix by Tiësto) and Forza Horizon 3 (on the in-game radio station "Bass Arena").
It was also used in a May 2018 episode of ITV soap opera Emmerdale, playing on the radio in Charity Dingle's car, and triggering memories of when she was raped at age 14 by Detective Inspector Mark Bails in 1990.
The music video for the George Michael version of the song appeared in an episode of Beavis and Butthead, called "The Trial".