Pitchfork's Nitsuh Abebe described the album's songs as "ambient pop dreams" that are stylistically closer to post-rock, in the then-contemporary first wave of the genre, than the band's trademark style.

This was born out of his then-increasing fascination with electronica and dance music,[5] which he had been introduced to in 1992 by ex-Seefeel member Mark Van Hoen, who had played Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 for Halstead.

[7] The cover illustration for the album, designed by Steven Woodhouse,[4] features imagery from Rainer Wehinger's graphic notation for György Ligeti's 1958 work Artikulation.

"[13] In his review for BBC Music, Wyndham Wallace wrote that Pygmalion "remains Halstead and Goswell's masterpiece",[3] while Head Heritage writer Rust Phimister said that with the album, "Slowdive distilled the expansive aural atmospheres of Souvlaki to perfection.

"[23] Trouser Press, however, found that Pygmalion "completely lacks all the tension, songwriting, sounds and power of the band's work, leaving only the spatial dimensions", deeming it "essentially a solo ambient recording" by Halstead "that should have been released under his own name".