The image was described by journalist Geoff Barton in Sounds: "It's actually a frozen-in-action shot of an electrical discharge from a real Van de Graaff generator machine, set in acrylic.

"[4] Geoff Barton of Sounds wrote: "Where 'Still Life' scores over past LPs is in its precise and accurate reproduction of leader Hammill's vocals.

He never really sings, rather he murmurs, shouts, screams or speaks, and this wide range of tonality has presented in the past often insurmountable problems for engineers, technicians and suchlike.

"[5] Jonathan Barnett of New Musical Express, describing the songs on the album, wrote: "They start off with the kind of morbid over-sensibility, y'know ... smart ass existentialist one-liners like that, accompanied by furtive, lurching manic melodies that emphasise the personality disorientation of the whole thing.

"[6] Steven McDonald, for AllMusic, notes that Hammill songs take "... a dead run at a grandiose concept or two – the consequences of immortality on the title track, and the grand fate of humanity on the epic "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End."