"Running to Stand Still" earned critical praise upon The Joshua Tree's release, which itself received very favourable reviews and went on to become the group's best-selling album. Rolling Stone wrote, "After the first few times through [it], you notice the remarkable music... It sounds like a lovely, peaceful reverie – except that this is a junkie's reverie, and when that realization hits home, the gentle acoustic lullaby acquires a corrosive power." In Time magazine's 1987 cover story on the band, Jay Cocks wrote that "A U2 tune like 'Running to Stand Still', with a trancelike melody that slips over the transom of consciousness, insinuates itself into your dreams." The Uncut magazine Ultimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best. The 1991 Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".Robbins (1991), p. 708
