The songs on Hot Trip to Heaven are longer than those on Love and Rockets' previous albums, encompassing a broader tonal range.

Natacha Atlas, with whom drummer Kevin Haskins worked during the band's hiatus, performs additional vocals and percussion on the record, lending it a world music influence.

[5] Ash later recalled that it was primarily listening to the Orb, Orbital and Leftfield that sparked the band's interest in making electronic music: "I started to hear that stuff in the '90s.

"[14] David J's bass playing largely leans towards dub,[14] while also running with Haskins' drumming "to maintain an insistent sense of threat or promise.

"[8] "This Heaven" flirts with an alternative house style reminiscent of Stereo MC's with its usage of a distorted rap and arousing samples,[8] while its thrust beat and "breathy female panting and cooing" led Wolftree to describe it as "the nineties answer to Donna Summer's awesome dancefloor hit 'I Feel Love', as the more enlightened club DJs in London have already realised."

[8] Wolfree said of the song: "More than a little reminiscent of Bolan in Twentieth Century Boy mode plus a twinge of Jim Foetus, it’s still a fuck-off hard dance track.

"[14] The band's first album in five years, Hot Trip to Heaven was released on 26 September 1994 by Beggars Banquet in the UK American Recordings in the US.

Greg Fasolino and Ira Robbins of Trouser Press wrote: "Beyond the simple surprise of resurrection, Love and Rockets' Hot Trip to Heaven is a radical rethink.

"[8] New York Magazine called the album "hypnotic, glistening, dark and crashing–everything you'd expect from the musician side of goth rock progenitors, Bauhaus [Love and Rockets' previous band.

]"[18] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine was less receptive, saying "they sound like they're trying to figure out what the hell is going on,"[13] though colleague Bill Cassel wrote that the album, "though flawed, boasted strong songwriting and an intriguing mix of electronics and old-fashioned instruments.

"[6] Sandy Masuo of the Los Angeles Times wrote that with Hot Trip to Heaven, "the group demonstrated that the suave, gritty pop it's cultivated is as effective stretched across wide, ambient spaces as it is compressed into more concise, rock-related forms.

"[6] American Recordings persuaded Love and Rockets to return to a more guitar-based alternative rock sound on their next album, 1996's Sweet F.A.,[10] which helped retrieve some of the band's earlier fans who felt puzzled by Hot Trip to Heaven,[9] before further exploring electronic music on their swan song, 1998's Lift, where the band had "free reign [sic] to tinker and experiment" after creating their own label.