In January 2021, the song gained notoriety again on radio and TikTok with the release of rapper Fat Joe's single "Sunshine (The Light)" featuring DJ Khaled and Amorphous.

[1][2] A day later, Rihanna teased a snippet of the track on her Instagram account, featuring Extreme's guitarist Nuno Bettencourt working on a solo electric melody.

"[6][7] Through her Twitter account, Rihanna confirmed that "Kiss It Better" alongside "Needed Me" were going to be released as the follow-up singles from Anti (2016) and impacted radio on March 30, 2016.

[11][19] Lyrically, the song focus on a destructive relationship that the singer knows is wrong for her, but one she finds irresistible, which can be seen in the lines, "Who cares when it feels like crack?.

[22][23] Patrick Ryan of USA Today noted that her "sultry, towering vocals call to mind past hits 'Take a Bow' and 'Cheers (Drink to That)'.

[21] Billboard's Shepherd and Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos found similarities between "Kiss It Better" and Prince's "Purple Rain",[23][24] with Bianca Gracie of Idolator agreeing, adding that it also resembles TLC's "Red Light Special".

[24] Jordan Bassett of NME agreed, calling it "the album’s best and most full-bodied track, replete with snaking synths and two swooning, overlapping vocal refrains.

[21] Chris Gerard of PopMatters defined it as "a moment of classic Rihanna—edgy, soulful and confident, complimenting the "sinuous melody" and the "terrific vocal arrangement.

[26] Zach Bernstein of Pretty Much Amazing observed that the song is "one of ANTI’s best offerings and a pure shot of old-school Rihanna—a stuttering, hypnotic beat, complimented [sic] by a hard-rock guitar riff and an innuendo about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

"[11] For Alexis Petridis, a writer of The Guardian, "Kiss It Better" is the "closest it comes to the stuff that Stargate or Sia Furler have sold her in the past," due to the "ineffaceable chorus.

"[30] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times considered it "an ostentatious sex jam" and "one of several songs on 'Anti' on which Rihanna's singing takes center stage.

"[14] In a positive note, Nolan Feeney of Time went on to call it a "stellar slow-jam [that] opens with a guitar solo straight out of the ‘80s, but if today’s high school seniors are smart, they'll put this on their prom playlists.

"[32] Claire Lobenfeld of Fact defended the song for being "one of many examples of how Rihanna has refined her ability to do romantic despondency with confident precision.

[36][37] In the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Kiss It Better" was ranked at number 29, tied with Maren Morris' "My Church" and The Weeknd's "Starboy".

"[47] Jessie Katz of Billboard described the storyline of the video, it "features the singer intermittently standing, writhing on the ground and floating through space through various stages of undress while she sings to the Prince-esque synth and electric guitar track.

"[49] According to McDean the idea to include dice in the video came from him and his creative partner Masha Vasyukova, "Sometimes it's all about combining things that might not make any sense, [like] subconsciousness and dreams.

"[53] Vogue's Mackenzie Wagoner wrote, " In every instance, however free her nipple, she manages to look empowered, not vulgar—speaking to an obvious body confidence that, especially in the spotlight, can be hard-won."

Further, she stated that Rihanna "evolved rule-breaking" and wrote that she is not a "factory-bred" sex symbol, but a woman who is fully comfortable with her body image.

[56] Indie rock singer Father John Misty covered "Kiss It Better" during his 2016 tour in support of his studio album, I Love You, Honeybear.