[1] "Lens" features warped, distorted vocals using Auto-Tune; personal and introspective lyrics about a complicated relationship; and a sparse keyboard background at a "slow and somber" pace that gradually grows in intensity toward the song's end.

[6][7] Some speculated that Ocean's Blonded Radio singles served as hints to an upcoming studio album, but a full-length project has yet to be announced.

Sargent also noted the single's addressing of the "historical weight of being a queer black man", a theme which Ocean had also powerfully established in Blonde.

[9] Vice Media called "Lens" "a mellow, self-reflexive track that has Frank crooning, auto-tuned at first" with allusions to "Chanel": "It grows from spare, mellow keys into more tense instrumentation: a pared-down, circling beat, Ocean’s own melodies echoing back; there are “smiles” and “sins” on him, but the latter wins out in the end.

"[4] Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, writing for The Guardian, wrote: "A sparse, vocoder-led hum of a track, slowly built up around layers of sound that lead to a blissful, stuttering climax, with lyrics that are an impenetrable, critically appealing mess of deep emotions.