The song was written by Mike Posner and Mason Levy, but is heavily derivative of "Midnight City" by French act M83.

A remix version by Internet cartoon band Your Favorite Martian has released on their YouTube channel.

Scott Shelter of PopCrush gave the song 4/5 stars stating, "Every Mike Posner song seems to have an unquantifiable layer of cool, thanks to his chilled-out, almost effortless vocal delivery, and ‘Looks Like Sex’ is no exception.

The catchy melody makes the track a good choice as the lead single from ‘Sky High.’"[3] Katherine St Asaph of Popdust said the song "sounds great" and explained "as an instrumental, the single’s admirable" but criticized the lyrics, "the chorus consists entirely of “she looks like sex, sex, sex, sex.” This strikes us as a little underwritten, not to mention more than a little shameless.

"[4] Posner uploaded a lyric music video on Vevo on December 6, 2011.