[5] Heavily influenced by electropop musical styles, Queen of the Clouds is predominantly a concept album which divides the record into three sections: "The Sex", "The Love" and "The Pain".
[4][6] Similar to the theme of poisoned relationships explored on Lo's debut extended play, Truth Serum (2014), the album centers on a breakup and provides a complete narration of her romantic struggles.
[4] Queen of the Clouds blends multiple styles of music into a "monogenre" sound, containing heavy influences of EDM, hip hop, dance-pop, new wave, rock, and R&B, combining them into a "seamless compendium".
[6] The first section, "The Sex", opens the record with four songs about the "lecherous and reckless" beginning of a relationship, and are composed in an "infectious and tongue-in-cheek stampede of uptempo pop.
[8] Lyrically, Lo compares her lover to "her gun" and sings of feeling a release of pleasure: "Boy, if you're gonna shoot me down/Do it gently".
"[7] "Talking Body" is a heavily sexual song described as "salivating with carnal lust", and according to Ken Capobianco of The Boston Globe, evokes "the rush of early Madonna.
Rounding out the first section is "Timebomb", a frantic electronic dance piano ballad hybrid described as a "sonic bombardment" of "euphoric" chords, drums, and psychedelic synths, and features an "explosive" chorus containing crashing cymbals and pounding bass.
[7] "The Way That I Am" is a dubstep song filled with "pain and passion" as Lo sings in a soulful rasp and lyrically cries out to her partner to love her as she is; including flaws.
[7] The final section is "The Pain" which explores the difficulty piecing together one's life after the destruction and demise of a relationship through "distraught" lyricism and melancholic pop.
[7] Musically, the mid-tempo track tells a story of a girl "struggling to forget a rocky relationship with an ex," and is sonically amped up by the singer's "emotionally distraught" vocals and "thundering" drum rhythms.
[10] The following song, "Habits (Stay High)" sees her emotionally unravel even more, as she talks about self-medicating by smoking marijuana to cope to live without her lover.
It's "snappy" verses are filled with "quietly distinct, often strange imagery", including Lo eating her dinner in the bathtub, getting drunken munchies, and seducing dads on the playground.
[7] The final song of the section and album is "Run on Love", an "easy-going" reworked nu-disco dance collaboration with EDM producer Lucas Nord.
Lyrically, Lo sings of picking up her heart and choosing to no longer be a victim by living in the moment enjoy time with her lover before it runs out.
[16] A remix of "Habits" by record production duo Hippie Sabotage, alternatively titled "Stay High", was released on 3 March 2014 and peaked at number 13 on the Swedish Singles Chart.
[1] Carrie Battan from Pitchfork gave the album a 7.2 out of 10 and described her music as "bruised, brightly arranged pop songs that feel grand but not excessive".
[36] Kathy Iandoli from Idolator gave the album 3.5 out of 5 and praised the honesty of the lyrics and noted that Lo "has become masterfully adept at jamming thoughtful words into dancey songs through her past songwriting, but she takes it a step further with Queen Of The Clouds".