Red Pill Blues received mixed reviews from music critics upon its release, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200.

The third single "What Lovers Do", peaked within the top ten in twenty-five countries including Australia, Canada and the United States.

The fifth and final single from the reissued edition of the album "Girls Like You", was released in a new version featuring rapper Cardi B and peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as in the top five in Australia and Canada.

The band later posted teaser gifs and videos of members in the studio on their social media accounts in late March.

"[11] The album cover art for Red Pill Blues was created by American photographer Travis Schneider and is inspired by filters featured on the mobile app Snapchat.

"We all use Snapchat, and the filters have become a huge part of the culture," frontman Adam Levine told Billboard in an October 2017 interview.

[14] Red Pill Blues was preceded by two commercial stand-alone releases, which were later included on both the deluxe and Japanese editions of the album.

[15] The first stand-alone single was "Don't Wanna Know" featuring American rapper Kendrick Lamar, was released digital retailers on October 12, 2016,[16] and charted at No.

[32] The second promotional single, "Whiskey" featuring American rapper ASAP Rocky, was released to digital retailers on October 20, 2017.

[41] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic wrote that after setting aside the album's title and cover, Red Pill Blues can be taken as a "sleek, assured affair, one that sustains a seductive neon-streaked mood from beginning to end."

"[2] Rolling Stone's Jon Dolan found Adam Levine capably nuancing the "Top 40 old soul navigating whatever the pop-music moment throws his way" role as he "works well alongside young talent" to prove himself as a "pliant star of Jacksonian ease and Stingly self-assurance.

"[46] Taylor Weatherby of Billboard wrote that the record "presents the most electronic production the band has seen to date" in the "classic Maroon 5 fashion" through "supplementing the synthy bass lines with irresistible beats and smooth vocals," while commending the collaborations and the lyrical portrayals of "relationship talk.

"[49] Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from the Financial Times said that although feminist listeners "may struggle to discern solidarity" in certain suggestive track couplets, the album still "makes its way through the minefield" since its "smooth high vocals and catchy tunes" gives the songs "a degree of charm" while its "deft production lends depth to the slick music.

"[45] Michael Hann from The Guardian noted Maroon 5's continuation of producing "impeccably structured pop songs" with "Help Me Out", but felt that Red Pill Blues was not an R&B album "in any remotely experimental way.

"[44] Writing for The Times, Will Hodgkinson commented that despite the "vacuity of the music and the words," whose former was "made up of noises from Maroon 5's pop machine" and whose latter was "unconvincing expressions of love and sensuality delivered passionlessly by Levine," the record was nevertheless "unpretentious and actually quite fun.

"[48] Slant Magazine's Zachary Hoskins mentioned that Maroon 5 has "rebranded themselves as Daryl Hall and six John Oates—or at least a watered-down Chromeo" with the record's release whose "retro sound suits them," yet felt that it still has its share of "bland, underachieving grist for suburban shopping centers and rhythmic pop radio" with Levine's "digitally augmented vocal acrobatics" still as likely to "irritate as ingratiate.