Musically, the album incorporates several genres including trap, pop, hip hop, R&B and EDM.

Reload received generally favourable reviews from music critics, who praised the band's experimentation with diverse genres without losing their signature style.

[12][13][14] An accompanying music video for "Ridin" was uploaded to the label's official YouTube channel, in conjunction with the album release.

[15] The visual depicts the band dancing and posing inside a neon-lit, graffiti-covered "industrial" building, surrounded by colourful polished bikes and cars, which goes in line with the song's title.

[16][17] Reload opens with the lead single "Ridin'" which has lyrics written by Jeong Jeong-won and Rick Bridges, while produced solely by Moonshine.

[20] "Quiet Down" is an EDM and hip hop song featuring "buzzing" synth loop of industrial music style.

[21][19] The chorus incorporates vocal harmonies and a heavy synth chord progression as opposed to the minimalist sound of the rap verses.

[19] It was co-written by band members Jeno and Jaemin, with Josh Cumbee and Andrew Allen serving as producers.

[18] On April 30, the band shared their first performance of "Ridin'" at 20:00 KST through their official YouTube channel, as a part of the video-exclusive content series "NCT DREAM The Stage".

He wrote, "Reload shows NCT Dream giving themselves a bit of a reboot on their fourth mini-album, and it seems to have paid off.

"[19] Yoon Sang-geun of Star News described "Ridin'" as "energetic" and "dynamic", "7 days" as "refreshing" and "Puzzle Piece" as exuding warm emotions.

The sound and vocal lines also did not lose their trendiness, and provided a hopeful message and powerful military service without departing from the team chemistry pursued by the existing NCT.

[34] In June 2020, the album received a double platinum certification from the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), denoting 500,000 shipments.