"Sour Candy" was initially written in a session unrelated to the creation of the Chromatica album by Madison Love, with the help of BloodPop, Rami Yacoub, and Burns.

[10] On the song, Gaga and Blackpink are "trading off flirty lines" in English and Korean which use sour candy as a metaphor to "illustrate how they function in a relationship"[4][8][6] as well as showing that they are rough on the outside, but sweet and authentic on the inside.

[3] The '90s house[11] drop features Gaga performing a "speak-rap",[8] while the K-pop group's verses include "tight, almost mechanical melodies".

In an article by Rolling Stone, the video was described as the inside of a virtual reality headset, "set in a candy-coated and surreal digital landscape", with the lyrics "flashing, Matrix-style".

[15] Gil Kaufman of Billboard found the video "trippy" and "a Willy Wonka-worthy color explosion", featuring "glowing futuristic lion fish-like blobs floating in space.

[18] Laviea Thomas of Gigwise thought that Gaga's performance of the track "saw mesmerising synchronized choreography, and was a completely captivating experience.

"[22] Cole Delbyck of HuffPost thought that the song is "fusing Gaga and Blackpink's distinct sounds into one dance-floor-primed [...] bop" and "lives up to the hype surrounding the long in the works collaboration that fans have been filling up their mentions about for years".

[24] Stephen Daw from Billboard complimented the song for managing to give every participants "equal, well-balanced time", although he noted that something was missing from the track that "could have rounded [it] out".

[25] Michael Cragg from The Guardian was critical of the song, saying that it "falls disappointingly flat" and "ends up sounding like a dashed off, cheaply produced interlude".

[36][37] Writing for Gigwise, Alex Rigotti called it a "fun remix" and thought that the duo turned the song "into something more sour than candy, ridding the pop pleasantries and making it even more sultry and smoky.

"[37] Joey Nolfi of Entertainment Weekly described the track as "a decadent interpretation of 'Sour Candy' [...] that'll make it easy to pucker up to the dance floor for a new groove on a familiar cut.