Musically, The Electric Lady incorporates influences of hip hop soul, funk, gospel, jazz, rock, pop, and reggae.

[8] Thematically, The Electric Lady continues the dystopic cyborg concepts of its predecessors, while presenting itself in more plainspoken, personal territory in addition to experimenting with genres beyond conventional funk and soul music genres such as jazz, pop punk and gospel, as well as woozy and sensual vocal ballads.

[9] Monáe also stated in an interview with Billboard that The Electric Lady is a prequel to her critically acclaimed 2010 album The ArchAndroid.

[10] The album features guest appearances by Miguel, Erykah Badu, Solange, Prince and Esperanza Spalding[11] with production from previous collaborator, funk duo Deep Cotton, as well as soul music composer Roman GianArthur.

"[13] According to Philadelphia Weekly's Kennedy Allen, Monáe's "Dance Apocalyptic" also takes the dance styles of minstrelsy, which featured "smiling, wide-eyed black performers in shiny livery, their talents on display in subordinate and subservient roles for the enjoyment of white audiences," and repurposes this Sambo imagery into an allegory to "alert a generation to the decaying infrastructure of the urban community.

"[14] This repurposing fits within a larger history of African-American music and culture developing the art of "signifying, recontextualization, collective memory and resistance" by fashioning icons of opposition to harmful stereotypes and racial conceptions.

Clockwise from left to right: Andromeda, Andy Pisces, Catalina, Morovia, Polly Whynot, and in the front and center, Cindi Mayweather.

The artwork pays homage to the work of photographer William Klein, and in particular, the graphic sensibility of his 1966 film Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?.

For promoting the album, Monáe hosted a listening session for press and VIPs at various locations in the country, such as: Illinois, Michigan, New Orleans, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Three short films were uploaded to Monáe's official YouTube account as cinematic advertisements of the upcoming album, days before its release.

(featuring Erykah Badu), premiered on April 23, 2013 on Monáe's website and was followed by an "emotion picture" music video that debuted on BET's 106 & Park on May 1, 2013.

A fourth single from the album, "Electric Lady", was released on July 30, 2014 along with its Greek-themed music video, directed by Alan Ferguson.

"[38] Holly Gleason of Paste described it as a "19-track epic that weaves spoken 'radio breaks' with callers, promos and news about Mayweather for a 25th-century immediacy.

[45] Ben Wener of OC Register praised Monáe's "outta-space idiosyncrasies," saying the record "hits hard like Janet Jackson.

"[46] In his Pitchfork review, Jayson Greene wrote that "taken as a whole, The Electric Lady is a convincing argument for the virtues of micromanagement, but some of the most powerful, tender moments come from acknowledging limits", and continued writing that "[Monáe]'s not singing to exorcise pain, which will hang around until it's good and ready to go, she's just passing the time until it does doing the thing she does best.

And it continued "The ArchAndroid, was a head-spinning album conceived as parts II and III in an ongoing suite based on Fritz Lang's expressionist silent-film classic Metropolis.