House of Balloons was entirely recorded in Toronto, with production handled primarily by the Weeknd, Doc McKinney, and Illangelo, alongside additional contributions from Cirkut, Jeremy Rose and Rainer.

House of Balloons was commercially released as part of the compilation album Trilogy (2012) and included the singles "Wicked Games" and "Twenty Eight", the latter of which is a bonus track.

On its tenth anniversary, the original mixtape was released in digital formats, and included samples which failed to gain copyright clearance on Trilogy.

[3] During this time, he was also a part of a songwriting and production team called 'the Noise', who wrote demos intended for artists such as Drake,[4] Justin Timberlake, and Chris Brown.

[5] Rose discontinued working on the project due to creative differences, but he allowed the Weeknd to use the songs they produced together,[6] under the condition that he would receive production credits.

[9] While working on the title track, the Weeknd's desire to rap led to McKinney improvising another beat, a reworked version of "Glass Table Girls".

[9] After signing with Republic Records in September 2012, the Weeknd worked to clear samples present in the mixtape, in order to re-release it as part of his compilation album, Trilogy (2012).

[13] Alongside the release of Trilogy, a new song, "Twenty Eight", was included as a bonus track for the House of Balloons disc.

[15] House of Balloons was preceded by three promotional singles, released via YouTube in December 2010, being "What You Need", "The Morning", and "Loft Music".

[22] To commemorate its ten-year anniversary, the Weeknd released House of Balloons to streaming services with all of its original samples present on March 21, 2021.

[24] House of Balloons is categorized as an alternative R&B record,[1] further incorporating elements of dream pop,[25] electro,[26] and rock.

[31] Sean Fennessey of The Village Voice was impressed by the mixtape, calling it "patient, often gorgeous, and consistently louche... with the sort of blown-out underbelly and echo-laden crooning that has already made Drake's less-than-a-year-old Thank Me Later such an influential guidepost.

[52] As a whole, House of Balloons was the seventh most frequently mentioned album in music publications' year-end top ten lists.

The Weeknd told Complex in 2013 that "Crew Love", "Shot for Me" and "The Ride" from Drake's second studio album were supposed to be on the mixtape.