An indie rock-influenced electronica and electropop album, The Love Club EP was well received by music critics, who praised its production and compared its style to works by Sky Ferreira, Florence and the Machine and Lana Del Rey.

[8] The Nelson Mail's Nick Ward described the EP as "indie-flavoured electronica" and detailed Lorde's voice as "smoky", while an editor of AllMusic regarded it as "five evocative, electro-pop meditations on life, love, and the eternal joys and pains of youth, providing a sultry, sinewy soundtrack to summer".

[10] Critics compared the EP's musical style to works by Sky Ferreira,[8] Florence and the Machine,[8] and Lana Del Rey.

[10] Inspired by Kanye West's song "Dark Fantasy",[12] it talks about Lorde's feigned confidence as she prepared to enter the music industry.

[28] On 30 September 2013, the track listing of the US iTunes Store version of The Love Club EP changed, with "Royals" replaced by "Swingin Party".

[30] All songs from The Love Club EP, including "Royals",[31] were featured on an extended version of Lorde's first studio album Pure Heroine, released in 2013.

[35] In September 2013, she headlined the Decibel Festival in Seattle, Washington,[36] and held a concert at Webster Hall and Warsaw Venue in New York City to promote The Love Club EP and her debut studio album Pure Heroine.

[39] In early 2014, Lorde embarked on a concert tour in North America to promote The Love Club EP and Pure Heroine.

[9] In an article for New Zealand Listener, Jim Pinckney opined that the music "may not yet quite match the individuality of [Lorde's] vocals and lyrics", but praised her songwriting ability, "which combines unmistakably teenage confusion, curiosity and confidence with word skills beyond her years".

[41] In a review of The Love Club EP for The Dominion Post, Tom Cardy deemed the songs on the record as "sharp, refreshing and smart".

Additionally, he viewed the EP as the best album he had heard by a New Zealand artist that year and lauded Lorde's lyrics and performance as "simply incredible".

[42] By the end of 2013, Allan Raible from ABC News ranked The Love Club EP as well as Pure Heroine as the third best records of the year.

[50] The EP became the fifth best-selling album of the year in New Zealand[51] was certified platinum by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for shipping more than 15,000 units in the country.

[53] The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) certified The Love Club EP nonuple platinum for shipments of more than 630,000 copies in Australia.