Bassist Jeremy Pritchard told Andrew Steel of the Yorkshire Evening Post: "We just wanted to work quicker, stew less, avoid neuroticism.

"[9] By the end of their tour in September 2016, Everything Everything had built up a collection of demos that they worked to unpack between studios in Manchester and guitarist Alex Robertshaw's flat in London.

"[11] Speaking to music blog GoldenPlec, Pritchard called previous record Get to Heaven "really brash [...] really hard and fast," and explained that they "felt like [they] had licence to have a degree of humanity and tenderness" for A Fever Dream.

[13] Everything Everything sought to approach the lyrics for A Fever Dream from a more "human angle," relying less on abstract predictions and more on "relationship fallouts" from global events taking place after 2015.

[12] Speaking to NME, lead vocalist and writer Jonathan Higgs explained that his writing sought to investigate both sides of ideological conflicts: "Of course I've got my views and they're the ones you imagine, but it's so much bigger than that[.

"Big Game" makes use of childish insults directed at Trump,[15] while "Ivory Tower" focuses on the "worst extremes of the divides we've seen erupt," and references the 2016 murder of Jo Cox.

[17] Higgs describes "Run the Numbers" as "our pro-Brexit song, despite my personal view," its writing inspired by a Michael Gove interview in which he stated that "people in this country have had enough of experts.

"[22] Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian wrote that the album is not one to "kick back, relax and bury your head in the sand to – it is as much rock opera as traumatic event – but the band's deep dive into this undercurrent of fear and loathing feels necessary.