The album was written and produced almost entirely by frontman Dave Bayley and features heavily autobiographical lyrics, a radical difference from the band's previous work.

Five singles were issued in promotion of the album: "Tokyo Drifting" (with Denzel Curry), "Your Love (Déjà Vu)", the eponymously named "Dreamland", the chart-topping "Heat Waves", and "It's All So Incredibly Loud".

On 2 July 2018, Glass Animals drummer Joe Seaward was hit by a lorry while cycling in Dublin, Ireland and suffered a broken leg and fractured skull, and subsequently underwent brain surgery.

[4] With Seaward's fate unknown at the time, Dave Bayley said it was "difficult to look forwards" and he found himself looking backwards, thinking back to old memories and "finding comfort in them even if they were uncomfortable in themselves".

[17] With his childhood in Texas as the album's backdrop, Bayley intended to create a "combination of sounds" that he grew up with as well as blending references to "what I was eating, watching on TV, what I would do in my spare time, who my friends were.

[16] The lyrical references on the album include Memorex, Kodachrome, ice cream sandwiches, Mr. Miyagi, ramen noodles, Friends, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Grand Theft Auto, Dr. Dre, Doom, Quake, the Geo Metro, Pokémon, bottle rockets, Dunkaroos, Capri Sun, kickball, GoldenEye 007, Hot Pockets, Street Fighter, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Pete Tong, G.I.

[16][18] As a child in Texas, Bayley listened to a radio station that played hip hop songs by artists including Missy Elliot, Dr. Dre, Eminem and producer Timbaland.

[18][24] The album's sound was shaped by its inspired recording process, which involved Bayley purchasing instruments that he felt The Beatles and The Beach Boys would have used and resampling them on samplers that Timbaland and Dr. Dre used.

[27] On 28 June 2020, the band announced that the album had been delayed to 7 August, in order to "keep focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and the discussions taking place around racism and police brutality around the world.

[28] On 27 July 2020, the band shared a video of frontman Dave Bayley and guitarist Drew MacFarlane performing "Heat Waves" live under a Dreamland billboard on a street in the London Borough of Hackney.

[58] Jenessa Williams of DIY gave the album a perfect score, calling it "Dave's opus" and praising the band for "pulling together all of their strengths and vulnerabilities".

[61] Robin Murray of Clash summarised it as a "record that balances its need for fresh innovation with an adherence to melody" and also praised the album's structure, calling it "superbly designed" between its main songs and interludes.

[60] Heather Phares of AllMusic praised Bayley's "fluency at melding R&B and hip-hop elements into Glass Animals' music" and called it the band's "most cohesive" album to date.

[63] Hannah Mylrea of NME wrote that the album "is stuffed with effervescent nuggets of pop gold" and praised the "new strength and resilience" of Bayley's personal storytelling.

[20] Helena Wadia of the Evening Standard praised "Your Love (Déjà Vu)" and "Tokyo Drifting" as the album's "standout" tracks, but criticised the rest of the songs as "disappointing" in their blending into one another.

[15] Aimee Cliff of The Guardian pointed to the production of "Tokyo Drifting" and the chorus of "Tangerine" as examples of the album bordering on "self-pastiche" at times, but nonetheless praised the "soft and searing" subject matter of "Domestic Bliss".

"[64] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork criticised Bayley's shift to autobiographical lyrics and wrote, "Dreamland falls prey to the unfortunate mode of modern branding that conflates personal nostalgia with making a point.