In contrast to his previous stripped-down releases, Doughty brought in many other musicians to record Haughty Melodic, including multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, upright bass player John Munson, and N.E.R.D.

The album's arduous process began when Doughty flew out to Minneapolis to collaborate with Wilson on a bridge for his song "Busting Up a Starbucks."

Doughty has remarked that he felt tortured by the stop-and-start process of constant re-examination, but in the end believed that the album achieved a kind of perfection through the time and scrutiny.

Before the album's official release, an early "bootleg" was leaked onto the internet with a different track list and early unfinished versions of the songs, most notably: a version of "Tremendous Brunettes", which did not include vocals from Dave Matthews, as well as the song "I'm Still Drinking in My Dreams", which was excluded from the album when it was released.

In 2012, "I'm Still Drinking in My Dreams" was released officially as a part of Doughty's limited-time subscription service, The Lo-Fi Lodge, with a mastered version appearing on the re-release of Haughty Melodic.