After the commercial breakthrough of his debut album All I Want Is You (2010), Miguel pursued a greater creative role on Kaleidoscope Dream as its principal writer and producer.

With the album, Miguel wanted to explore the roots of R&B beyond the genre's contemporary trends and began playing guitar as a compositional source for his songs.

With his studio personnel, he incorporated dense bass lines, buzzing synthesizers, and hazy, reverbed sounds into a musical style that draws on pop, funk, rock, soul, electronic, and psychedelic genres.

One of 2012's most critically successful releases, it was viewed by reviewers as an innovative and appealing R&B album, receiving praise for Miguel's singing and songwriting.

[2] As its singles received radio airplay and Miguel toured in its promotion,[3] the album became a sleeper hit and helped him grow an audience and commercial exposure,[1][4] along with his fervent concert performances.

[11] He sought to play a larger creative role than he had on All I Want Is You,[9] with more involvement in the production and songwriting, writing or co-writing every song on the album.

[14] Miguel spent almost two years in New York City, which he felt let him explore "the edgy side" of his life and consequently made his sonic approach grittier, saying in an interview for The Village Voice: "I'm not the 'go to the club and pop bottles' kind of guy.

[16] To sustain his creative approach, Miguel avoided media outlets that he usually visited for music, including radio and Internet blogs.

[16] An orchestra was enlisted and string arrangements incorporated in the music, along with a drum loop, to the album's title track, which he felt aurally defined the moods of his personality.

[18] He wrote the album's title track in reaction to Jive's request for more conventional urban songs, with unusual lyrics that lacked a hook, chorus, or form.

[20] Its music features sparse production,[21] eccentric details,[22] thick basslines,[6] buzzing synthesizers,[5] and hazy, reverbed sounds.

[23] AllMusic's Andy Kellman found the album "funkier and weirder" than All I Want Is You and observed an "illusory atmosphere ... intensified by some unexpected touches".

Club's Evan Rytlewski said, Kaleidoscope Dream deviated from genre conventions by minimizing the influence of hip hop;[1] Jim DeRogatis believed it notably draws "on elements of great psychedelic rock and pop to color [the album's] soul and R&B".

[24] Austin Trunick of Under the Radar compared the album's "often-hypersexual subject matter" and "unusual production" to Prince,[25] while Rytlewski said Miguel evokes the musician's "pop instincts" and "loud, funk rock guitars".

[1] Alex Macpherson of The Guardian perceived a "headier aesthetic" than on All I Want Is You, with "faded psychedelia" and "intimate experiments in Purple Rain-esque rock".

[30] Rob Markman of MTV News writes that the song "represents the morning after when the reality of the previous night's efforts creep in.

"[34] Its closing interlude has Miguel crooning lyrics from The Zombies' 1969 song "Time of the Season" over sentimental synths and musky,[12] psychedelic music.

[29] "Use Me" features hollow, electronic sounds,[33] heavily multitracked vocals, metronomic rhythms,[35] and an industrialized mix of guitar and percussion.

[23][26] The psychedelic title track incorporates synthesizer arpeggios, minor chords,[36] oscillating blips, fuzzy guitar,[37] and a bassline interpolation of Labi Siffre's 1975 song "I Got The".

[12][38] "Pussy Is Mine" features a high vocal range by Miguel, a rudimentary chord progression played on electric guitar,[35] and a stripped, demo quality.

[43] Chris Kelly of Fact writes that, along with "Adorn", "Candles in the Sun" "bookend[s] the album with another tribute to Marvin Gaye, a la 'What's Going On?

'"[36] After pitching the strategy to RCA,[7] Miguel first marketed Kaleidoscope Dream virally with a three-volume series of EPs entitled Art Dealer Chic,[44] which were released as free downloads during February to April 2012 and previewed songs from the album.

[51] Kaleidoscope Dream was first released in vinyl LP format on September 25, 2012, in an effort by RCA to make the deadline for the Grammy Awards' eligibility period without charting prematurely on lower sales.

[12] In the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot said Miguel "creates a fluid, dreamscape environment that floats across eras with a connoisseur's discerning feel for the telling detail.

"[22] Macpherson wrote in The Guardian of Miguel's occasional "appeal to indie tropes" balanced by "genuinely thoughtful songwriting", while admiring his use of a commercial breakthrough "as a springboard to radically change course".

"[35] Ken Capobianco from The Boston Globe was more critical, finding some of the songs overworked and Miguel "too remote for a true soul singer".

[69] New York Times critic Jon Caramanica said Kaleidoscope Dream sounds inconsistent and "a little washed-out, a blend of Prince-isms and slurry grooves",[41] while Kellman complained of the lyrics occasionally veering "too close to 'artsy' teenage erotic poetry".