For their final album, Klaatu regained complete artistic control over the music, marking a return to their familiar psychedelic pop sound,[4] after their previous album Endangered Species was essentially a product of Capitol Records’ attempt to commercialise the band, and therefore featured outside musicians playing most of the instruments heard on the record.

ESP was owned by Klaatu member Dee Long and partner John Jones, who both went on to George Martin's AIR Studios in London in 1985.

[citation needed] Since Capitol Records had terminated Klaatu, following the commercial failure of their previous album, Endangered Species, Magentalane was only released in Canada and Mexico, although it was reissued worldwide in 1995 on Compact Disc by Permanent Press Records.

[citation needed] In a positive review, PopMatters called the album “a retrospective on the past 20 years of psychedelic pop”.

[5] AllMusic's Dave Sleger dismissed Magentalane and the two previous Klaatu albums as "downright ghastly pop-rock affairs that lacked originality".