This was the last album to feature turntablist Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock, bassist Murphy Karges and drummer Stan Frazier before their departures in August 2010 and early 2012, respectively.

In the six year gap between Music for Cougars and Sugar Ray's previous album In the Pursuit of Leisure, some of the band members started families, while singer Mark McGrath began focusing on roles in the media industry.

[3] Sugar Ray felt as though they needed help getting back into a "groove" with the album, after being largely inactive for the past few years, so they enlisted the help of outside writers, including Paul Weber of their new label Pulse.

Guitarist Rodney Sheppard said that they "collaborated a lot" with Weber, and that he was "responsible for kicking the cobwebs off our songwriting abilities".

"[3] A few months after Music for Cougars was released, Weezer decided to include their own version of "Love Is the Answer" on their seventh studio album Raditude.

"[8] The title references the largely female fanbase Sugar Ray started attracting following the release of their 1997 album Floored.

[3] In 2009, McGrath told Rolling Stone that he became inspired to use this title after a friend of his brought up their crowd demographics at a show.

Shortly before the album's release, McGrath told the New York Post that "there are no commercial concerns for Sugar Ray now.

"[1] Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone gave it two out of five stars in August 2009, commenting that "McGrath's taste for simple melody might someday help him pen a country hit or two.

"[16] Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt gave it a B rating and also compared it their previous material, writing that they are "still churning out affable pop-rock for various beer-commercial activities (beach volleyball, slo-mo water-balloon fights).

"[13] Brian McElhiney of The Daily Gazette said in August 2009 that the album title "seems appropriate, after all, the younger female audience the southern California group began cultivating with its 1997 breakout smash hit 'Fly' and other subsequent breezy summer anthems have all grown up along with the band.