[2] The album is their second release by Crush Management, is distributed by Atlantic Records, and is trademarked by a modern pop sound, differing from their previous work.

[6] In April, Cuomo teased the album, describing it as "Beach Boys gone bad", tackling "more mature topics" and "less summer day and more winter night".

"[9] Inspired by an ancient Chinese proverb by Chuang Chou, Cuomo hoped to explore more "radical" sounds, a departure from the "classic" style of The White Album.

He kept an archive of song ideas and hired programmers to organize a spreadsheet of lyric snippets by beats per minute, syllable, and key to call from whenever stuck.

[15][17] John Pareles of The New York Times called the album a "collection of pop-rock songs with old-fashioned verse-chorus-bridge structures",[18] while Derek Rossignol of Uproxx stated that, with Pacific Daydream, "the band has proven that they’re still capable purveyors of sunny and bright alternative rock".

It's no surprise that Cuomo is a fan of pop smashes like Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe', as Pacific Daydream might be more Train than Ozma...For the band to be at its full potential, though, the songwriter needs to reflect more on the takeaways of experiences rather than the moments themselves.

"[31] Andrew Trendell at NME opined that aging has not worn Weezer down, stating "Pacific Daydream is all carefree, expertly crafted pop, free of irony and all the better for it.

Sure, that's worked for scores of artists in the past, but a crucial part of Weezer's appeal was that you could believe they came out of any garage on any tree-lined cul-de-sac in any suburban zip code in the U.S. Pacific Daydream, in spite of its name, mostly just gives you a feeling of being nowhere.