[6] Haim toured for two years to support their previous release, Days Are Gone, the three sisters' 2013 debut album that was met with a great deal of critical and commercial success.

With the conclusion of their tour came the beginning of the process of crafting Something to Tell You: "All we knew for two years was wake up, soundcheck, play the show, go to sleep and fit in a slice of pizza at some point.

However, a breakthrough came after the producers of the 2015 Judd Apatow–directed romantic comedy Trainwreck asked the band to write a song for the film's soundtrack.

His diagnosis is cited by the band as the reason for the four-year delay between their first and second album as they halted production while Rechtshaid underwent treatment.

"[1] Pelly as well as several other reviewers stressed the influence of Stevie Nicks and other 1970s and '80s rock; in the Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood said the album "makes you believe that rock might have a future," bearing "the polished sound of vintage Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, and here the sisters continue to rely on guitars and the like at a moment when many of their peers have little use for them.

"[23] In Rolling Stone, Jon Dolan said, "You can hear the studied sense of craft all over Something to Tell You...These songs don't always explode with the sunny ebullience of the first LP, but the melodies, beats and ideas are layered and piled high.

There are digressions to kill for here, what you might once have called middle eights, indefatigable melodies, and weird little noises – a horse neigh and a seagull coda on Want You Back, a fax machine on Found It in Silence, the gasping on Nothing's Wrong – to keep you clamping your headphones to your ears in delight.