The melancholic songs featured in the album include Wall of Sound arrangements that are found in many shoegazing and post-rock acts, producing dense sounds that sometimes breakdown into slower, melodic parts that are then topped with vocalist George Clarke's reverb-soaked screaming style singing of lyrics.

Sunbather was released in June 2013 and received universal critical acclaim, with Metacritic acknowledging it as "the best-reviewed major album" of the year.

[a] Deafheaven began as a band with vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy as the two core musicians and songwriters.

[10] Despite being plagued with an inconsistent group line up since the inception of the band, Deafheaven were able to record their debut album Roads to Judah as a quintet.

The album was met with favorable reviews noting its dynamic influences, such as music reviewing publication Pitchfork proclaiming that it "blends shredding West Coast black metal, Explosions in the Sky dynamics, a healthy My Bloody Valentine infatuation, a floor-punching hardcore sensibility, and anguished (but romantic) vocal eruptions by clean-cut frontman George Clarke.

"[11] Following a live album and a split EP release after Roads to Judah, the band was again a duo composed of Clarke and McCoy as the sole songwriters.

[12] As early as September 2011, Deafheaven announced it was recording music for a new release, with McCoy describing the material as "faster, darker, a lot heavier and far more experimental" than their debut album.

[13] As the band was nearing the recording date of Sunbather by December 2012 however, Clarke described their new material as less melancholic and less centered around black metal, but rather featuring a more "lush and rock-driven, even pop-driven" sound at times.

[14] After writing the entirety of Sunbather in an apartment Clarke and McCoy occupied in the year before its release, the two members went to record their work at Atomic Garden Studios in East Palo Alto.

Noting Tracy's proficiency with percussion, Clarke detailed, "For me, drums have always been a bit of an afterthought which is strange because they certainly shape our sound, but as long as they were fast, I didn't care much otherwise.

To fit the sound aesthetic of the album, the vocal tracks were given echo chamber reverberation treatment during the mixing process.

Kerry McCoy wrote many riffs prior to the Sunbather-studio sessions, some of which featured a more clean guitar tone, and Deafheaven wanted to make use of them in some fashion.

[19] The first interlude, "Irresistible", is completely instrumental, but the other two tracks feature samples and guest vocals layered over comparatively softer, cleaner sounding music.

The track "Please Remember" features guest contributions from Stéphane "Neige" Paut of Alcest reading a passage from Milan Kundera's 1984 novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

[14] Originally, Paut was to contribute guest guitars, but because he lives in France and the distance makes musical collaboration difficult, he recorded himself reading the passage chosen by Deafheaven and sent that instead.

[McCoy] didn't have a lot of money, and he was kind of desperate; he's showcasing the true horrors that are here on earth—one's own personal demons.

[26] The inspiration to have the title Sunbather written out in a simple, block formation was drawn from Pulp's 2001 album We Love Life.

"[15] He recalled watching a woman in a wealthy neighborhood sunbathing on her front lawn and juxtaposed her life with his as an uneducated, poor, struggling 22-year-old.

"[39] Consequence of Sound claimed Sunbather was better than Roads to Judah for being more dynamic and rejecting the "awkward gait and busy feel" of the 2011 album.

[31] AllMusic noted another positive distinction from similar albums with Sunbather, the lyrics' light "poetic exploration" of otherwise dark subject matter, which "gives the listener time to really internalize and reflect upon the lyrics rather than react viscerally, making for an altogether deeper experience for those willing to take the time to really take the album in.

"[30] The main praise in Spin's review was the album's difficult feat to unite elements of previously-established styles with "unwavering focus and unfaltering vision," suggesting it was great for listeners "to connect, to see our collective or individual anxieties massaged into something we can stream from the comfort of our homes.