[1] The album cover features Dave Longstreth and Amber Coffman talking to one of their neighbors in Upstate New York, where Swing Lo Magellan was recorded.

[2][3] The album was written, recorded, produced and mixed by Dirty Projectors frontman Dave Longstreth in Delaware County, New York.

For specific influences, critics and Longstreth himself have cited a variety of influences, ranging from popular music acts such as Nirvana, Lil Wayne, Michael Jackson, Neil Young, En Vogue and Blind Willie Johnson to classical music composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and György Ligeti.

[5][6][7] Swing Lo Magellan's first single, "Gun Has No Trigger", was released on March 30, 2012 and was selected as a Best New Track by Pitchfork Media on April 2.

[11] The film, which features band members inhabiting a variety of characters in a surreal narrative about spiritual death and rebirth, was directed by Longstreth and was influenced by Runaway and Purple Rain.

Club gave the album a grade of A−, writing "But where Longstreth’s quirks have often felt carefully calculated, here they come off as spontaneous improvisations or even mistakes.

"[17] Pitchfork's Grayson Currin gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "The band's least ornate batch of songs to date builds upon Longstreth's most direct and identifiable lyrics ever.

"[23] Alex Niven of The Quietus described the album as "strikingly warm, organic, and intricately drawn" and noted the "basic primal glee in encountering Longstreth's psychedelic neologisms as they crop up".

[26] Thomas May of musicOMH also praised the album, writing "Swing Lo Magellan affords generous breathing space to Dirty Projectors' music: a context in which new levels of unpretentious eloquence positively flourish.