[10][11] Working without bassist Simon Raymonde, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie opted for a subtler sound on the album.

Victorialand was recorded without bassist Simon Raymonde, who had been enlisted to collaborate on the second This Mortal Coil album Filigree & Shadow (1986).

[6] For example, Fraser took a passage from a non-English language book to write the lyrics for "Whales Tails", not knowing what the words meant.

Some of the track titles were borrowed from passages on the Arctic and Antarctic in David Attenborough's The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth, the accompanying book to his 1984 BBC nature documentary series The Living Planet; an example is "Throughout the dark months of April and May, the birds display to one another and finally mate" on page 54.

An uncredited instrumental version of "Oomingmak" was used as a backing track for the credits at the end of the 4AD compilation video for Lonely Is an Eyesore.