The album was recorded in and around Brooklyn and released on November 11, 2016, on Bella Union.

[1] Young Narrator in the Breakers received largely positive reviews from contemporary music critics.

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

[2] Cameron Cook of Pitchfork praised the record, comparing vocalist Eliza Bagg to "a lovelorn alien reaching out from the farthest reaches of the galaxy,"[8] while AllMusic selected it as an Album Pick and wrote, "Pavo Pavo have achieved a collection that eschews the obvious, being undoubtedly hip yet simultaneous geeky in its references, and the resulting work is a real gem.

"[3] Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is a noted fan of the band and has featured their music in his blog.