Famed composer Jon Brion revealed that Swimming was designed as the first installment of a planned trilogy. Swimming explored a blend of hip-hop and singer-songwriter structure, Circles was the song-based second entry, and the third project was meant to be a return to pure, unadulterated hip-hop.

Mac was incredibly meticulous with the album's opening track. He wrote and recorded roughly 10–13 different versions of "Come Back to Earth" before eventually scrapping the revisions and returning to his original first draft.

The album cover—showing Mac sitting inside a box in a suit with bare, dirty feet—subtly references each of his previous four studio albums: The vertical framed box references the frame structure of Blue Slide Park. His central seated posture pays homage to Watching Movies with the Sound Off. The clean white background mirrors GO:OD AM. The soft pink suit is a direct nod to The Divine Feminine.