Plastic Eternity was produced with longtime cohort Johnny Sangster and includes what Sub Pop describes as 'two genuine love songs'- 'Tom Herman's Hermits,' a tribute to the Pere Ubu guitarist of the same name, and 'Little Dogs,' written for frontman Mark Arm's canine Russell. Other song titles reinforce the album's theme, including 'Cascades of Crap,' 'Flush the Fascists,' and 'Cry Me an Atmospheric River.'

Although the material came together in bits and pieces during the first year-plus of the COVID-19 pandemic, the album was eventually recorded in a mere nine days at Seattle's Crackle & Pop! Studio, right before bassist Guy Maddison moved with his family to Australia. 'We had the time and space to think about things as we were doing them, and to make a kind of course correction, to use a fucking terrible cliche,' says Arm.

Plastic Eternity is Mudhoney's first album since 2018's Digital Garbage and loosely marks both the band and Sub Pop's 35th anniversary.