Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever, co-produced with her husband, Patrick Carney, is Branch's fourth solo album and follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively. She says: "The album began during the 2020 lockdown, while Patrick and I were here at home in Nashville. I didn’t realize I was making a record at first — it was more just for our own sanity, living in a house with a toddler, getting time together to play music and screw around in the studio. I had some unfinished songs that I’d started during the Hopeless Romantic recordings that I wanted to revisit and finish."