Dirty Work is the fourth studio album by American rock band All Time Low. Following the success of Nothing Personal, the band signed to major label Interscope Records in late 2009. After spending sometime writing material in Los Angeles, the band started recording with Mike Green in March 2010. Over the following months the band recorded songs with John Fields, Butch Walker, Matt Squire, David Kahne and U4L. In between sessions, the band embarked on the Bamboozle Roadshow tour. Neal Avron mixed the majority of the album's recordings while Green, Mark Trombino and Chris Lord-Alge each mixed a song. Vocalist/guitarist Alex Gaskarth co-wrote the album's songs with a variety of people, including those who produced a few of the songs. While recording, the album was planned for release in 2010. It was delayed to January 2011, and then to spring. Further recording sessions then took place in November 2010, as well as in January 2011.
Following these extra sessions, the album was then slated for release in March 2011. Between March and May, the band went on tours of the UK and the US. While on the tour, "I Feel Like Dancin'" was released as a single, and the album was reportedly going to be released in June. Dirty Work was eventually released on June 7. In July, the band appeared at the Sonisphere and Oxegen UK festivals and embarked on a North America tour, which lasted into August. During the tour, "Forget About It" was released as a single. The band went on a US tour in October and November, as well as appearing on Conan. After the tour's conclusion, music videos were released for "Time-Bomb" and "Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass" in November and December, respectively. "Time-Bomb" was released as a single in January 2012, before the band went on a UK tour, which ran into February. A Canadian tour followed shortly afterwards and "Guts" was released as a single.
Dirty Work received a mixed-to-positive reception from critics. It was projected to sell 50–55,000 copies in its first week and chart within the top 10 of the Billboard 200, before eventually selling 43,000 copies and reaching number six. The album charted highly on a number of Billboard charts, even reaching number one on both the Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. It also charted at various positions in Australia, Canada, UK, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium. "I Feel Like Dancin'" and "Time-Bomb" both reached the top 40 on several Billboard charts.
Background In February 2009, it was reported that All Time Low had signed to major label Interscope Records. However, the following month, vocalist/guitarist Alex Gaskarth denied this. The band released their third album, Nothing Personal in July of that year through independent label Hopeless Records, which sold 63,000 copies in its first week of release, debuting at number four on the Billboard 200. The band later confirmed they signed to Interscope Records in November. Guitarist Jack Barakat said signing to the label gave the band "a bunch of new resources", such as being able to "write with people that we could never write with before, recording with people, getting certain mixers/producers and everything." Gaskarth found the transition "[not] too difficult", but noting that it "definitely different though".
Gaskarth mentioned how they went from being one of the biggest groups on a label who had a small amount staff and could provide their complete attention, to a major label "and we're definitely not the biggest fish in that pond. There's a lot going on, it takes a little bit longer to get things done and get things moving." He added that the band thought they "hit a ceiling" with Hopeless Records since "trying to tackle things like getting radio [airplay] and things like that was sort of becoming harder and harder based on the fact that the label hadn’t really done it before." In December, the band began writing for their next album. The band demoed around 20 songs for inclusion on their next album before whittling the number down, with the aim of recording 15 or 16 of them. After touring in Australia as part of the Soundwave festival in February and March 2010, Gaskarth spent time writing new material in Los Angeles.
Recording On March 24, 2010, All Time Low began recording their next album with Mike Green. A studio update video was posted on April 1, showing the band recording new material. Further video updates were posted on April 18 and May 13. Following this, the band toured throughout the remainder of May and most of June as part of the Bamboozle Roadshow 2010. Another video update was posted on June 16. On June 27, Gaskarth revealed that eight songs had been recorded and that they would record a few more with Matt Squire, after the conclusion of Bamboozle Roadshow tour in July. On July 13, the band said 10–12 tracks would be on the album. On July 29, Gaskarth announced via Twitter that they had finished recording the album, having recorded 14 songs. Mixing took place in August, with the majority of the album's recordings being mixed by Neal Avron. In addition, Mark Trombino mixed "No Idea".
Following this, the band sent the finished album to the label in September. SonicScoop reported in November 2010 that the band were doing overdubs with Green, who was producing and engineering, in Studio A at Sear Sound in New York. The band previously made a demo of "Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass" with Dan Book. Scott Stallone of U4L added electronic drums, rock samples and synthesizers to it. While working with Green, the band remade the track: re-doing guitars, replacing the old drums with new live drums, as well as new vocals, but retained a number of sounds that Stallone had added. SonicScoop also reported that in January 2011 that the band had recently recorded in Studio C at Avatar Studios with producer David Kahne and engineer Roy Hendrickson with assistance from Aki Nishimura. Ted Jensen mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York City.
Green produced "Do You Want Me (Dead?)", "I Feel Like Dancin'", "Guts", "Under a Paper Moon", "Return the Favor", "No Idea", "A Daydream Away", "Heroes" and "Get Down on Your Knees and Tell Me You Love Me". John Fields produced "Forget About It". Squire produced "Time-Bomb" and "My Only One". Butch Walker produced "Just the Way I'm Not". Kahne produced "That Girl", to which Green provided additional production and was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. U4L produced "Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass", which was mixed by Green. Asked about the choice of using several producers, Barakat said "We're all about using multiple producers on our records. ... I'm not 100% into the one producer/one record thing because you get a lot of the same sounding songs. It's cool to have a bunch of variety." Gaskarth added "working with a lot of different producers is good, because it pulls you in all kinds of new directions." He added that, similar to Nothing Personal, they "kinda split up the [recording] with different producers that we wanted to work with in the past, but for scheduling or monetary reasons, we couldn’t lock them in for the whole record."
Composition Overview Barakat said the writing process consisted of Gaskarth "writing songs and us going into the studio to put in our two cents and changing a couple things around." In an interview with Just So You Know, Gaskarth said the album title "summarizes the theme of the songs, most of which centralize around escapism; running from my problems, burning bridges because of those problems; and the realization that its hard work to rebuild after those problems have torn people apart." In an interview with MTV, Gaskarth said that the title was inspired "by the subject matter on the record, where it's this toss-up of being wrapped up in what we do, and having the fun and the good times, and kind of pulling that blindfold down in order to ignore the fact that other problems are crumbling around you". Gaskarth also said "one of the big things that came along with this album ... [was] a lot of anxiety. About where were we going to go". Gaskarth said the band purposely sought to "step outside of the box and do some things that were a bit scary." He mentioned that "there's one [track] that starts with classical guitar playing something that sounds like it could be out of vaudeville and it's that kind of thing that we really decided to go for on this record."
The album's sound has been described as emo pop, pop, pop rock, and power pop. Gaskarth felt the album was "more of a pop-rock/alt-rock album for us. There are definitely elements of pop punk—where we came from. But this album was an effort to develop our sound and hone in on [sic] great songwriting rather than conform to the boundaries of a certain genre." Gaskarth mentioned that they "took influence from our older stuff in some of the songs, but in others we went in a new direction, whether that was poppier or more rock or just weird." Gaskarth added that "We stripped a lot of the bells and whistles out this time and I think the songs are better off for it." Barakat said the album was "a good mix of faster type typical ATL songs and also some slow ballad type songs." He added "there are a lot of pop songs, as well as a lot rock songs. There isn’t a mix of the two. I think they are a lot more distinguished this time around."
Tracks The band's manager suggested they write a song with Green early on in the writing process. Gaskarth ended up writing "Do You Want Me (Dead?)", "Guts", "Under a Paper Moon", "A Daydream Away" and "Get Down on Your Knees and Tell Me You Love Me" with Green within three days. Barakat said the pair had "an amazing chemistry together. He added this sweet dynamic to the band we never had before. He made us think in ways we never would have thought before." "Forget About It" was written by Gaskarth and Fields. "Time-Bomb" was written by Gaskarth, Bouvier, Comeau and Squire. "Just the Way I'm Not" was written by Gaskarth and Butch Walker. "Return the Favor" was written by Gaskarth, Jacob Lutrell and Daniel Lutrell. "No Idea" was written by Gaskarth, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terrius Nash. "That Girl" and "My Only One" were written by Gaskarth and Squire. Barakat said Gaskarth and Squire "are great writers ... They just have an amazing chemistry together." "Heroes" was written by Gaskarth and John Feldmann. "Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass" was written by Gaskarth, Book and Alexei Misoul.
According to Gaskarth, "Do You Want Me (Dead?)" is a up-tempo track that begins the album with "a great guitar hook and lots of energy." He said the song talks about "feeling like you're being stretched to your limits by somebody. Gaskarth visited Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo at his house and ended up co-writing "I Feel Like Dancin'". He called Cuomo "such a cool guy to work with." Gaskarth said the track was "an ode to having a good time and not taking yourself too seriously." Barakat called the track "a great song ... It has a cool Weezer/All Time Low/party hybrid-vibe to it." Gaskarth said "Forget About It" details "that place in a relationship where people have been together for a really long time and they're afraid to let go." Despite this, he said it was "a totally fun song." Gaskarth said "Guts" was "about finding within yourself the ability to say and do what you want no matter what the repercussions might be." Maja Ivarsson from The Sounds provides guest vocals on the track. Gaskarth said Ivarsson was "someone I’ve always respected vocally". He added that the pair "both sound really similar ... she definitely sounds like a girl and I sorta sound like a girl so there’s a weird mix that happens but trust me it works for the song." He called the track "a departure for us as it's more universal and timeless than we've ever been."