Dirty Work (All Time Low album)

Background and recording

In late March 2010, All Time Low began recording their fourth studio album with producers John Fields, Matt Squire and Mike Green. They documented the process with video blogs on their official website and fan club, The Hustler Club. On August 17, 2010, a demo song from the new album, titled "Actors," was posted on earthtoalex.tumblr.com. On July 28, Alex announced via Twitter that they had officially finished tracking all songs for the album.

During an interview with MTV, All Time Low stated that the album was named Dirty Work after the band's past and present events. Alex says that it is a lot of "dirty work" doing what they love, because, while it has many benefits, it has downsides too, one of which being that it keeps them away from their loved ones at home. In the same interview, they also revealed how the album was a "crossroads" in their lives, with the music on the album being both similar to their usual style in some songs, as well as diverging into new areas in others. The band also revealed that the title Dirty Work came from the record's content itself with songs about how life on the road can have its ups and downs, and what they are effectively doing is "dirty work."

It was confirmed in an interview that the demo track "Actors" released in August 2010 would not feature on Dirty Work. On December 12, 2010, Hot Topic announced via Twitter that All Time Low had "finished recording Dirty Work this week."

Release

During an interview in early February, frontman Alex Gaskarth stated that the band were currently approving artwork. He went on to say: "the record is slated to be released in late March so I would expect people to start hearing something in the next few weeks." Alex stated in another interview: "We never actually gave an official release date; it's all been left to speculation and stretching of the facts. At this point, its looking more like the record will come out a bit later than March, but I think folks can still expect to hear some new material in the coming weeks. AbsolutePunk stated that the "record's definitely not coming out in March" due to the "restructuring" of Interscope and a number of records have been pushed back, Dirty Work being one of them. On April 1, Alex Gaskarth officially announced that Dirty Work would be released on June 7, 2011 through an interview with Glamour Kills.

On February 8, Alex Gaskarth leaked a preview of a new song on his Twitter. A week later, on February 15 the band played a song off the album live for the first time, the song was confirmed on Twitter to be "Time-Bomb". Ten days later, Alex Gaskarth leaked the studio version of "Time-Bomb" on Twitter. Following "Time Bomb"'s leak, Alex stated on AbsolutePunk that the song would not be the first single and that the sound is a bridge between Nothing Personal and Dirty Work.

In an interview with All Time Low Exposed, Alex revealed that Maja Ivarsson from The Sounds would provide guest vocals on the track "Guts".

Jack Barakat stated during an interview with AbsolutePunk that All Time Low will "hopefully be releasing the track-listing shortly, maybe even clips of every song." He went on to say "As of now, We (Band, Management, Interscope) haven't picked a single. "I Feel Like Dancin" is in the running and will most likely be released as a single at some point, we're just not sure if it will be the first one. It's a great song that we actually had the honor to write with Rivers Cuomo. It has a cool Weezer/All Time Low/party hybrid-vibe to it."

On the 22nd March 2011, All Time Low exclusively unveiled the artwork for Dirty Work through Alternative Press. They also confirmed that "I Feel Like Dancin" would be released via iTunes on April 5, 2011 and on May 23, the music video was premiered on Vevo exclusively.

A pre-order of the album became available on glamourkills.com starting Monday, April 4. There were several T-shirts and a hoodie available as well as the standard and a deluxe version of Dirty Work. Whoever pre-ordered the album on Glamourkills.com received a link to a song entitled "Do You Want Me (Dead?)" on May 30.

The 5th song on the album entitled "Time-Bomb" was originally written by Alex Gaskarth along with Matt Squire, Pierre Bouvier and Chuck Comeau for a Simple Plan song. However, during the writing process they deemed it more of an "All Time Low song". Alex Gaskarth was then featured on the Simple Plan song "Freaking Me Out" from Simple Plan's Get Your Heart On! album.

"I Feel Like Dancin'" was released to mainstream radio on June 14, 2011.

On August 15, the song "Forget About It", was released as a radio single with a music video featuring footage of the band on the "Dirty Work Tour".

On August 26, it was confirmed in an interview with pupfresh.com that the next single from Dirty Work will be "Time-Bomb". On October 18, the band's crew announced that the video was nearing completion, to be released on November 30, according to All Time Low's Twitter account on November 24.

All Time Low have announced they will be shooting a music video for, 'Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass".

On Nov 15, 2011 The band made the following statement:

"Can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving and the holiday season. Working on a crazy video for “Merry Xmas, Kiss My Ass” that we can’t wait for you to see ... Check out the song!"

The video premiered on December 9, 2011.

Reception

Dirty Work received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 8 reviews. Entertainment Weekly gave this album a positive review, saying "Dirty Work proves you can grow up and still act like a kid, just as long as your songs are this head-rushingly catchy". AllMusic was also postitive, saying "Consider Dirty Work the band's ultimate bid for mainstream acceptance, and one of their strongest pop albums to date". Alternative Press gave the album an average review, stating "Guts, featuring The Sounds' Maja Ivarsson is a synth-assisted 6/8 number loaded with urgency and lyrical poignancy" yet also notes "Other tracks feel homogenized and lifeless, as if they were focus group to death. Time-Bomb is a Metro Station-aping electro-dance number that does nothing to actually make the listener dance." Luuux gave the album an overall average review, stating "Fast beat with electric guitar songs like "That Girl" and "I Feel Like Dancin'" (a satire song about the radio/music industry) don't have me as a fan either, but the rest of the album is worthwhile." Sputnikmusic was more negative, stating that "Similarly, there was a time when All Time Low were a genuinely exciting young pop punk band; when the songs were dynamic and Alex Fucking Gaskarth's vocals were merely double-tracked rather than layered and autotuned to fuck." idobi Radio also gave a negative review stating, "The band lost their way... This experiment went wildly out of control. The album lacks overall direction and cohesiveness." Review Rinse Repeat's review was mixed, noting that the record "Overproduced and emotionally flat, there just isn't much good to say about this album. Strange enough, All Time Low seem to be in a completely different world this time around, as tracks like "Forget About It", "Under a Paper Moon" and "I Feel Like Dancin'" show with unneeded slickness, out-of-body songwriting (not in a good way) and underachieving vocals." M is for Music gave the album a fairly positive review, noting "Third track Forget About It sounds almost like it would have been right at home on So Wrong, It's Right."

Track listing

All lyrics written by Alex Gaskarth (of All Time Low), except "Time-Bomb" co-written with Pierre Bouvier and Chuck Comeau.

Personnel

Personnel per digital booklet.