What to Do When You Are Dead

Background and recording

Armor for Sleep released their debut album Dream to Make Believe in June 2003 through Equal Vision Records. According to AllMusic biographer James Christopher Monger, the release "secured the band a solid spot in the growing emo-pop scene". This resulted in the group performing alongside Taking Back Sunday, Piebald and Thursday, among others.

What to Do When You Are Dead was recorded between August and October 2004 at Water Music and The Machine Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. Producer duties were handled by Machine, who also engineered and mixed the recordings. Additional engineering was performed by Jacob Nyger. Will Quinnell mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York City. While making the album, frontman Ben Jorgensen analysed Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

Composition and concept

After composing two songs, Jorgensen considered it "easier" writing from the perspective of being dead. He thought it would be "cool" to expand it into a story where he kept "pretending I was dead. I kinda creeped myself out sometimes." Around this time, Jorgensen was going through a break-up "of my first real relationship, which was heartbreaking", combined with "the fact that I had been touring for a couple years with Armor for Sleep ... It was a very transitional period, and all those emotions converged." Jorgensen initially composed the songs before showing them to the rest of the band. Jorgensen wrote the lyrics in isolation. He later pondered "maybe I should have asked for help but it was something I wanted to be from me completely."

What to Do When You Are Dead is considered a concept album "based around the main character's suicide and his journey through the afterlife", according to AXS writer Terrance Pryor. Some observers have noted the character going through the Kübler-Ross 5-stage model of grief management. Jorgensen grew up in a "very scientific environment", which caused him to be influenced by British writer Craig Hamilton-Parker. The album's title comes from a Hamilton-Parker book. Jorgensen explained that since he was "already writing an album in that way, and when I saw that book, I thought, ‘It would be really cool to make a whole album out of this.'" Jorgensen later remarked that placing himself in that perspective helped him "face a lot of things I probably would've been too much of a wuss to face, if I didn't pretend I wasn't alive." The band were initially hesitant working on a concept album until they were persuaded by Jorgensen.

The album's booklet features images of a man in a suit flying around and passing through walls, which, according to LAS Magazine writer David Spain, helps to immerse "the listener, bridging sound and text in the album's concept." Calling it "tiny", the booklet "greatly contributes visually to album's theme." The booklet was created by Rob Dobi, with art direction from Jorgensen and Asterik Studio, who also designed the booklet. Dave Hill contributed photography. Spin writer Will Hermes noted the album booklet's Hipgnosis-styled layout as being "an important part" of the album. Jorgensen revealed that one of the reasons Armor for Sleep signed to Equal Vision was the label's inclination to satisfy the group's creative vision.

Release

On November 11, 2004, What to Do When You Are Dead was announced for release and a rough mix of "Car Underwater" was made available for streaming. In early February 2005, Armor for Sleep went on tour with Something Corporate, Straylight Run, and The Academy Is.... Later in the month, the group toured with Recover, Say Anything, and Case Pagan. What to Do When You Are Dead was released through Equal Vision on February 22. Some copies of the album included a bonus DVD that contained live footage, a documentary on the creation of the album, as well as music videos for Dream to Make Believe songs "My Town" and "Dream to Make Believe". The iTunes edition of the album included "Very Invisible" as a bonus track. On March 18, a music video was released for "Car Underwater". In April, the group went on tour with The Starting Line, Mae, and Suicide Pack. Following this, the group went on tour in April and May with The All-American Rejects, and Hellogoodbye. "Car Underwater" was released as a radio single on May 3, 2005.

Between mid-June and mid-August, the group went on the 2005 edition of Warped Tour. In September, the group toured with From Autumn to Ashes, Emanuel, and Biology. On October 18, "Very Invisible" was made available for streaming via the band's PureVolume account. In November, the band toured across the U.S. with Matchbook Romance, and Lovedrug and Gatsbys American Dream. A music video for "The Truth About Heaven" was made available via MTVU on November 23. The video, directed by Alan Ferguson, features "a deceased person looking back on his loved ones," according to AbsolutePunk. The band then went on a tour of the UK in December with Chiodos. From late January to mid March 2006, the group went on a headlining tour of the U.S., dubbed The Invisible Sideshow Tour, with support from Boys Night Out, Chiodos and Action Reaction. The band went on the 2006 edition of the Warped Tour. A remix of "Remember to Feel Real" was included on the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack, released in August.

Critical response

AllMusic reviewer John D. Luerssen wrote that What to Do When You Are Dead "ups the punk/emo ante" with "fabulously" composed songs, as well as a "desire to challenge the norms of a movement that has grown increasingly stale." He described Jorgensen as going "dark" and "flirting with his inner Aaron Lewis." Luerssen called the band's choice of working with Machine as being "a risk that paid off." Chart Attack called the album a "surprisingly meaty sophomore record", with the group's "dynamic double-guitar attack" benefitting from Machine's "prog-metal predilections". Chart Attack concluded with: "Songs about dead people have rarely sounded so damned full of life." Raziq Rauf of Drowned in Sound wrote that the record had "two great songs on here that fill the unashamed emo cynic with hope, only to be let down" by the remainder of the album. He went on to say that a "_slight _redemption can be made" with the album's title, but aside from that, "there's nothing else to say that you've not read before." LAS Magazine writer David Spain called the album "an interesting notch along the battered branch of emo's legacy", with the band giving "its peers food for thought." Spain noted that the group "didn't just set out to create another 40-minute schmaltz fest; they vested thought and idea into their work." Spain concluded with mentioning how the band "succeed[ed] in creating a surprisingly original work in a drowning genre."

Melodic reviewer Andrew Ellis wrote that "not much has happened" since the group's debut album, aside from "the more edgy guitars", "the songs [don't] grab me at all." While mentioning "Basement Ghost Singing" and "Car Underwater", Ellis mentioned that "the great tunes are too few to make me rate this higher." Uma Uthayashanker of musicOMH noted that the "brutal honesty" of Jorgenen's lyrics were "indeed a highlight", while mentioning that the "music may be generic", the group "brand their own mark on the otherwise overcrowded industry" in terms of lyrics. Uthayashanker compared Jorgensen to Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and was convinced he was listen to Brand New during "Stay on the Ground" and "Walking at Night, Alone". Uthayashanker noted that the group created an album "that won’t surprise but will certainly entertain". Now writer Jered Stuffco noted that Equal Vision was "banking heavily" on the band "to rack up some serious sales", and based on the group's "poster-boy image, melodramatic harmonies and tight emo riffage, they stand a pretty good chance." Stuffco wrote that if the group "can't sell a million records, maybe they'll call their next record What To Do When Your Band Breaks Up."

Commercial performance and legacy

What to Do When You Are Dead peaked at number 101 on the Billboard 200, as well as charting at number 1 on the Heatseekers Albums chart and number 8 on the Independent Albums chart. A month after the album's release it had sold over 30,000, and by October 2005, sales surpassed the 100,000 mark. By August 2006, it had sold over 185,000 copies, and reached the 200,000 mark by July 2007.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of What to Do When You Are Dead, the band performed a series of shows in September, October and December 2015. In 2015, Maria Sherman of Fuse.tv wrote that the album "laid the foundation for future pop-punk bands to explore concept records in very real ways." Calling it "impressive at the time, this band from the suburbs writing a power pop-punk record with a linear, intricate narrative." AXS contributor Tarynn Law wrote that "the instantly relatable tracks that filled What To Do When You Are Dead soundtracked the teenage angst of kids all around the country for years to come." Brian Aberback of NorthJersey.com noted that the album "put Armor for Sleep on the indie-rock map and continues to resonate heavily with fans 10 years later." Jorgensen later called the album a "diary entry. Without that, I think a lot of people when [their] lives go on they forget what they went through at a certain point in time so for me that’s the biggest markers for me to remember where I was at the point in my life."

Track listing

All music by Ben Jorgensen & Armor for Sleep. Lyrics by Jorgensen.

Personnel

Personnel per booklet.