After the release of their debut album Real Talk (2010), guitarist Wayne Wildrick left the group, resulting in several line-up changes.

In December 2010, the group had signed to independent label Rise Records, and aimed to release another album by fall of next year.

After the album was announced in August 2011, "Dead End Dreams" was made available for streaming later that month, followed by "Spunn" in mid-September.

A music video was released for "Somethings Weird" in January, and later that month, the band went on a headlining UK tour.

Following the release of their debut album Real Talk in July 2010,[1] Man Overboard toured constantly throughout the rest of the year.

[3] As a result, drummer Justin Collier switched to guitar, and Mike Hrycenko was brought in to fill in on drums.

[3] In December, it was announced the band had signed to Rise Records, and that a new album was planned for release in fall 2011.

[5] The following month, the group released The Absolute Worst EP as a stop-gap for fans until the band's second album appeared.

[12] Cannon and Klein came into the recording process with "outside ideas" and helped the group hear the songs differently, according to Wildrick.

[11] He mentioned how "[s]ome bands write faster records first and start to slow down", but for Man Overboard they did the opposite.

[15] Eisenstein composed the guitar riff in a hotel in Arizona, and wrote the lyrics in the back of the group's van.

[15] On August 5, 2011, Man Overboard was announced for release, and the album's cover art and track listing were revealed.

[32] The band then went on The Rocksound Impericon tour in Europe from late March to mid-April, alongside Your Demise, Trapped Under Ice, and Basement.

[36] The video, directed by Rob Soucy, was filmed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Williamstown, New Jersey, earlier in the year.

[38] A deluxe edition of the album was released on July 3, featuring "Love Your Friends, Die Laughing"[39] and live versions of four tracks.

[41] In November, the band went on the Road to Warped Tour in the UK, alongside New Found Glory, Less Than Jake and The Story So Far.

The winner won tickets, items from their web-store and a signed vinyl copy of Before We Met: A Collection of Old Songs (2010).

[44] The winning entry by Front Porch Step, as well as Man Overboard's version, of the track titled "Dump Me" was made available as a free download through Alternative Press' website.

[46] AbsolutePunk staff member Thomas Nassiff called the album "slightly predictable ... [but] that isn't even close to a bad thing".

[48] This "rush" was "expressed in the breakneck tempos of the short (none over three and a half minutes) songs" on the group's self-titled album.

[48] Ruhlmann classified the album's sound as being "standard-issue" pop punk in the vein of Green Day and Blink-182, with "an echo" of Jimmy Eat World, in terms of the Bruzzese and Eisensteins' "contrasting vocals".

[48] Writing for Rock Sound, Andy Ritchie noted that the album "reveals little reinvention, but the nuts and bolts of what makes them so affable have only been tightened and polished further".