[1] In July 2005, vocalist Pierre Bouvier said that while they hadn't written any new material, he expected them to release a new record by mid 2006.

[4] Bouvier and Comeau wrote material together in a room using Pro Tools with programmed drums, eventually coming up with demos.

[6] However, the members weren't impressed by the material they had up to this point and delayed they recording plans, much to the chagrin of Atlantic.

[7] Writing continued up to the Christmas period; following two shows in Brazil in January 2007, the band had planned to enter a studio at the end of the month[4] with Bob Rock, who had produced their previous album.

[9] They picked Dave Fortman for his work with Evanescence; he want to give the band a big drum sound and took them to NRG Studios in Los Angeles, California.

[13] In September, the album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge[12] at Resonate in Los Angeles, before Ted Jensen mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York City.

[18] Three of the songs – "Time to Say Goodbye", "I Can Wait Forever" and "What If" – were credited solely to the band while the remainder were co-writes: Arnold Lanni, who had previously produced the band's debut No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls, co-wrote "When I'm Gone", "Take My Hand", "The End", "Your Love Is a Lie", "Save You", "Generation", "Holding On" and "No Love"; Danja co-wrote "When I'm Gone", "The End" and "Generation", the latter also featured credit from Martin.

[20] "Your Love Is a Lie" recalls "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day,[16] and was about Comeau's unfaithful ex-girlfriend.

[21] "Save You" is a mid-tempo song[20] that was written in tribute to Pierre Bouvier's brother Jay, who was diagnosed with cancer.

[28] On December 3, the band announced that the album would be delayed two weeks due to manufacturing issues, alongside the alteration of lyrics in "Generation".

[30] After initially being scheduled for December 2007,[31] and then January 29,[25] Simple Plan was eventually released on February 12[30] through Atlantic and Lava Records.

[32] The planned artwork saw the band against a fire backdrop; however, due to a fan-voted poll, it ended up being a black-and-white photo of the group.

[37] The track's music video was posted online on October 24,[38] which featured footage of cancer survivors.

[37] Animax Asia made an animated video for "I Can Wait Forever", which aired in Aisia and was posted online in December.

[35] Between May and August, the band appeared at The Bamboozle and Download festivals, and performed "Your Love Is a Lie" on Canadian Idol.

[41] Following this, the band embarked on a Canadian tour with the All-American Rejects and Faber Drive, which ran into September.

[22] In January 2009, the band performed at the National Hockey League All-Star Game, where they played "Your Love Is a Lie" and "Generation".