Stay What You Are is the third studio album from American rock band Saves the Day, released in 2001.

It has been described as "channel[ling] the thrill of pop punk, the intellect of indie rock, and the raw emotion of emo all at once.

[2] By this point, vocalist Chris Conley "really felt confident" and subsequently had "a lot more fun" while writing.

[3] Conley had a personal recording studio set-up where he would "spend the entire day" in "building songs in my own little world.

"[3] In April, it was announced the band had signed to Vagrant Records[4] due to the success of Through Being Cool (1999).

[6] In January 2001, Punknews.org reported that the band was recording with Steve Evetts,[7] who had produced the group's previous two albums.

[10] Productivity was initially slow due to, as the band explains, "some difficulty we're having with tuning guitars".

[18] It was a more mellow, darker and melodic effort than their preceding two albums, drawing comparison to the Promise Ring[19] and Seaweed.

[16] Conley said the slower sound was intentional, as the band didn't want to perform fast-paced music anymore and wished to let the melodies carry the songs.

Following the Vagrant America Tour, drummer Bryan Newman left the band in September to study at college.

[31] In November and December, the group went on tour with Hey Mercedes, Thursday[33] Whatever It Takes,[34] and Kind of Like Spitting.

[56] In the years since its release, Stay What You Are is widely regarded as a classic and a highly influential piece of music for the emo and pop punk genres.

[64] All songs written by Bryan Newman, Chris Conley, David Soloway, Eben D'Amico and Ted Alexander.