Cheer Up! is the fourth studio album by American rock band Reel Big Fish. Released on June 25, 2002, the album was the band's first after the turn of the new millennium, following the release of 1998's Why Do They Rock So Hard? With the advent of the 2000s, and following the band's mainstream success during the third wave of ska, the marketability of and interest in ska waned; despite this, Reel Big Fish continued to tour successfully and maintain a significant fan base while recording Cheer Up! across a number of different recording studios in California. Val Garay produced the majority of the tracks, with frontman Aaron Barrett, trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein and Gordie Johnson producing select songs.
Cheer Up! received generally favorable reviews from critics, some of which praised the inclusion of other styles and genres into the band's sound. It reached number 115 in the United States, number 46 in Australia and number 96 in the United Kingdom; "Where Have You Been?" peaked at number 76 in the UK. Cheer Up! has been described as belonging to the pop-punk and power pop genres, and tackles the theme of heartbreak. "Where Have You Been?" was released as the album's lead single in May 2002, which was promoted with an appeared on that year's Warped Tour. They continued to tour across the US, as well as Australia and Japan until the end of the year; 2003 saw the band visit Europe and play a variety of US festivals, prior to a North American headlining tour.
Background and recording
Reel Big Fish released their third studio album Why Do They Rock So Hard? in October 1998. By July 1999, the band were in pre-production for their next album, with the plan to start recording at the end of the year. Following this, they toured with Blondie until September 1999, and went on a headlining tour in November 1999. After the new millennium, ska punk fell out of marketability and out of the mainstream. Despite this, the band had been writing more experimental-sounding tracks for their next studio album. In May 2000, the band began recording with producer Val Garay, with the aiming of releasing it in early 2001. Garay was mainly known for his 1980s work with Kim Carnes and the Motels. The band were reported finishing up the album by July 2000; however, the band was still working on the album in November 2000. In the midst of this, the band went on tour with James Valentine of Square playing guitar as frontman Aaron Barrett had broken his hand. In November 2000, they went on tour with Midtown. By December 2000, they were reportedly in the mixing process.
Unbeknownst to the band, their label Mojo Records were in talks with Jive Records about a potential merger; trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein said they were "giving us the runaround" as they were low on money for recording. This situation prompted the band to start touring again "because that's where we pay our bills". The label had been dropped by their parent company Universal; Barrett said of the situation: "We were waiting, we recorded a bunch of stuff and then we just waited, and waited, and nothing happened, and stuff got worse, and they got dropped from Universal and… We just went out on tour". He went as far as to wish that they were no longer on the label. Upon returning to the US from an overseas tour in September 2001, the band continued working on the album, until they went on another tour in October 2001. Sessions continued between December 2001 and January 2002; the following month, the band were recording cover versions of some songs, such as "Boss DJ" (1994) by Sublime, in Hollywood, California. After a show in New York City, where they debuted several new tracks, they spent a week in the city recording four songs, one of which being a cover of "Rock It with I" by the Melodians.