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There Are Rules is the fifth studio album by American rock band The Get Up Kids, the band's first full-length release since 2004's Guilt Show. After their initial reunion, the band decided to challenge themselves to write and record an album in only two weeks without using any digital technology. Ultimately, due to conflicting schedules, they dropped the two-week deadline and recorded over several months in 2009 and 2010. Much of the album was recorded in the same sessions as their first post-reunion release, Simple Science, the song "Keith Case" being featured on both.

In the summer of 2009, The Get Up Kids entered the studio with longtime collaborator Ed Rose to begin writing their first new material since breaking up in 2005. Over the course of several months, they recorded a total of nine songs using entirely analog equipment. Originally, they planned to record three more songs and release a series of three 12" vinyl EPs in 2010. However, this plan was scrapped after the release of Simple Science, the first of the planned series, and the band instead decided to combine the remaining tracks with more new material and release a full-length album.

In the years away from the group, several members had gone on to join major-label acts; Rob Pope became the bassist for Spoon, and James Dewees became the touring keyboardist for My Chemical Romance. Because of these prior commitments, writing and recording sessions had to be scheduled long in advance. The songwriting process itself was more free-form than on previous albums, usually beginning with one member suggesting an instrumental part and building on it. If they didn't like the result in 30 minutes, they abandoned it. For instance, the song "Regent's Court" was written in one hour before Matt Pryor had to pick his kids up from school. The only song recorded in these sessions that has yet to be released is "Neverending," the first song written after the band's reunion.

The songs are a departure lyrically from the band's past work, due in large part to their attempts to make the album as unique from their past work as possible. Although the band has been known for writing heartfelt, emotional love songs, Pryor didn't want any songs about relationships on the album. "I felt like I could write love songs until I'm blue in the face and it's one of the things that this band has been known for to a certain degree. It's just to challenge myself as a songwriter to not write about anything that's formulaic for me." Pryor also didn't write lyrics until the songs were in a mostly completed state, making sure that the music aspect came first; "I had to write lyrics for ten songs at a time. No love songs; I had to have the lyrics fit the mood of the music." Unlike their previous three albums, There Are Rules was not released on Vagrant Records. Instead, the album was released through the band's own Quality Hill Records, named after the historic Quality Hill neighborhood in the band's hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. According to Pryor, the move to their own label (along with the financial support provided by their other projects) has given them greater creative freedom than they previously had. "We’re not in the music rat race so much, so I think this record is us choosing to do something creative even if it ends up not being as popular as some of the poppier stuff."

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