Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	78/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A−
Entertainment Weekly	A−
The Guardian
Los Angeles Times
NME	7/10
Pitchfork Media	7.8/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Spin

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band Modest Mouse, released in 2007. It followed their previous studio album, 2004's Good News for People Who Love Bad News. It is the band's only full-length with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr as a member. It has a strong nautical theme and was originally envisioned as a concept album about a boat crew that dies in every song.

This album was certified Gold by the RIAA on June 11, 2009. As of February 2015, it has sold 649,000 copies in the US.

The album was recorded at Sweet Tea Studio in Oxford, Mississippi with producer Dennis Herring, becoming the second consecutive Modest Mouse album to be recorded at that location and with that producer.Audible Alchemy in Portland, Oregon was also credited as a recording studio for the album. The original drummer for Modest Mouse, Jeremiah Green, also returned to the band for this album. Additionally, James Mercer of The Shins sings backup vocals on the tracks "We've Got Everything," "Missed The Boat," and "Florida."

The album was leaked to the Internet on February 15, 2007, a full month before its official release on March 20, 2007. In its first week of release, the album debuted at No. 1 in the Billboard 200 selling 128,585 copies.

The album went gold in Canada in June 2008 and sold 50,000 copies.

In an interview, Isaac Brock said of Johnny Marr: "He made a cautious commitment to write and record with us, and then the tighter we got, he was like, ‘okay, let's tour too.' Then he was pretty much a member of the band—not pretty much; he's a full blown member of the band. It's really fuckin' nice." According to Brock, Marr was involved in songwriting on the album, and will even tour with the band in support of it. In the interview, Brock described We Were Dead... as a "nautical balalaika carnival romp". Johnny Marr later responded to Brock's comments by saying "Isaac contacted me and asked if I'd help Modest Mouse write the new album. I was intrigued and played with the band in Portland a couple of times. We hit it off and wrote three great songs straight away, something clicked, it felt right from the off. I have a new Healers album pretty much done, but we've been having such a good time playing these new Modest Mouse songs. When people hear the record they'll see why, we're very good together."

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