Against Me!'s first major-label album, 2007's "New Wave", brought the band mainstream success: It debuted at no. 57 on the "Billboard" 200; featured their first charting single, "Thrash Unreal", which reached no. 11 on "Billboards Modern Rock Tracks chart; and was named as "Spins album of the year. The song "The Ocean" directly referenced Grace's gender dysphoria, with the lyrics "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman / My mother once told me she would have named me Laura / I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her / One day I'd find an honest man to make my husband". Though Grace anticipated "completely outing myself" with the song, no one involved with the band seemed to pick up on the lyrics' literal meaning. She also wanted to cross-dress in the music video for "Thrash Unreal", but the label's A&R representative vetoed the idea.