I realize I'm a little behind on this review... about a month behind in fact, but by popular demand (primarily pressure to stop being lazy, coming from Jannifer) here it is...
To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this album near as much as I probably should have been. Although I am a huge fan of Andrew McMahon's work with Something Corporate, his first album as Jack's Mannequin didn't really do anything for me. That's not to say it was bad, it just wasn't as good as it should have been (I know many of you will disagree with that statement, but for me it just wasn't up to the quality I had come to expect from Mr. McMahon).
I'm always intrigued to hear solo albums by members of bands, because in some cases they by far outshine any of the collected works put out by the individuals band. For example Ben Folds solo career has been significantly better than the vast majority of music put out by Ben Folds 5, another example would be the original Dashboard Confessional albums (when it was a solo project) in comparison to Chris' work with Further Seems Forever (this all changed with Mark, Mission, Brand, Scar when DC stopped being an honest solo project and became a wanna be FSF). Other attempts are not so notable say Dave Matthews Some Devil, or... well Mr. McMahon's first attempt at Jack's.
As previously stated, the Everything in Transit wasn't bad... it just felt to me like Andrew was trying to hard to distance himself from his previous grandeur, and because of this, the album came across sounding like a really crappy version of Something Corporate (Kind of like Billy Corgan's re-birth of Smashing Pumpkins, or as I'm imagining the re-invention of Guns n' Roses is going to sound like later this year). There were a few really good tracks on the first album, but overall the best word to describe it is... blah...
So now we find ourselves at The Glass Passenger, let's jump in!
1 - Crashin - The opening line of the album is great, "I wanna hear some music." I'm happy to say the album delivers exactly that. As the lyrics later point out, this isn't radio music... It's something better. Good opener, and great foreshadowing of what is to come. The only downside to this track is I feel that it is a little to mellow for an opener, but still a very good track.
2 - Spinning - This track picks up the tempo a bit. It's a great track that in many ways sounds like it could have been on a Something Corporate album, maybe North. One great thing about this album is that instead of trying to set himself apart from Something Corporate, McMahon is simply writing great songs regardless of whether they reminisce his earlier works. Great track!
3 - Swim - "Swim for the music that saves you when you're not sure you'll survive." Yet another reference indicating that the music on this album is above par, which it is. This is a good track, the chorus in particular is memorable. I also really like the instrumentation in this one, the dynamics both instrumentally and vocally are great!
4 - American Love - This is one of my least favorite tracks on the album, not that it's bad necessarily. Musically it sounds good, but the repetitive lines of "Big heart, big hearts, big hearts are for breaking" just don't do anything for me.
5 - What Gets you Off? - In the nature of the previous track, I just really don't dig the chorus to this track. Musically it's really good, but after a couple of times of hearing Andrew whine, "What gets you off?" I end up skipping the track.
(Tracks 4 and 5 are really the two biggest downers on the entire album for me)
6 - Suicide Blonde - Sorry INXS fans, this isn't a cover... Fortunately though, this is probably one of the coolest tracks on the album. It kind of reminds me of "Punk Rock Princess" by the way it starts out, but come the first chorus it stops reminding me of anything I've ever heard before. The chord progressions are unlike anything I've ever heard, and saying they are anything short of awesome would be a shame. Musically it's exciting, lyrically and vocally it's exciting, this is all around just a great track!
7 - Annie Use Your Telescope - When I first heard this track it almost reminded me of something by Pink Floyd. This song is so much bigger than anything Jack's or Something have ever done. The sonic range is huge and it's great. From about 1:20-1:45 the Pink Floyd-esq sound is really apparent. This is definitely a new venture for Jack's, but they pull it off great and deliver another memorable track.
8 - Bloodshot - I'm not a huge fan of this track, it kind of sounds like the new emo-punk-indy-pop that bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are delivering these days. It's okay, but doesn't do a whole lot for me... but then again neither do any of the tracks I'd categorize with this one that are out right now... Maybe I'm too old to get it :)
9 - Drop Out - The So Unknown - This another track that sounds it could have been on North. This is a very up beat track with that classic piano/indy sound that made Something Corporate great.
10 - Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby) - This is a brilliant track. It is one of my absolute favorites, and I'm guessing will likewise be a favorite for all Jack's fans. I'd venture as far as saying this track will become the ballad that Jack's fans chant for at shows... Similar to what "Konstantine" was for Something Corporate. It's songs like this that remind me why I love music so much.
11 - The Resolution - How often do you find an album where the lead single doesn't show up on the album until track 11? It's pretty rare to say the least. I was instantly drawn to this track. It's a great track and is definitely single worth, I only hope it drew enough interest to Jack's to give this album the credibility it deserves.
12 -Orphans - This is another cool track. It for the most part is very stripped down which I love. It is mostly based around the piano, an acoustic guitar, drums, and vocals that only Andrew could deliver to us. I'm generally not a huge fan of doubling the lyric tracks up so the that the same individual is singing several parts, but for this track, they pull it off and it works great.
13 - I'm not a huge fan of the digital noise in the background when this track begins. I get the point that this is somewhat of a slow artsy piece to take the album out on a nice mellow note (you know the arpeggios, falsettos, strings section, etc), but to be completely honest, the first half of it doesn't really work for me. After the crazy Beatles-esq instrumental part in the middle, the song gets really good and fortunately ends on something worthy of the album, although in some ways I think the album would have been better off ending with "Orphans."
Aside from my few nit-picky remarks, I have to say that this album is a reminder to us all of why we love piano rock. After the first Jack's album, I felt that there was a void left in my music collection where Something Corporate used to be. This album has no only filled that void, but has shown me that Andrew McMahon has the talent to be a great solo artist. Overall I give this album an A-, and recommend that all Something Corporate fans who lost interest after Everything in Transit, go pick it up. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.
-T
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