Jack’s Mannequin
Everything In Transit

Something Corporate’s frontman Andrew McMahon’s slow songs (Me and the Moon, Konstantine) have always had a “wise beyond his years” adultness to them that his faster songs (21 and Invincible, Woke Up In a Car) seemed to lack. On Everything In Transit, the debut album from McMahon’s side project, Jack’s Mannequin, that maturity has come full circle and permeates every song; fast, slow and danceable, on the album. From the youthful desire to waste weeks beneath the sun and fry our brains in Holiday From Real to another night with the seats rolled back in MFEO pt II, McMahon has perfectly crafted a full disc of songs, more than just based on his personal experiences a few summers ago, that reflects the times in a man’s life when he realizes that his decisions have consequences, relationships are heavy and we wish we could just go back to when everything wasn’t so damn important, but we don’t really want to.

Unfortunately life got a lot more real for McMahon as he took Jack’s Mannequin on the road early this summer for some pre-release shows. In the middle of the tour he went to see a doctor about a pesky sore throat, was hospitalized and quickly the world learned that McMahon had been diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. Looking through the lyrics of these songs with all of their references to doctors and sicknesses and bruises and hospitals It makes me wonder if the cancer in McMahon’s blood had prematurely made itself known through his subconscious and was revealed cryptically to the world through the work of this artist’s soul. Was Andrew unknowingly telling the world that he was sick? It is impossible to hear lyrics like “She thinks I’m much to thin / she asked me if I’m sick” without Andrew’s real world situation adding more weight to the words than originally intended.

Musically the album is a smorgasbord of different sounds and exotic instruments from sitars to organs. The same way the album reveals Andrew’s unknown health concerns it also reveals his musical preferences from that summer past. Everything In Transit is chock full of influences from The Beatles to The Beach Boys to Tom Petty and more but all combined under a decidedly “Andrew” thumbprint. His personal voice, mannerisms and way of talking is evident in more than just the vocal stylings. If art is a reflection of the artist’s soul then this album is like looking at Andrew McMahon in a mirror.

The diverse sounds and revealing look at what happens when a rock star returns to the real life of home and finds nothing remained static in his absence makes this the “must buy” album of the year. Andrew McMahon is a creative force to be reckoned with and after the turbulance of this past year I’m sure that he has plenty of material to mine for years, and albums, to come. Buy this album TODAY!

Review by Nathan Wrann