Jack’s Mannequin
The Glass Passenger
2008, Sire Records
piano rock
I’ve been a fan of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate (frontman Andrew McMahon’s former band) for a while now, but I never expected more than pop-like fun from them. The Glass Passenger not only disabused me of that notion, but it went on to blow my mind.
As you JM fans know, McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2005, after Everything in Transit was released. He made a full recovery, and then went on to record Glass Passenger with the rest of the band. The result is an album full of heart-wrenching emotion underneath an ironic layer of 80′s-synthpop arrangements.
It was a given that McMahon would include a lot of his experiences with cancer in this album, but his lyrics are more than that. “Hammer and String (A Lullaby),” which is your typical teen angst, also happens to be his updated version of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” – no, it’s not a cover (since “Hammers” talks about ‘punk rock clubs’), but the sentiment and the vocals are very similar. Even the songs that aren’t as serious, such as “Suicide Blonde,” are sung with such desperation that you start to wonder if McMahon is only saying he has a ‘suicide blonde’ by his side, when he really doesn’t and only wishes he had one.
In fact, McMahon’s vocals are the biggest difference in this album when compared to Everything in Transit. His energy from his live shows are legendary and he’s definitely incorporated that into this album – but it also seems as though he just wants to get the words out and could really care less about hitting the perfect notes. So while this album is a far cry from the traditional sound of ‘punk rock,’ the sentiment is (amazingly) still there.
“Hammers and String (A Lullaby),” “The Resolution,” and “Annie Use Your Telescope.”
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Something Corporate’s North, Augustana’s All The Stars and Boulevards
