Believe me. I don’t have anything against Andrew McMahon. I’m actually a pretty big fan of his original band, the piano driven power pop of Something Corporate. I also think he has one of the most powerful and infectious voices in pop music. But I just haven’t been able to truly enjoy the work of his solo project Jack’s Mannequin. Though the sound itself is strikingly similar to Something Corporate at its core, it seems as if McMahon’s songwriting has progressively gotten sloppier since the band’s 2003 album North.
The 2005 debut by Jack’s Mannequin, Everything in Transit, had its fair share of catchy pop tunes that helped the album make out as an overall enjoyable listen; but the long awaited follow up, The Glass Passenger (which was delayed after McMahon was diagnosed with cancer in ’05), is a bit of a headscratcher. At some points, The Glass Passenger is a sweeping piano-filled mood setter that is complimented by McMahon’s emotionally charged voice, but more than not the album is an obtuse exercise in a lack of anything resembling subtlety. The chords are big, the voice is over the top and the lyrics are childish.
The album starts off with one of the true highlights on the disc, the dreamy “Crashin,” which sadly set the bar far too high for much of the rest of the album to follow. “Spinning” relies on a tiresome dance groove and a bubblegum chorus that shuffles the song into the much dreaded “emo” category. The mushy “American Love” has McMahon singing out the overly emotive phrase “big hearts/big hearts are for breaking”over and over during the chorus. Meanwhile “Suicide Blonde” may be the most embarrassing track Andrew has ever put together. When he cries out “got a job at the DMV and a call from my father/got my news from the CNN like sheep to slaughter” on top of aged ‘90s punk-rock style guitar work, it so makes me wish that he would stick to singing songs abut long distance relationships and romantic weekends.
Despite being a mountain of unfulfilled promise, The Glass Passenger does have a few winners other than just the album opener. “Bloodshot” is an acoustic based gem that showcases just how good Jack’s Mannequin could be if McMahon moves away from the trite song structures and mind numbing political statements. The album also ends on an exhilarating high note, the poignant “Caves” which clocks in at a fulfilling eight minutes. The epic song is no doubt a retelling of McMahon’s struggle with leukemia and makes better use of his yearning vocal than any other song he’s ever sung before. It’s odd that one of Andrew’s best is coupled with some of his worst, but so goes the story of The Glass Passenger.
Even on Something Corporate’s two solid albums, the terrific songs were usually matched by a good amount of filler. It’s been no different on Jack’s Mannequin’s two albums, though on The Glass Passenger some of the filler is actually pretty unlistenable. Still there are a few memorable tracks on this disc, and one (“Caves”) which shouldn’t be missed. McMahon no doubt has a promising career with Jack’s Mannequin ahead of him, and hopefully his natural song writing chops which have been so plainly audible in the past will find its way into a more enjoyable and cohesive album in the future. In the meantime though, I think a simple download of the song “Caves” is the only thing I can truly recommend from Jack’s newest venture.
"The Glass Passenger" is on sale September 30, 2008 from Sire.
