The Glass Passenger
Finally, after being anticipated and expected for about the last 6 months or more, Jack’s Mannequin finally released a new album: The Glass Passenger. This had been talked about since last year, and then at one stage was down to be released in April this year. But that got pushed out to July, and then again to late September. Frustrating indeed!
Jack’s Mannequin are pretty much the Andrew McMahon solo project – there is a band behind him, clearly, but it’s all his songwriting, arranging, etc. Andrew was the front man and songwriter for Something Corporate, but began doing his own thing a few years ago – you can read about all that on his wiki. I had adored the first album, Everything In Transit. It was just pop/rock heaven. Amazing piano driven songs, brilliant story-telling lyrics… just an awesome album that I could listen to cover to cover, over and over. So I was very much looking forward to what he pulled out for a follow up.
And the album didn’t disappoint. It’s definitely a pop* album (but without really knowing how to describe the whole “pop” genre), but that definitely didn’t bother me. The same musical brilliance and lyricism was there and was glowing. Overall, as a cover to cover album, I’m still warming to it. But there are just some incredible stand out tracks that have hooked me right from the first listen.
The Resolution easily takes the cake as my favourite track. Its chorus grabbed my attention straight away: the 4th chord in the progression is just beautiful and is so different. It breaks all the usual music rules. Such fun. Suicide Blonde is quite similar – it breaks all the usual rules by doing quite a sudden and almost violent key change into the chorus. It takes you by surprise and actually takes a bit to get used to, I reckon. I definitely loved that about those songs, and a couple of others too in minor ways – they just don’t follow the usual pop rules, but completely rewrite them.
Hammers & Strings also sits right up there as a favourite for me – just such a brilliantly told story. Makes you feel like you’re reading a book. I love songs like that, and Andrew’s voice just fills the song’s emotional values brilliantly.
Downloading the iTMS Australian version was a good move too – came with a bunch of bonus tracks that were on separate versions of the album in the US, and also a couple of live, acoustic stylin’ tracks from the Everything In Transit days.
One of my most looked forward to albums of 2008, and definitely one of my favourite albums of the year too. Man, it’s gonna be hard to pick a favourite album of ‘08…
* I reckon the album is “pop” because of its musical qualities – not because it’s mainstream and played by just about every radio station on the planet. Cos Jack’s Mannequin get no radio play in Australia, and quite minimal play even in the US.