Glass shattering pop

When Jack’s Mannequin’s debut Everything in Transit was released to critical success in August 2005, Andrew McMahon was confined to a bed and undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Although he’s fully recovered and the band has toured extensively, the influence on McMahon of the three tough years since are obvious on the new album The Glass Passenger.

Yet instead of writing a depressing record, he’s turned his ordeal into a combustible jolt of energy that displays maturity way beyond his years.

No disrespect to McMahon’s previous band Something Corporate or even the last Jack’s album, but Passenger is categorically better than anything he’s ever done. The tracks are what great pop music should be: diverse, but catchy; simple, yet moving.

The three leadoff songs “Crashin,” “Spinning” and “Swim” pull you in immediately.

“Crashin” is full of exuberance and anxiety as McMahon delivers a manic vocal performance over swirling keys.
 
“Swim” is indirectly about his struggles, but McMahon diverts the attention to positivity with lyrics like “You’ve gotta swim / Don’t let yourself sink / Just find the horizon / I promise it’s not as far as you think.” The bridge kicks into another gear as his emotional energy blasts out of your headphones.

The latter half of Passenger is where McMahon lets his personal and musical growth run wild. The diverse run ranges from the dreamy and dense (“Annie Use Your Telescope”) to the reggae-tinged (“Bloodshot”), with a few enchanting ballads intermixed, such as “Hammer and Strings (A Lullaby)” and “Orphan.”

The closer, “Caves” is spectacular. The 7 1/2 minute epic is divided into two parts, with the first three minutes featuring McMahon’s raw falsetto over a soothing key arrangement, while the closing portion includes a quicker pace, the full band and McMahon’s proclamation “there’s no one here but me.”

The Glass Passenger is many things. It’s an album for Something Corporate fans who have grown up. It’s an album for Beach Boys fans disgruntled by today’s music. But most importantly, it's the most enjoyable listen of 2008.