We all listen to music a little bit differently. Some people (myself included) are full album listeners. Others feel more at home throwing on a playlist and being at the whim of the shuffle button. This topic has come up a handful of times with my friends over the years, and while we all have our preferences for how we consume music, I’ve found one album repeatedly brought up as the perfect full album listen — Everything In Transit, by Jack’s Mannequin. 20 years later, the band’s debut album evokes just as much emotion as the first time I listened to it.
Although Everything In Transit was Jack’s Mannequin’s debut release, frontman Andrew McMahon was already a seasoned songwriter and performer at the time of the band’s conception — as a founding member of Something Corporate (also one of the most iconic bands of all time — Andrew McMahon has a real knack for that,) he and his bandmates had been playing shows and releasing music since they were teens. Feeling the strain of the lifestyle of a budding rockstar, the band decided to take a break in mid-2004. With a freed up schedule and no defined creative outlet, McMahon was reminded of “Locked Doors,” a track written and recorded in late 2003, but ultimately shelved because it didn’t feel like a Something Corporate song. With this in mind, he began writing songs from a more personal perspective, without the burden of creating music for the world to hear. Luckily, that ended up being far from the case.
While the whole album is a 10/10 straight through listen, a handful of tracks have kept their grip on us over the last 20 years:
Kate: Widely considered to be a concept album, there’s something so universally human about the themes tackled throughout the tracks. The album opens with “Holiday From Real,” an anthem for every 20-something who has ever found themselves in a transitory (oh, that’s why the album’s called that) period, bumming it with a friend while you pretend to figure your life out. We’ve all been there, right? The track starts with seagulls and crashing waves, which perfectly set the tone of an album that’s equally as picturesque and hopeful as it is draining and devastating — if you’ve ever been to a boardwalk in a tourist town, you’ll know the exact feeling.
Fox: “The Mixed Tape,” aside from being the perfect track for every playlist or mix CD you’ve ever made about a breakup or a relationship in shambles, is also the first track on the album with Tommy Lee as a credited drummer (yes, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue and general notoriety). As fate would have it, much of Everything in Transit was originally written with drum samples and loops, but Andrew McMahon had connected with Lee after assisting with two songs his 2005 solo album Tommyland: The Ride. Lee was a fan of Something Corporate, particularly of the song “Me and the Moon,” and he wanted that same kind of impact brought to the music he was working on. When McMahon realized he needed live drums on Everything in Transit shortly after recording with Lee, he reached out to have him return the favor, so to speak, and Lee immediately agreed to come in and track drums for most of the songs on the album.
Fox: If “The Mixed Tape” is the perfect song for after a relationship has ended, “Bruised” is there for when you can feel things slipping through your fingers but you find that letting go is harder than you thought it would be. There’s less bitterness present in “Bruised.” Gone is the underlying thread of still wanting to hurt the one we’ve left behind just because we know exactly how we can — now, in its place are reflections on better memories and the realization that those songs can still hurt you, too. It’s a bittersweet anthem about how freedom on the other side of a breakup can look a lot like boredom and loneliness and a little bit like yearning — and it’s there in every aching note of the song, as well as the lyrics themselves.
Fox: One of the world’s most devastating three-track runs comes to a close with “I’m Ready.” This was the song from this album I used to loop on infinite repeat on my iPod on my very worst days — and still, on those four aspirin mornings, when I dig out a shirt that I’ve already worn that week just for the comfort of it, I still go back to it exactly the same way. When the words you say never seem like enough, or when the novelty of changing your life fades into a tired cycle, this is the song that still gets right to the heart of it all. It’s the perfect sonic dissection of the struggle of routine and the desperation to break out of it. The piano melody, the repetition of the chorus, and an unforgettable spoken word bridge all come together to create a song that can motivate and devastate all at once.
Kate: Originally not slated to be on the album, “Dark Blue” was a last minute addition to Everything In Transit. In order to accommodate recording and mastering the track, the album’s release was pushed nearly a month. Looking back from 20 years in the future, this seems like one of the smartest decisions McMahon could have made — ask any child of the TRL generation if they know who Jack’s Mannequin is, and they’ll likely point to “Dark Blue” and “that music video with the dancing competition and the boat.” It’s popular for a reason, and it’s quintessentially Jack’s.
Kate: The 8-minute song: a contentious topic. I’m personally always on the side of a long song, especially when it’s separated into chapters, like “MFEO” (full legal name: “MFEO – Pt. 1: Made for Each Other, Pt. 2: You Can Breathe”) is. The album closer perfectly bookends the feelings of frantic optimism and crippling doubt introduced in “Holiday From Real.” In significantly shorter Act One: almost manic assuredness (also, drugs,) via lines like “Oh maybe, we were made/we were made for each other/Is it possible for the/world to look this way forever” In the more drawn out Act Two: reality sets in (and as a follow-up to the drugs, the comedown) with a repeated refrain of “You can breathe/you can breathe now/you can breathe/but the air is running out.” The meaning of this song is somewhat contested — this is another classic case of a wedding song that perhaps shouldn’t be — but whether it’s about platonic or romantic (or perhaps cosmic) love, I think it perfectly encapsulates the full spectrum of emotions you feel when you decide to open yourself up.
Everything in Transit, at its core, is an album of strange coincidences. After having to cancel tour dates due to laryngitis and chronic fatigue, McMahon was admitted to the hospital on May 27th, the same day the album was mastered. Five days later, a bone marrow biopsy revealed a diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), and a treatment plan was developed. McMahon contracted pneumonia as a result of multiple rounds of chemotherapy and opted to undergo a stem-cell transplant upon finding that his sister, Katie, was a donor match. That stem-cell transplant date? August 23rd, 2005, the scheduled release date for Everything In Transit. In retrospect, the many lyrical references to doctors and sickness make for an eerie sense of foreshadowing — the album opens with “She thinks I’m much too thin/She asks me if I’m sick” and ends with “Someone get this man to a hospital!” Even the band’s name, a combination of the original working name, The Mannequins, and the title of a song, “Dear Jack,” only became impactful after it had already been long decided upon — originally only changed because McMahon was tired of bands that started with the word “The,” the Jack in question was also a survivor of childhood Leukemia. Against all odds, it truly seems like this album was destined to have an impact when it was released, 20 years later, and hopefully for another 20 years.
Another cosmic coincidence? Just before this retrospective was slated to go live, Jack’s Mannequin dropped a brand new EP celebrating 20 years of Everything In Transit. Titled Everything In Transit: Strings Attached, the EP features five songs (all of which were mentioned here!) from the album that have been rerecorded with just vocals, piano, strings, and light percussion. Check it out on streaming or as physical media here.
Be sure to catch Jack’s Mannequin on the road, or follow all of McMahon’s other endeavors on Instagram.