By Jenna French
Every band reaches a point in its career where it must produce a groundbreaking new album. It must be enough like the other albums that longtime fans can appreciate it, but different enough to show improvement. For most artists, that CD is the turning point in their musical history, where they could either go forward or stop going altogether. For Orange County-based Something Corporate, 2003’s release “North” was the CD that they needed.
Something Corporate has already released their widely popular first album, 2002’s “Leaving Through the Window.” Compared to their first release, “North” offers a darker sound, complete with unique piano parts that perfectly complement the lyrics.
Beginning with “As You Sleep” and ending with “Miss America,” Something Corporate finds in their latest CD a classic balance between piano and vocals, something that few bands can master.
Lead singer Andrew McMahon has a distinctive voice that communicates feeling in an ideally simple way. “North” is different from the first release in the sense that it shows maturity in both lyrics and music. A song from “Leaving Through the Window,” entitled “If U C Jordan,” is an immature sing-along about a high school bully: “If you see Jordan, if you see Jordan / he makes me sick, he makes me sick / high school’s over, high school’s over / and you still won’t quit.”
But you won’t find any songs like this on “North.” In “Me and the Moon,” for example, McMahon sings of a woman who murders her husband because after “seventeen years all that he gave was a daughter.” Something Corporate is dealing with more mature and sober subject matter now.
Another song on “North,” “21 and Invincible,” captures the feeling of youth in a nutshell. “I’m 21 and invincible, can’t wait to screw this up.” There are also songs of heartbreak, such as “Only Ashes,” where McMahon sums up that familiar feeling: “Incinerate what’s left of this, and burn the part of me that’s you.”
The new release is definitely heavy in some places, but it’s lighter in others. The first song, “As You Sleep,” is a testament to love. “Space,” the next track, is a raucous song that features a heavy guitar sound with less piano. “Down” showcases the drummer, Brian Ireland, in a syncopated rhythm that gives the song an interesting feel while meshing with McMahon’s piano to tell a story of loneliness.
Most of the tracks on “Leaving Through the Window” were either slow and sad or fast and angry. “North” seems to find the perfect balance between the two extremes, covering the basic loud rock-and-roll song alongside the softer side of music, featured in “Miss America.” In this track, McMahon’s pleading voice asks his lover when she’ll stop dragging his heart around: “Oh love, I’m tangled up again / oh, love, when will this twisting end?” He also sings of a love that’s gone horribly sour in “She Paints Me Blue”: “Atlanta started raining on me, and no young girl was naming me / or claiming me / and destiny gets nervous.”
Some would compare Something Corporate’s sound to that of Yellowcard, Dashboard Confessional or Three Days Grace. In all actuality, they have a sound that’s completely unique compared to most mainstream music.
They have grown both lyrically and musically, and they have proven wrong everyone who said they were just another garage band out of Orange County. They have amassed a large following of college-aged fans, and they released a concert DVD, “Live at the Ventura,” last November. Surely Something Corporate will continue to grow ias they continue to release CDs.
