New York – Andrew McMahon’s musical career has taken many forms. From the pop rock tunes of Something Corporate to the more matured piano pop of Jack’s Mannequin to his synth-driven solo work, Andrew McMahon has literally changed his tune several times since he began writing music in the late 90s. Each iteration has seen not only musical development, but a personal and physical transformation as well. From the sandy haired “garage band king” with an eyebrow piercing to the family man who happens to be in a synth-pop band, McMahon has grown in all directions with each release. Every outfit that McMahon fronts is more successful than the last and Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness is no exception.
Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness finds McMahon just after the birth of his first child, living in California with his wife and dog, each of whom have been featured in McMahon’s music over the years. His daughter, born last February, inspired the record’s lead single “Cecilia and the Satellite.” The song is a heartfelt tribute that will hopefully prove to be the crossover hit McMahon needs to reach a wider audience. “Rainy Girl” is a similar, equally touching, more stripped back track that has hints of Something Corporate (think: “Walking By”) and will remind longtime listeners of McMahon’s more acoustic songs. McMahon has always written about sweaters and Californian weather, but family has entered as a prominent theme in his newer work. “High Dive” is a fictionalized re-telling of McMahon’s relationship with his wife that explores what his life would be like had their reconciliation played out differently.
McMahon’s songs are usually autobiographical in nature, so the name-dropping is nothing new. As in his past efforts, McMahon hasn’t added too much fiction to Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness. He lifts names and places effortlessly from his surroundings to give the record a distinctly Californian feel. LA’s Echo Park, which inspired much of Jack’s Mannequin, is mentioned in “High Dive,” and Topanga Canyon, where McMahon stayed and wrote much of this new record, appears in “Canyon Moon.” Even though the latter tune is a fictional story about a girl and a getaway, the song is still dappled with the sights and sounds that McMahon lived amongst while recording. Once again he has drawn heavily from his own life to craft an album that is both personal and relatable.
Lyrically the songs are characteristically rich in detail and provide glances into McMahon’s personal life. “See Her On The Weekend” seems to be the most direct reference to McMahon’s life shuttling between his SoCal home and the California canyons during the writing process. The journey gave McMahon plenty of fodder for the new record, for he touches on his travels again in “Black and White Movies.” Though his songs are specific and wrought with intimate details of his life, listeners never feel shut out or alienated listening to them. The lines “There’s only two mistakes that I have made / It’s running from the people who could love me best / And trying to fix a world that I can’t change” from “All Our Lives” illustrate McMahon’s talent for simple, succinct lyrics. “Halls,” a soaring synth-soaked song, is a mini memoir and yet even if you’ve never stayed at Tempe, Arizona’s Congress Hotel and done cartwheels down the halls at 3 a.m. as McMahon has you still find something universal about the song.
McMahon hasn’t had the most typical life. He has successfully led two bands in tours around the world, survived cancer, written songs for TV, founded a charity, started a family, shot a documentary, won a Woodie and yet he still manages to find common ground with his audience. “Maps For The Getaway,” which bookends the album, is perhaps the best example of this. When the chorus crashes in with, “No cash in the bank, no paid holidays. All we have, all we have is gas in the tank, maps for the getaway. All we have, all we have is time,” McMahon taps into the escapist in all of us.
This skill is why McMahon fans keep coming back and why Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness is already a success. You don’t have to live in California or front a pop punk band to empathize with his music. If McMahon continues to write records like Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, he’ll be adding scores of people to the scrappy tribe that follow him around the country. This new album shows that no matter what name he travels under, McMahon delivers.
His upcoming tour will probably be met with cries for Something Corporate’s “Konstantine,” but the shows will also be full of loyal fans willing to follow McMahon down whatever path his piano takes him.
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Zoe Marquedant
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