Weekly Poll: Favorite Andrew McMahon Album

This is gonna be a loaded one. Going to stick with full lengths.

 

Looking at the list, this is harder than I thought.

 

@Jason Tate and I ranked Andrew albums a month or so ago in the supporters forum. Here's what I came up with then:

Everything in Transit

This album is on the very short list of albums that I would deem absolutely perfect. When I did my top 100 albums of the 2000s list, I wrote that“There’s a sound of summer, and it’s called Everything in Transit,” and that pretty much sums it up for me. There’s no album I’d rather hear in the summer months, and I always pull it out for road trips and beach trips and runs and bonfire nights. Sometimes, songs lose some of their power or majesty over the years, but there’s still something so magical to me about hearing the bridge to “Dark Blue” in a fast car, or listening to “Rescued” on a late August night with the autumn chill starting to creep in on the edge of the breeze. It’s funny: the melodies of this record were what drew me in back in the day, but it’s the lyrics that really get me now.

The Glass Passenger

I don’t think Passenger is Andrew’s second best record, but it’s definitely the one that means the second most to me. This album was really important at a very specific moment in my life, which I wrote about at length in my 10-year retrospective. I won’t rehash that whole story, but suffice to say that Andrew was writing some of the absolute best songs of his career here. Even having loved Transit as much as I did, I never would have guessed he was capable of something like “Caves” until the moment I heard it.

Zombies on Broadway

I’m honestly a little surprised this one is so high for me, but it just felt right. It’s one of the only albums from the past few years that has never left my rotation since it came out. I spin it on vinyl probably 2-3 times a month. It’s just one of those albums that I feel like I can put on at any time, with any group of people, and know that everyone is going to enjoy it. Unlike Jason, I really love “Brooklyn” and how it starts the record, and some of those pop songs near the beginning are just massive. I’ll forever think that “So Close” should have been a huge hit. Also, shout out to “Birthday Song,” which I think is one of Andrew’s most underappreciated triumphs.

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

This album came out three days after my grandpa’s funeral, and I just remember leaning on it super hard. This one and Yellowcard’s Lift a Sail are albums I think I love more than just about anyone because of when they came out and because of how much I needed them when they did. I listened to this album over and over again, because it just felt so comfortable and familiar. I still can’t listen to “Maps for the Getaway” without getting a little choked up.

North

My first Andrew McMahon record. Not many side 1, track 1s have ever made a more immediate impression on me than “As You Sleep.” I remember hearing that song and immediately knowing that whoever was playing that piano line was going to be one of my favorite artists. Both SoCo records are a little less consistent for me than what came after, but this one is stacked with 5-6 of the very best songs Andrew has ever written. Side 2, in particular, is just fucking incredible. Raise your hand if “21 and Invincible” was the first song you listened to after turning 21.

Leaving Through the Window

Leaving Through the Window is an album I remember spending a lot of time with during my freshman year of high school. It’s just one of those pure “adolescent angst” albums for me, the quintessential “no one understands me” record. It’s probably aged the least well of Andrew’s records for me, for that reason. When I hear it, it takes me back to that lonely winter, feeling like I didn’t have anything in common with my classmates. But I also love going back to that space from time to time, and it doesn’t hurt that this album has probably my favorite song Andrew ever put on a full-length, which is “I Woke up in a Car.” The “I met a girl who kept tattoos for homes that she had loved/If I were her I’d paint my body ‘til all my skin was gone” line is maybe my favorite lyric of all time.

People and Things

It’s weird for me to rank this album so low, because I always find myself defending it and saying that it’s underrated. Ultimately, I think it’s the Andrew album that I have the least emotional connection with. Musically, it’s basically Andrew making an Americana/heartland rock inspired road trip record, which is about as up my alley as anything could ever be. I think it’s an easier, more consistent listen than at least three of the albums I put higher (Passenger, North, and Window), but I think I subtract points because it doesn’t have any of my all-time favorite Andrew songs. “Amelia Jean” is close.

Other Notes

Andrew has a habit of writing great, great songs that don’t appear on his albums. I’m not going to rank all that stuff, because there’s so much of it. (Jason didn’t even rank the Dear Jack EP!) But suffice to say that “Konstantine” (my favorite Andrew song, period), “Synesthesia,” “Walking By,” “There, There Katie,” “Last Straw,” “Doris Day,” “At Full Speed,” “No Man Is an Island,” and “Wrecking Ball Heart” would all be on my “favorite Andrew songs” playlist. You could make one absolute hell of a record from this guy's B-sides and EP tracks. Also, special shout out to the SoCo cover of “Just Like a Woman,” which I listen to all the time.

 

Also, I'm not going to throw Upside Down Flowers in there yet, because I've only had it for a week. Buuuuut, I think it might be the best Wilderness record, so do with that what you will.

 

Transit > Glass > North > AMINW > Window > Zombies > People

 

Shocked I’m the only vote for North

 

I love North with all my heart, but Everything In Transit is untouchable

 

EIT
TGP
rest is sort of a toss up, stoked for the new one

 

He's been consistently great his entire career, but it's gotta be EIT. There are very few records by anybody that have stayed with me like that one has. No matter the season, no matter the mood.. 13 years later I could literally always listen to that album. Also sonically one of my favorite records ever.

My second favorite is probably the first Wilderness record. Every album is just so good though. Can't wait for the new one.

 

For some reason I just straight up missed the last Wilderness album, which is wild because I love the first one so much. Should remedy that.

 

EIT. I haven't liked anything he's done at all since The Glass Passenger.

 

EIT, such a hard pick though as this guy is a legend and incapable of making bad music imo

 

I picked EIT because of course, it is a perfect front to back album....but that might be the album that makes me only the third most nostalgic. Despite jamming to that with my best friend a ton in the early years of learning to drive, I have strong hits of nostalgia from North and TGP. I can remember sitting on the school bus with my CD player and I can still practically feel the impact of Only Ashes on my poor depressed teenage psyche. TGP is and always will be the best fall album and I can still see the autumn tinged leaves of CT on the highways as I drove to visit friends in college within the first month of this album coming out.

There's really an Andrew song for everything though.

 

It's too early to say where, but the new album is definitely very close to the top of my rankings

 

This album is phenomenal. It's probably juuuusssttt outside the top four of EIT/Passenger/North/Window for me. But it's easily his best since Passenger.

 

It's such a hard poll! I had to go with Everything in Transit because it's literally the only album of his that I listened to every day for an entire year when it came out.