People and Things is the third and final studio album by American rock band Jack's Mannequin. It was released on October 4, 2011, through Sire Records. Following the release of The Glass Passenger (2008), the band's vocalist and pianist, Andrew McMahon, spent time during 2009 and 2010 writing, recording and then scrapping tracks for the follow-up. Shifting focus to his live band in a period during 2010, they began to work on new material. With the aid of producers Jim Scott and Rob Cavallo, the album was recorded at several studios from November 2010 to January 2011. The lead single "My Racing Thoughts" was released in August 2011, followed by the release of "Release Me" in November of that year, which was promoted by an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
People and Things is an alternative rock album that took inspiration from some of McMahon's favorite musicians and contemporaneous acts. McMahon solely wrote the majority of it alone but some songs were co-written with Jaren Johnston of American Bang and Matt Thiessen of Relient K. The main theme is relationships; the songs are about marriage, family and the difficulties of maintaining a relationship. McMahon worked on the album with a variety of session musicians and members of bands, including Jamie Muhoberac, Chris Chaney of Jane's Addiction, and Patrick Warren.
People and Things received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of whom praised the songwriting. The album charted at number nine on the US Billboard 200, selling 31,000 copies in the first week. It also performed well on the Billboard Alternative, Top Rock, and Vinyl component charts. Jack's Mannequin embarked on tours of the United States, Australia and Japan.
Background and development Jack's Mannequin's second studio album The Glass Passenger experienced several delays from its initially planned release date of April 2008, eventually being released in September of that year.Citations regarding the release delays for The Glass Passenger:
With the release of the album, the band's frontman Andrew McMahon was free to write again, after having artistically and financially struggled during the making of it. He felt The Glass Passenger would begin a new period of writing, allowing stream of consciousness material to be written. Between mid-June and early August 2009, Jack's Mannequin toured the United States with the Fray and following the tour, the band began working on their next album. In October 2009, McMahon went on a solo US tour to promote his documentary film Dear Jack (2009), which follows him during his 2005 battle with leukemia.
Jack's Mannequin were due to support Weezer's headlining US tour in December 2009 and January 2010, which was ultimately canceled. As a result, McMahon decided to continue working on the band's then-upcoming album earlier than intended and sessions were held with producer John Fields.Billboard 2010, p. 57 Up to this point, McMahon had collaborated with long-time producer Jim Wirt and wanted to work with a different producer. McMahon followed the same process that he used for The Glass Passenger and Jack's Mannequin's debut studio album Everything in Transit (2005); he would enter the studio with a song, record piano and vocals, and build the recording off that. He initially thought the best practice was to be in a studio with several people to help expand the recording from his initial ideas.
The band embarked on a headlining US tour from February to March 2010, with support from Fun and Vendera. In June of that year, McMahon came to the realisation that he wasn't comfortable with putting out the songs that he had recorded at the time. He wanted the fans to hear what a live band would sound like on an album, and decided to scrap most of the recordings. Shortly afterwards, McMahon kept some of the tracks that had already been recorded, before writing a lot of new songs. In July 2010, him and the other members of Jack's Mannequin met up in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. While in the neighbourhood, McMahon proposed to rent a place and work on the songs in a band practice-style, similarly to how McMahon used to work when he was a member of Something Corporate, with whom McMahon joined for a reunion tour the following month.
Production In September 2010, Jack's Mannequin rented a house in Joshua Tree, California, where they wrote dozens of songs for the subsequent two months. Partway through this period, in late October, Mikey Wagner joined the band. Former bassist Jon Sullivan wanted to go in a musically different direction, which Jack's Mannequin were aware of and they brought in Wagner. The band traveled between Joshua Tree and Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, where the studio is located. They wanted a producer who was skilled at recording bands live, and eventually contacted Jim Scott, who had worked on some of McMahon's favorite albums. Scott subsequently produced and engineered during Jack's Mannequin's sessions, most of which were held at Plyrz Studios, Lightning Sound Studios, and Mid City Sound. Further recording was done at Fourth Street Recording for the track "My Racing Thoughts". Jack's Mannequin recorded live with a line-up that consisted of guitarist Bobby Anderson on bass, McMahon on piano and Jay McMillan on drums. McMahon said they recorded as a three-piece without Wagner, with him not wanting to change the studio atmosphere. Wagner had only played two shows with the band by that point, while McMahon had been playing with Anderson and McMillan for five or six years.
People and Things marked the first time the band had worked on an album predominantly as a group effort; the two previous Jack's Mannequin albums were mainly handled by McMahon. By November 2010, the band were in the process of recording 16 or 17 songs, with them planning to revisit the recordings with guitars and vocal overdubs over the next two months. They would later collaborate with Rob Cavallo and Wirt, and also went on to work with Sebastian Steinberg of Soul Coughing, Chris Chaney of Jane's Addiction, and Tim Pierce, and Patrick Warren. When production was winding down in January 2011, Cavallo "saved the day in a lot of ways", according to McMahon. Once McMahon gave his record label Sire Records the recordings, he felt a track was missing. Cavallo asked McMahon if he had another song to record; McMahon, who had a number of tracks ready, showed him "Release Me". The song was recorded in two days with people from the sessions, while the piano part was recorded at Capitol Studios. The final recordings were credited to being produced by Scott (on all tracks except "Release Me"), Cavallo (all tracks except "Restless Dream"), and McMahon, with Anderson and McMillan serving as co-producers on all tracks except "Release Me". Production of the song was credited to Cavallo and McMahon.
Wirt contributed additional production to all tracks except "Release Me", "Restless Dream" and "Casting Lines". Doug McKean and Kevin Dean served as engineers throughout the sessions; McKean solely for "Release Me" at Lightning Sound, while "Restless Dream" was engineered by Dean and Scott. Jeff Hannan handled additional engineering on "Release Me", alongside engineer Spencer Guerra, as well as "Television", "Amy, I", "Hey Hey Hey (We're All Gonna Die)", "People, Running", "Amelia Jean", "Platform Fire", and "Hostage". Steve Rea and Russ Waugh acted as assistant engineers on all tracks except for "Restless Dream", and they were aided by engineer Aaron Walk for "Release Me". Nigel Lundemo and Lars Fox were additional Pro Tools engineers; the latter on "Release Me" and the former on "My Racing Thoughts", "Television", "Amy, I", "People, Running", and "Amelia Jean". Chris Lord-Alge mixed the recordings at Mix LA, where he was assisted by Keith Armstrong, Nik Karpen, Brad Townsend and Andrew Schubert. The recordings were mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound.
Composition Music People and Things has been classed as alternative rock and has drawn comparisons with the works of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Elton John. McMahon took inspiration from some of his favorite musicians, such as Joel, Paul Simon and Neil Young, as well as newer music by bands including Mumford & Sons, Phoenix and Arcade Fire. He leaned towards his favorite musicians because he was aware of the popularity of indie music at the time and wanted to do something different. Compared to the band's past works, the piano was not at the forefront of the songs, something McMahon approached from a production viewpoint rather than a self-serving one. He wanted an organic feeling that worked for each track, which meant viewing songs from the other instruments' perspectives. The album's songs were focused around the vocals and instrumental arrangements were focused around the lyrics. Most of the tracks were written by McMahon alone, with the exception of "Television", "Amy, I", "People, Running" and "Platform Fire".
McMahon co-wrote "Television" with Jaren Johnston of American Bang, and "Amy, I", "People, Running" and "Platform Fire" with Matt Thiessen of Relient K in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2010. In addition to their regular roles, McMahon and Anderson performed extra instrumentation; McMahon played percussion on "My Racing Thoughts" and "Television", and keyboards on "My Racing Thoughts", "Television", "People, Running" and "Hostage"; Anderson arranged the strings on "Hey Hey Hey (We're All Gonna Die)" and played bass on "Amelia Jean". Pierce played guitar on every track except for "Restless Dream", which solely features Anderson on acoustic guitar. Session musician Jamie Muhoberac added keyboards to most of the tracks while McMahon and Warren handled the remainder, and played a B3 Hammond organ on "My Racing Thoughts", "Hey Hey Hey (We're All Gonna Die)" and "People, Running". Chaney played bass guitar on almost all of the tracks, except "Amelia Jean", on which it was played by Anderson, and "Restless Dream", on which it was played by Wirt.
Lyrical themes Discussing the album's title, People and Things, McMahon said he loved the starkness of the two words' adjacency, which he has said references the tone of the songs and the transparency of love from a different viewpoint. McMahon thought of the title while working on the band's seventh EP Dear Jack EP (2009) in a studio with Dean. He viewed the album's release as the final part of the Jack's Mannequin story, which was initially intended to only last for one album. Everything in Transit deals with McMahon's break-up with his girlfriend, whom he would eventually marry. Due to his experience with leukemia in 2005, he felt there was a lack of closure that extended the Jack's Mannequin story over three albums. The Glass Passenger is mostly about the aftermath of his leukemia diagnosis.
People and Things is a relationship record, for which McMahon's goal was to swap the "flowery language and sentiment" of new love with "starker, less blinded language about more binding love". Following the release of The Glass Passenger, his friends had got married and found jobs; McMahon said marriage is a "bit of a beast" to talk about on an album but admitted that when he wrote "My Racing Thoughts", the size of the subject of marriage became apparent to him. A lot of the material on People and Things was subsequently centered around the first few years of his marriage. Family and the difficulties of maintaining a relationship are also themes included on the album.
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