Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window

Around the time that this album was released, I came to the realization that nearly every band on Drive-Thru Records had a lead singer that sounded exactly like every other lead singer on Drive-Thru Records. This phenomenon even went a little outside the Drive-Thru stable as every pop punk band started to sound exactly the same. So when I bought this album, I bought it because I saw something in it that was more intriguing than the fact that you could replace Andrew McMahon's vocals with Jordan Pundik's (of New Found Glory) and nobody would be the wiser.

Andrew McMahon's VORP (yeah, I went Sabremetric) is better than average, not because of his singing, but because of his piano chops. I won't be the first to say it, but Andrew McMahon is to pop punk what Ben Folds is to whatever genre it is that he's a part of. Leaving Through the Window is the perfect blend of pop punk and piano rock. Sure, it's a little cheesy in places because it's part of a genre that trades in cheese, but it's also a really really solid album that should appeal to the non-pop punk loving crowd (which is pretty much everyone over the age of 20 at this point). Oh, and "I Kissed a Drunk Girl" is in the top 3 best songs pop punk has ever produced. It might be #1, but I've still got a few more CD's to review before I can state that definitively.