Jack's Mannequin - Everything In Transit (20th Anniversary) [Blue]

Andrew McMahon's sun-soaked side project turned into something far heavier than anyone planned, and Everything In Transit now returns for its 20th anniversary on blue vinyl.

McMahon made the record while Something Corporate were on a break, moving back to Orange County and writing with producer Jim Wirt about coming home and watching a long relationship fall apart. Then, shortly before its 2005 release, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The album came out while he was in treatment, and that year has been stitched into how fans hear these bright, anxious songs ever since.

Piano drives everything. "Holiday From Real" opens at a sprint, all pounding chords and sunburnt hooks, while "The Mixed Tape" turns a homemade compilation into a love letter with one of the most singable choruses of its era. "Dark Blue" slows the pulse for some late-night yearning, and "La La Lie" keeps the bounce coming. Patrick Warren's keyboards and strings add colour around the edges, and Tommy Lee drums.

Twenty years on, it is still the record that turned a pop-punk frontman into one of the great piano-rock songwriters of his generation, and the one his fans reach for first when the weather turns warm.

Blue suits it perfectly, a fitting shade for a record so tied to the California coast.