The four Californians of Jack’s Mannequin have finally popped out full-length baby, People and Things. While this child of an album sounds like it was born somewhere between 1984 and 1995, the band’s sound hasn’t lost its feel-good, road trip vibe. From the first track, “Racing Thoughts” to the second, “Release Me,” and through the third, “Television,” the band bridges a couple of decades with happy chord progressions, catchy staccato piano riffs, and U2 digital delay guitar leads.

Some say that an album needs to find a sound and stick with it. Not to say that Jack’s Mannequin doesn’t do this in some sense, there’s something to be said for taking a listener on a musical journey. The first three tracks to do this seamlessly. Singer, Andrew McMahon, has a quirky roughness to his voice that keeps People and Things from becoming a young girl/mom album. But for those who have an affinity for McMahon’s pop-punkishness in Something Corporate, there may be some auditory adjusting to do.

McMahon’s more soulful side is showcased in “Amy I,” the fourth track on the full-length. Lyrically, there’s a coldness – “North came South at the tops of the trees. // Another long winter; trying to fight this freeze” – while melodically there’s a warmth. The vocals, both lead and backup, could work alone with McMahon’s piano progression. But the simplicity of Jay McMillan’s in-the-pocket drum technique and Bobby Anderson’s guitar riffs really make for the “road trip” nature of the song and the first half of the album.

For the most part, People and Things seems to cast a warm, orange glow over the eardrums of its listeners. “People Running,” perhaps one of the best songs on the record, follows suit. Despite sounding like a Boy Meets World theme song, the band succeeds in layering quality musicianship and to-the-point lyrics – “You take your girlfriend to a drug deal, fall in love // And now she wears a diamond ring.” Despite the specificity of most of the album’s lyrics, they flow like a summer love story.

“Hey Hey Hey (We’re All Gonna Die)” has a different effect. There’s an existentially anthemic quality that works strangely well with strings and McMahon’s classic Elton John piano lines. While the former half of the album tends towards high quality musicianship, production, and lyrics, the rest of the album falls a bit flat in the edginess department, a.k.a. Mom Radio Station material.

“Amelia Jean” has soaring vocals and wholesome chord progressions that aren’t roughened up at all by the lyrics. The song acts more as a downward sloping kiddy slide into less challenging song-writing techniques. “Platform Drive” doesn’t appear to fall short lyrically in the beginning, but melodically and musically, Jack’s Mannequin doesn’t showcase their ability to make love songs cool. Predictable chord progressions and eventually-unsatisfying lyrics don’t make for a good drive home, cup of coffee, walk in the park, or anything, really.

People and Things reverts back to the premodern nineties sentiments with “Hostage.” Who ever thought traveling back to the nineties would be a saving grace? The song will remind fans of McMahon’s performance in Something Corporate – a little angsty and a little sweet. The song’s instrumentation builds, utilizing every band member’s talents to the maximum. Feel-good nation is back.

The album takes a Simon and Garfunkel approach with the acoustic track “Restless Dream.” It is, hands down, the most beautiful song on the album, and won’t in any universe fall into the overly-sappy, poorly-constructed love song category. While the guitar picking sounds like a 1960s acoustic ballad, lyrically, there’s a bold, Avett Brothers sentiment – “And so I write to this address that I don’t know. // You said you had to leave when we lost track. // So, if you hear this on the radio, I said it now and there’s no turning back.”

The heart-wrenching “Restless Dream” should have been followed with something to jolt the album back into its happy-go-lucky nature. But Jack’s Mannequin ends the album with “Casting Lines,” a safe, unexciting blur of simple piano lines, easy harmonies, and ambiguous lyrics. While the song could definitely succeed in the sad scene of some Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy, it doesn’t tie together what People and Things seemed to be doing in its first half: creating music that imitates what love feels like. That is wholesome yet divergent in its sentiment; warm yet cold in its undertones; simple yet layered in its mysticism; beautiful.

★★★.5/★★★★★

*This review was composed by Cydney Hedgpeth