Something Corporate lacks original sound

posted September 30, 2002

by Kalani Leifer of Campanile

Something Corporate's debut album, Leaving Through the Window, is what a bad fusion of Elton John and Blink 182 would sound like. That is, the moving piano of the British-rock legend is combined with the cheap lyrics and ordinary guitars of modern-day punk rockers.

Something Corporate, including members Brian Ireland, Andrew McMahon, Josh Partington, William Tell and Patrick Warren, makes the mistakes that so many other would-be-great rock bands make, namely following the overused formula for a pop hit. The first track, "I Want To Save You," can easily be confused with popular songs by The Calling, American Hi-Fi and Lifehouse. In a rant about a nameless lost girl that they wish they could rescue from the toils of life, lead singer McMahon sings, "She drives away/She's feeling worthless/Used again but nothing's different/She stayed the night/But knows he doesn't care."

The titles of many tracks are simply shameful. For example, "Punk Rock Princess," "I Woke Up In A Car" and "Drunk Girl" make the listener wonder how the band got a respectable record deal in the first place. "I kissed a drunk girl/I kissed a drunk girl yes I did/Kissed a drunk girl on the lips." How much more ridiculous could three lines be? They're hardly worth the plastic used to make the compact disc. At the conclusion of "Drunk Girl," it is hard to tell if they just played "Girl at the Rock Show" by Blink 182.

In addition to the lost-girl cliché and the thoughtless waste of vinyl tracks, there are several other start-up rock band recipes. For instance, the songs "Hurricane" and "Fall" describe negative relationships between the lead singer and yet more nameless girls. Again, The Calling might as well sing these songs, because they are disturbingly similar to their track "Adrienne." The major problem with Leaving Through the Window is its redundancy among the tracks and with other rock bands. However, amid the many flaws of Something Corporate's debut effort, there are a few lyrical and musical diamonds in the rough. The song "Cavanaugh Park" strikes the right chords and hits the right keys with its dominant piano. The words contain a welcome amount of depth and originality. "At Cavanaugh Park/Where you used to take me/To play in the sand/And said to me, ‘Son, one day you'll be a man/And men can do terrible things'/Yes they can," McMahon sings.

Despite the obvious faults in Something Corporate's debut, it is an album that will appeal to fans of Blink 182, Sum 41 and American Hi-Fi. However, fans of the truly great rock acts, such as Green Day, should avoid this album because the generic compostion would not suit them. Leaving Through the Window is a good bet for any middle-school guy; it seems in the end that this is the audience that the album is directed to.