Dear Jack EP

Today is November 3rd and you know what that means? The Dear Jack movie, "Swim" art book, and the Dear Jack EP came out. (Does anyone know what EP means?) The Dear Jack movie is about Andrew McMahon's fight with acute lymphatic leukemia. I'm planning on getting it because I forgot to preorder it! (SHOCKING, I KNOW!) Anyways, I'm going to see if Best Buy or Target has it. If they don't, I'll just get it online. Now the "Swim" art book I'm not going to get. I don't need to be reminded about how bad my art is every time I open it up. Plus, I sent in a picture that I drew and it never made it in! (It's my secret shame, that's not that secret anymore...) The Dear Jack EP includes "There, There Katie", "Swim (MusicBox)", "Diane, the Skyscraper" and "Dear Jack", which are all being downloaded on to my ipod right now! "There, There Katie" is for his sister, who donated bone marrow for his treatment. It is one of my absolute favorites by him. The piano music is beautiful and calming. "There, There Katie" was originally called "Katie." I personally thought the song sounded better acoustic. It felt more raw and heartfelt. "Swim (MusicBox" is a lot more calming than the original recording, but I felt the original version was more powerful and inspirational. For some reason "Swim (MusicBox)" reminds me of the sensation of being underwater. "Diane, the Skyscraper" has more of a drumbeat than most of Andrew's other songs.  I'm pretty sure this song was originally just called "Diane." You know how sometimes when you're listening to a song, you just start envisioning what the music video should look like? I felt that the music video should be in black and white, with Andrew walking through New York looking up at the skyscrapers. His breath would leave in wisps of fog in the chilly air and the occasional scenes of him playing at a coffee shop or something of that sort with his band will pop up...And Diane will just walk in. That's about as much as I had planned. "Dear Jack" is set at a faster pace than the rest of the songs and has a bluesy feel to it. A third of the way into it, a slightly country feel hits it. Not the hardcore country about their horses and stuff, but more of a fast paced cheerful country song.  Then half way in, Andrew goes back to his slow powerful ballad ways. Anyways, here is the order in which the songs rank with each other:

• "There, There Katie"
• "Diane, the Skyscraper"
• "Dear Jack" and "Swim (MusicBox)" are tied...