Leaving Through the Window

Background

After finalising their line-up, Something Corporate began performing at local venues, eventually gaining support slots for groups such as Better Than Ezra and Sugar Ray. Shortly afterwards, the band signed to independent label Drive-Thru, and released the EP Audioboxer in late 2001.

Composition

The album includes three songs ("Punk Rock Princess", "If You C Jordan" and "Hurricane") from the band's Audioboxer EP, as well as re-recordings of three songs ("Cavanaugh Park", "Straw Dog" and "Drunk Girl") from their 2000 self-released album Ready... Break .

Partington described the album as a "conglomeration of songs that were anywhere from three months to three years old ... like a greatest hits of our early stuff."

Release

Drive-Thru had a distribution deal with major label MCA, which allowed the latter to upstream bands from the former. Leaving Through the Window was released on May 21, 2002 as a joint release between Drive-Thru and MCA. Between late June and mid-August, the group went on the 2002 edition of Warped Tour. In October and November, the band went tour across the U.S. alongside New Found Glory, Finch and Further Seems Forever. In January and February 2003, the band went on a co-headlining tour of the U.S. with The Juliana Theory, with support from Vendetta Red and Red West. On March 31, "If You C Jordan" was released as a single. On April 22, "Punk Rock Princess" was released as a single.

Reception

Richard Abowitz of Rolling Stone noted that the band crafted "suburban ennui and high school angst into slick, hummable punk." He mentioned that McMahon's song writing was "the secret weapon," calling it "derivative, but not boring."

Leaving Through the Window charted at number 101 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 12,000 copies in its first week. It also charted at number 1 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. "Punk Rock Princess" charted at number 33 in the UK. "If You C Jordan" charted at number 29 on the Alternative Songs chart and number 68 in the UK. By June 2005, album sales stood at 291,000 copies. BuzzFeed included the album at number 24 on their "41 Pop-Punk Albums All 2000s Kids Loved" list.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Andrew McMahon, except where noted.; all music composed by Something Corporate.