Going through a crucible has the tendency to change a person and make them stronger. That was the case for pop-punk/piano-pop songsmith Andrew McMahon when he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005. The Something Corporate frontman, already the mastermind behind a pair of exceptional LPs with his former band, finished mastering his greatest record, 2005’s Everything in Transit, the day he was diagnosed. Remarkably, the CD still released on schedule, despite the fact that McMahon had to cancel his tours and undergo chemotherapy. Because of that fact, it became the kind of record that transcended its genre. For fans, it was simultaneously an album that could be a personal soundtrack as well as the soundtrack to McMahon’s inspiring rise-from-the-ashes recovery.