This Amazon.com exclusive version of Indiana includes a 3-track bonus disc, "B-Sides from Indiana", featuring the songs "Conversations" and "Throwing A Line." The bonus disc is also enhanced with the live performance video for "Industry."Through its emotional ups and downs, its sweeping, hooky and earnest piano-pop, Indiana finds the 24-year-old, Indiana based singer working through romantic tests, and even finds him candidly discussing the status of his young career. "There are songs about relationships, girls, faith, friends, family, and there are even some songs about the music industry," he says. "It's a debut album. Nobody knows how the album's gonna go, I don't know how my career is gonna go, so some songs are about that--me trying to venture out into the big world, and make it work." It's also an album about taking stock of all that's good and bad in your life. McLaughlin dubbed the album Indiana during a point when he was in California and away from his Midwestern hometown for the first time in his life for an extended period of time -- at a time when he was better able to recognize what's beautiful and easily taken for granted in small town America. In the song's sly stanzas, the title track pays homage to his home state, via a string-laden piano ballad. But the songs on Indiana deal in emotions as prevalent in Timbuktu as they are in the heartland: "After all, we're only human," McLaughlin sings in the chorus of the ultra-catchy jewel "Human."
While his friends were cramming economics, science, and business, Jon McLaughlin was studying piano, and his major-label debut confirms that the Indiana-bred singer/songwriter finished at the top of his class. Three years after his self-titled debut, which was the result of a competition triumph at his music school, McLaughlin meshes his upbringing with his adult-life influences (Billy Joel, Ben Folds) for an ambitiously crafted and extrovertly performed album of piano-led rock and balladry. Essentially a memoir for the twenty-something artist, Indiana wanders through admissions and opinions about love, conviction, close acquaintances, and familial bonds. McLaughlin's classical ties are rarely missing and most evident in songs like the good-natured "Industry," the yearning-for-home title track, and "Amelia's Missing," where he shamefully asks, "I can't find my wallet, so how in the hell am I supposed to find the one that I love?" The latter is the kind of heart-on-the-sleeve, fingers-on-the-ivory sincerity that has garnered McLaughlin a loyal contingent wherever he plays--one that's likely to breed as these 13 songs hit the street. --Scott Holter
