According to AbsolutePunk.net, McMahon had this to say about the new album, "I consider 'People and Things' a relationship record. My goal with many of the songs was to strip away the flowery language and sentiment attached to newer love and replace it with starker, less blinded language about more binding love. In the time following the last Jack's album the people in my world were moving in together, getting married, trying to find quote unquote 'real jobs' and reconciling new lives that looked a lot less like youth than some of us cared for. Marriage is a bit of a beast to tackle in a pop record but when I wrote 'My Racing Thoughts,' it became clear how powerful and loaded a subject this kind of love is and somewhere in that moment I began to lock into the broad concept for the writing sessions to come." In another (unrelated) interview, McMahon established "this album should be different than the previous few. The first ("Everything In Transit") was about breaking up, the second ("The Glass Passenger") was about getting sick and recovering from it. I hated that album at first, until we wrote this one ("People and Things") and I then realized how proud I am of all of my work. This album will be much more 'cheery' than the last one(s)."