Gym Class Heroes

McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley developed the group in Geneva, New York. The Papercut Chronicles, released in 2005, brought the band to a wider audience through the Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen connection. Its songs made space for more personal and uneasy material than the playful presentation of the later singles might initially suggest.

Cupid's Chokehold, with Patrick Stump singing the central refrain drawn from Supertramp's Breakfast in America, became the signature breakthrough. The recognisable melody creates an immediate point of entry, but McCoy's detail and timing determine the character around it. As Cruel as School Children followed in 2006, with Clothes Off!! providing another sharply defined meeting between a rap verse and a pop hook.

The Quilt arrived in 2008, including Cookie Jar with The-Dream. The record widened the range of collaborators while keeping the band's musical identity in view. A guest singer could change the surface of a track considerably, but the rhythmic ease of McCoy's delivery and the instrumental foundation gave the sequence a consistent centre.

The Papercut Chronicles II followed in 2011. Stereo Hearts, featuring Adam Levine, became the most prominent single, with Ass Back Home and The Fighter showing other uses for the guest-vocal format. The band's catalogue is especially interesting where the chorus offers simple reassurance and the verses introduce a more complicated person behind it. That space between the two gives the records more character than their hooks alone.