(Re)Discovering Jimmy Eat World

Last night concluded a year-long journey into a world that I missed in the early aughts. As my musical tastes were shifting away from metal, I got into some more mainstream rock, and though I loved Jimmy Eat World's The Middle, I somehow just never bought the album. Napster let me access other tracks of theirs and I played around with their catalog a bit, but never made the jump. Last year, my wife sees I have their songs on my phone and was like "I didn't know you liked them?" They were one of her favorite bands growing up. Four albums later, I'm hooked.

The first purchase was the obvious choice of Bleed American which now ranks among the best albums of that era in my mind. I knew half the album already from the radio, soundtracks, and pirating, but the other half is even better - the quieter tunes like Cautioners are just stellar.

I decided to take a step back in their catalog and get Static Prevails without understanding that it was pretty much a different band at that point (evolution-wise, not band members) and the LP just didn't click with me. My wife will put it on now and then, but it doesn't register.

Then she says, "I have a copy of another album someone burned for me." And within the first 15 seconds of Futures, I was a forever fan. That opening riff is just a monster - among the best ever - and the rest of the album is consistently superb, if possibly just a little more on the poppy and less plaintive side.

My wife found out they were coming to town, so we found their latest, Integrity Blues, at the local CD store. It is a great album, but it definitely has a same-y feel to most of the tracks, and the inspired and energetic feel of the earlier albums just isn't there. That said, it is a great listen and the preceding comments are more a reflection of how excellent Bleed American and Futures are than this being a bad album.

We saw them last night, and I am astonished that a frontman who is my age can put out as much energy as Jim Adkins did last night. They were sonically perfect - I don't think I've heard a band sound that good live since I first saw The Joy Formidable six years ago. I'm still digging into the lyrics, but the tunes and melodies were so obviously engaging that even when the audience heard less familiar tracks, they were all on board.

Sadly, they had zero vinyl for sale at the show (which I cannot fathom since they clearly could have sold a couple dozen albums judging from the line at the merch table). Now I find myself looking to buy out the rest of their catalog on LP online. I have heard nothing but raves for Clarity, and both of their more recent albums have really intriguing premises. I've got to grab these before they go out of print and make sure this band gets the money they deserve.

Correction: the money they have earned.

 

Just was listening to Bleed American in my car and wondered what the forums would have to say about this band.

Great record. I mentally associate it with my college years, and the anticipatory view of life that one has at that age.

The CD is more compressed than I’d like. I wonder how the vinyl sounds.

I remember that Futures is also a fantastic record, and the album Clarity is considered an emo classic in some circles.

 

I love ‘Bleed American’, don’t think they’ve bettered it but ‘Futures’ is good and ‘Clarity’ is highly regarded.

 

I have Clarity on CD and I really like it.

To answer your Bleed American question, the vinyl in print currently was cut by Chris Bellman. It does not sound spectacular by any means, as there is probably about 25 minutes crammed on each side and the music was compressed to begin with. Haven't listened in a while, but that is what I remember of it. Will listen again and report if my thoughts are still the same.