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CD Review
Publisher: Interscope records
Mon, 10 January 2005
by: Fazz
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Jimmy Eat World blazed onto the scene a few years back, revolutionizing the Emo scene. After several split EPs and small budget releases the band released “Static Prevails” and followed shortly with “Clarity” featuring the hit single “Lucky Denver Mint”. Next up was the award-winning “Bleed American” which had to be renamed “Jimmy Eat World” after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
After almost 4 years and constant touring the band decided to release their 4th full-length studio album. “Futures” is the amazing follow-up to “Bleed American”. The album opens with the blistering guitar riffs of the title track, “Futures”. As with the opening title track of “Bleed American” (later renamed “Salt, Sweat, Sugar”) it truly is a killer first track. Jim Adkins’ stunning vocals carry you straight into what promises to be another brilliant album by the band who some say (and I concur, not one artist has come close) re-invented the Emo genre.
Next up is “Just Tonight”, a song that proves that Jimmy Eat World can be as dark and disturbing as they can be poppy and lighthearted. This track features more layered heavy guitar sounds and dissonant vocal melodies reminiscent of their earlier releases.
Up third we have “Work” (what is it with these 1-word titles?). This song is the complete antithesis of its forerunner. Mellow guitars and uplifting vocals transport us into a chorus that is almost heartfelt enough to bring a tear to the eye.
A choppy acoustic guitar riff moves us into the 4th track, “Kill”. By this stage you’re wondering where all these mellow tracks are coming from until the chorus of “Kill” breaks and reminds you of the catchy lines from “Lucky Denver Mint”. “The World You Love” is the 5th track from this epic release. It represents the point in the album where the songs begin to get lighter and less brooding. It still retains the classic Jimmy Eat World massive guitar-ridden pre-choruses and choruses that all of us who have been long-time fans have come to expect. It truly is the sort of song that makes you feel glad to be alive.
Next up we have “Pain”, the hit single that blistered into our consciousness in late 2004. This brutally dark and heavy song was also featured on last years console release of “Tony Hawk Underground 2” (thanks for the tip off Jamie). This would have to be my personal favorite song on this album.
Crossing the threshold into the second half of the album is the vastly different “Drugs or Me”. Relaxed piano and sampling feature heavily in this song, which moves slowly and surely into “Polaris”. “Polaris” is yet another more laid back clean guitar song. It features some fantastic lead guitar work that reminds me very much of U2 and other bands who use that soaring guitar and vocal style in such a brilliant way. At this stage we’re heading towards the end of the record, and in keeping with the style of the rest of the record we have “Nothingwrong”, another bastardly heavy awesome rock song that gets your head nodding and toe tapping. “Nothingwrong” would probably be the heaviest rock track on the whole album, so definitely check this one out.
Beautiful vocal harmonies and more acoustic guitars introduce us into “Night Drive”, which, like many of the tracks earlier in the record, is the complete opposite of the song preceding it. If you expected an easily flowing record that moves predictably all the way through from start to finish, forget it!
“23” (no, not Michael Jordan’s old number) is the second last song on the album. It starts with a really nice guitar and string part which again reminds me of some U2 and Dire Straits releases. Yet again this band continues to amaze me by writing material that is totally unlike their past releases yet still keeps true to the bands vision, sound and feel. Finally, marked as a Bonus Track, we have “Shame”, the utterly excellent closing song on this record. Again it’s completely dissimilar to older Jimmy Eat World tracks using huge drum overdubs with relatively thin guitar and vocal parts until the chorus breaks and the whole sound meshes together. This song kind of reminds me of some of the stuff featured on “Clarity”, which is cool, as “Clarity” is my favorite Jimmy Eat World release to date. The disk also includes the token multimedia contents and allows you access to a “secret site”. This site allows you to download rare and unreleased material and demos by the band during rehearsal and pre-production for “Futures”.
Overall this album is truly great. It took me a few listens to familiarize myself with the newer material, but after a couple of runs it becomes impossible to stop listening. Instead of going with the concise layout of a tried and true pop-rock record as they did with “Bleed American”, they’ve brought all the best elements from all their past releases and rolled them into what is, without question, one of the best rock albums released in late 2004. I would highly recommend this purchase to any fan of modern rock and emo.
by: Fazz
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