Published on Dec 1, 2004
What’s left to do once you’ve conquered the world?
It’s a question that has troubled many a band over the years.
It’s all too common to see groups reacting to their big break by
spending the next few years either trying too hard to repeat it, or
trying too hard not to. Getting what you’ve been after all those
years — success, acceptance, an audience — can be completely
unnerving.
Three years ago Jimmy Eat World conquered the known rock and
roll universe with the smash album
Bleed American
(retitled
Jimmy Eat World post-9/11) and its Godzilla-sized hit single
“The Middle.” Coming on the heels of a series of setbacks that had
seen the band dropped by Capitol Records, only to be re-signed by
Dreamworks, the success (creative and commercial) of
Bleed American had to be a tremendously satisfying personal
triumph for the band.
The answer to the obvious question — what now? — is
Futures. And it’s a very good answer.
On their three-years-later follow-up, some things have changed
for the boys of Jimmy — Jim Adkins on vocals and guitars, Rick
Burch on bass, Zach Lind on drums, and Tom Linton on guitars and
vocals — and some have stayed the same. The band remains a
tremendously appealing combination of doe-eyed sincerity and heavy,
hooky riffs. What they wisely don’t try to do is recreate the epic
undercurrents of many of the songs on
Bleed American. No, there isn’t a song as instantly
memorable as “A Praise Chorus” here — but neither is there a song
that strives as hard to
be instantly memorable.
Instead what you get is a solid, impressive,
steadily-grows-on-you set from a band that has experienced success
without losing the earnestness that has always been at the core of
its music. I mean, who else in this uber-cynical age could get away
with opening an album with a declaration like “I always believed in
futures”? The surprisingly political title track also includes
lines like “Believe your voice can mean something” in service of a
searching, forward-looking attitude.
Yes, this band is growing up and the music is growing with them,
with a number of songs here narrating transitions to adulthood,
notably “23” and the luminous, melancholy, altogether wonderful
“The World You Love.” The theme doesn’t end there, though; even
relationship songs like “Work” and “Kill” show a recognition of
consequences that is distinctly mature.
Other highlights include: “Night Drive,” a well-crafted
seduction piece full of potent images (“pierce my heart like a
willing arm”); “Pain,” with its dynamic production and hammering
chorus of “It takes my pain away / It’s a lie / A kiss with open
eyes”; and “Polaris,” a gorgeous track on which Tom Linton arguably
does a better job of channeling the airy, epic mid-’80s U2 guitar
sound than The Edge does on U2’s new disc. (For more of the latter,
see also the solo on “Nothingwrong.”)
The danger this band flirts with from time to time is that their
earnestness will drag them down somewhat obvious lyrical paths, as
on the rather maudlin “Drugs Or Me.” Thing is, they’re so good at
selling this kind of song with a fully committed performance that
they can usually get away with it.
Futures is a terrific step forward for one of the best bands
of the new century, an album brimming with youthful rock and roll
energy that also manages to be wise beyond its years. It’s an album
that will make you believe, or at least want to. The world could
use more of them.