DVD Josh

Jimmy Eat World Readies 'Chase This Light'
By: Chad | Source: Jimmy Eat World Official Website


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Sunday, June 03, 2007

Jimmy Eat World have begun mixing a follow-up to their gold-certified 2004 release, "Futures." The album, titled "Chase This Light," tentatively is due out in September.

"At this point in the record-making process, I always get this deep feeling of excitement," Jim Adkins writes in an online post, "as if I am the only one who knows a cool secret."

"We have learned a lot making this album and hopefully, we will not take so long between records again." Adkins went on to say.

The band has not revealed a track listing or first single for the album yet, but they are asking fans to suggestion cover songs they could potentially use a B-sides. Fans can post their suggestions on the band's message board at:

Dan1boy

sweet !! great news! thx for the heads up Josh.

mdc3000

I love JEW so I am really looking forward to this one...I pretty much listen to 'Futures' at least twice a month since it came out and I'll definitely catch them live when they hit the road again.

TripWire

I kinda hope they didn't go too poppy with this album, Futures was bordering it with me. I am a big fan of Clarity..I am hoping having Butch Vig at the helm keeps this album rockin.

firteen88

can't wait for this one.

Josh H

Will look forward to this. Futures is a great album.

cungar

This is a band I've never listened to because of their stupid name. Am I missing something?

Josh H

Yes, IMHO. Should check out a couple of tracks and see if they're your bag. "Futures" and "Kill" are two of my faves.

DVD Josh

Well, if it means anything to you, I don't know what the hell a cungar is but I still talk to you

You really are. This is a phenomenal band that grows with each release.

Rocketdog2000

Agreed. It was in the top 5 albums of my annual "Best Of Year" ending list when it was released.

mdc3000

Got tix to see them November 1...really excited. Big Casino has been getting a lot of play on iTunes for me lately and just heard the rest of the album... really liking the new material. 2 weeks until the album hits stores - I can't wait!

Superman07

Picked this and only gave it a half hearted listen through so far since time was short. I liked what I heard. So far I'm liking this album over Futures. Perhaps it is more of a regression than a progression, but I'm not entirely sure what that has ever meant. If you like a band, you like them for their "sound" - although I suppose that's a conversation for another thread.

DVD Josh

I dig the album, but it's not BA or Futures in any way. Big Casino is the hit song that the Middle is, and I don't care for either for the same reasons. There are some great deeper cuts on the record, but these guys deliver what you expect - guitar driven pop rock. Great for a car ride.

U6C84

I love this cd, but I love all their cd's.

slymer

I agree. I never really got into "Futures" as much as I did "Clarity" and "Bleed American". "Chase this Light" has more of a "Bleed American" sound in my opinion. I've listened to it twice so far and love it.

mdc3000

I'm in the love it and love all their stuff group, but I'm surprised people didn't get into Futures...IMO it's one of the most 'complete' albums I've ever heard...a nearly perfect experience. Anyhow I'm really getting into Chase this Light and my faves right now are easily Gotta Be Somebody's Blues, Here it Goes and Chase this light...but like I said, I'm enjoying the whole thing at the moment.

TripWire

I guess I'm not understanding why you guys like this album so much. Jimmy Eat World has gotten more poppier and straightforward lyrically over the years, I don't hear any aspects of what I liked off Clarity or Bleed American. His voice in the mix is just too out front for me and too polished sounding. And the songs I just find pretty uninteresting especially compared to Clarity.

I suppose I am the only one who is feeling JEW got worse with each album.
Dare I say I liked em when they were more emo than pop?

Rocketdog2000

I guess it's more a matter of perspective than anything else. I suppose it depends on when you discovered the band. Personally, I also dislike when anyone slaps the "emo" tag onto them - but then I just hate that tag in general.

As for their albums (and not counting their EPs and singles), the way I see them is as such...

Static Prevails - Promising debut, but overall, the sound of a band who haven't quite figured out what they want to be yet.

Clarity - Getting there, but not quite yet. There's definitely some standout tracks - i.e. "Lucky Denver Mint", "A Sunday", "For Me This Is Heaven" - but I still didn't think they were reaching what they could be capable of yet. But, some folks feel quite differently about it. Comparatively, I would liken this album to Weezer's Pinkerton, in that people are fairly divided on how they feel about it.

Bleed American (or s/t, depending on when you got it) - They finally hit their stride, and a home run. They've fully realized their 'sound', but also proven they can reach a mass audience without really selling out. I can find just about nothing wrong with this album. It's solid all the way through. Not a single duff song on it.

Futures - Realizing that they were capable of mainstream success, they wanted to show they could still be experimental. With this album, they try some new things, while keeping just enough of what made Bleed American popular, and also throw in some nods to the style of Clarity. Personally, it was another winner for me. It built upon the solid foundation of the previous album, and proved they could go even further.

Chase This Light - Now that I've had the better part of a week to digest it, I feel I can weigh in with a proper opinion on their latest. I'm fairly inclined to agree with DVD Josh's assessment, however, I'd also add the following. It seems like they were trying to reign the sound back in a bit. Maybe they thought they went too far out stylistically with Futures, so they scaled things back to a more Bleed American approach. And while it doesn't quite hit the same on either level - it's still delivers as an overall effort, and in the band's consistency. I like the second half of the disc more. "Gotta Be Somebody's Blues" has all the best qualities of what I enjoyed most about Futures, while "Here It Goes" still shows the band is willing to try on different sounds. The title track, and in particularly "Dizzy", are what I would consider the quintessential Jimmy Eat World sound. The latter track is now among one of my favorites the band have ever done - when I think about what I want to hear out of this band, this is it.

I haven't seen that it's been mentioned yet, but thought it was something folks should be aware of. If you happen to buy the CD at an indie store, most of them are/were also giving away a bonus single called "Open Bar Reception" with it. It's a shame this tune didn't make it onto the album, as it is remarkably great, too, and would have made the album that much better. Track it down if you can find it, because it's very much worth hearing and having.