REVIEW: jimmyeatworld, Clarity (Capitol)
- Tracey Bleile
Clarity, the second full-length major release from Tempe, AZ's jimmyeatworld, or Jimmy Eat World, as you like it, was the release that almost wasn't. Or was it? I digress. The album was suffering from the strangest sort of sophomore jinx - not that it was coming out to a chorus of boos and hisses, rather, dead silence. Word on the street was their major wasn't going to support another release after Static Prevails faded from view way too fast. The band was working their asses off anyway, after a long break following Static. They hooked up with Gainesville, Florida indie Fueled By Ramen and cut a kick-ass self-titled EP. The story gets weirder here, so stay with me.
This punk-inspired, poetically-informed groups of guys have a little tune on this EP. Let's put it this way. If John Hughes were makin' a cut-across-all-clique-lines teen movie now like he did when I was watching them, this would be the straight-shooting, can't shake that melody credit-roller. Only a 1,000 copies of the EP were slated to be pressed. Seems a section of hell was indeed destined to freeze over. When an ambitious and intrigued DJ from the monolithic KROC in L.A. got their hands on the EP, they heard this song. Started playing it. Next thing you know, it gets added. Kiss of life. Goes into heavy rotation; a giant segment of an important musical market is hearing this song (at a minimum) 10 times a day. Kiss of eternal life. Guess who anted up to make sure this full-length release will indeed get the major support it deserves, after all?
"Lucky Denver Mint" is just one prime example of what was already great and shows so much growth in this band. The restless, driving percussive backdrop (courtesy of Zach Lind's two-fisted assault) of "Lucky" is matched beat for beat with the heavy bassline (Rick Burch more than holds up his half of the rhythm) and speed-strummed (not thrashed) guitar. The band's obsession with patterns, like modern dancers, takes percussion and rhythm like dance steps, playing the same riff/same beat the same for ways, which ties back to the same essential moves within the same piece. You can count the beats clearly in every single song, in true metronome fashion, to great hypnotizing effect. "For Me This Is Heaven" (another holdover from the EP) takes a simple heavy guitar line and balances it with a clean, simple piano arrangement that makes your throat ache every time you listen to it. These songs show how clearly the band has learned the value (intrinsic and musical) of holds and pauses within the music itself. They've listened to their U2, circa Joshua Tree, the Cure, et al, and have picked up on the legacy of where music was heading in the very early 90s and brought it alive in time for the end of the decade.
The band breathes the essence of punk, but feeds on the elements of surprise, and are quick-change artists at heart (a trait they've probably had from day one, it was what made Static shine, and works to even greater effect here): quiet opening verse, one perfect bass line, tinkling piano or xylophones, dramatic violins and cello, sweet-sung vocals. Then it all suddenly explodes as Jim Adkins' puts his permanently-high-register reaching voice over the top and Tom Linton stomps on his wah-wah, and sends you staggering back a step or so. All of these elements come to bear at the album's mid-point, with a seven-minute raging and whispering beauty,"Just Watch The Fireworks", which builds and builds and then fades back, violins and xylophone and piano playing a delicate counterpoint to crashing drums. Philharmonic Punk Pop? Can't encapsulate it with a tag, I'm just here to try and interpret for you.
More than a mere title, Clarity is a theme at work. Every song takes a moment in time, just like that mythical Hughes movie, and with a song like "Crush", brings you to that terrible split-second when you realized that that one person is never gonna feel like you do, and sets it to music. "Simple discourse breaks you clean in half / Regret / Do try it once and then you know / Your move / Settle for less again" Adkins voice rails, and then trails away.
The delicious ironic and snarling "Your New Aesthetic" is the band's call to radio and music's consumers to be more open, ready and willing to new things, and at the same time rejects the "flavor of the week" mentality. Given the fact that "Lucky Denver Mint" puts them on the horns of that very dilemma, I will make my semi-annual plea that programmers keep looking for depth, because this band has it to spare. Failing that, it's up to you to dig for the good stuff. Clarity gives with every fiber of its existence, and jimmyeatworld welcomes you in to get what you need. Feel free to stay as long as you like.
