Welcome to Best Of… a playlist featuring the best tracks from certain artists picked by friends, readers and staff of Punktastic. This month on we have Rob Barbour taking on Jimmy Eat World.
Jimmy Eat World straddle demographics like an over-confident cowboy riding two horses at once. They’re the band your poetry-writing, heartbroken emo friend rocks out to and the band your riff-loving metalhead friend has a little cry to; they’re quite simply one of the best American rock bands of the last 20 years. The best, but not the coolest. Never the coolest. It’s this utter disregard for trends which has ironically seen them cited as an influence by countless buzz bands bursting out of the punk rock scene, many of whom disappear back into it just as quickly.
Received wisdom holds the holy trinity of records the band released between 1999 and 2004 – ‘Clarity’, ‘Bleed American’ and ‘Futures’ – to be the band’s peak, and true to this when I took to Facebook to gauge my friends’ views on the ultimate ‘Best Of’ playlist every person I spoke to chose one of those three albums as their favourite. But trying to reach consensus on twelve vital songs resulted in a 50+ comment thread in which songs I’d never think to include were held up as sacrosanct and my sanity questioned for excluding them.
They’re a band who elicit strong feelings, then. And while this playlist is by no means perfect* – ignoring as it does several albums and EPs – it’s a great place to start. If you don’t like these songs, you won’t like this band. But if you do, then I urge to delve deeper; your ears and your heart will thank you.
Bleed American (From ‘Bleed American’, 2001)
For many Jimmy Eat World fans, this track is where it all began for them. A surprise hit for a band who’d had to ask their previous label to drop them, taken from an album recorded on tick by producer Mark Trombino. It’s also the song that jump-started a stalling career and cemented the band as the soundtrack to countless early-millennial adolescent experiences and it still sounds killer almost fifteen years later.
Lucky Denver Mint (From ‘Clarity’, 1999)
In many ways a microcosm of the album, ‘Clarity’, from which it’s taken, ‘Lucky Denver Mint’ combines minimalist programming, heartfelt vocals and chunky, driving guitars without ever sounding trite or obvious. And when you do hear something familiar – the jangly, indie-inflected intro, or the muted break into the final chorus – it’s probably because ten bands you love have ‘borrowed’ it.
Futures (From ‘Futures’, 2004)
Strange to say it now, but many people were genuinely concerned that JEW wouldn’t be able to satisfactorily follow up the near-flawless ‘Bleed American’. For a band already on their second chance, failure to do so would surely have been fatal. The solution? Scrapping almost an entire album’s worth of material midway through production and starting from scratch. A huge, tumbling riff dragging behind it a richly-harmonised chorus, ‘Futures’ is the sound of a band at their peak and loving every second.
For Me This Is Heaven (from ‘Clarity’, 1999)
Prior to ‘Clarity’, co-vocalist Jim Adkins’ voice had been far less prominent and much, much rougher around the edges. Songs like ‘For Me This Is Heaven’, with its none-more-emo lyrics (cheesy when written down but just perfect when sung) announced the arrival of a new poster boy for guitar-backed heartache. Like so much of their material, it’s best experienced live. “Can you still feel the butterflies?” Every time, Jim. Every time.
Blister (From ‘Clarity’, 1999)
Erstwhile lead singer Tom Linton’s sole lead vocal contribution to the ‘Clarity’ album, ‘Blister’ showcases JEW’s punk rock roots with its fast pace and fuzzy, interwoven guitars. In lesser hands, the question “How long would it take me to walk across the United States all alone?” would sound like an ill-advised ice breaker at a corporate away day. But as ever, Jimmy Eat World manage to make it vital and life-affirming. One of my favourite songs of all time.
A Praise Chorus (From ‘Bleed American’, 2001)
This was the first Jimmy Eat World song I ever heard, on a Kerrang! cover CD in the Summer of 2001. I knew within four seconds that I’d found my new favourite song, and within four minutes my new favourite band. Years later I discovered the end section of the song is a complicated meta reference – using as it does lyrics from bands as diverse as Motley Crue, Madness and The Promise Ring, all sung by the latter band’s Davey von Bohlen; the “Davey” of the lyrics, being asked to “Sing us something that we know”…look, it’s complicated. Just go and listen to it.
Work (From ‘Futures’, 2004)
Again, vintage Jimmy Eat World. Big guitars, even bigger vocal hooks and a heart that’s huger still.
Get It Faster (From ‘Bleed American, 2001)
THAT GUITAR BREAK AT THE BRIDGE. Showing that even ‘emo’ kids can batter your senses with walls built from distorted guitars, ‘Get It Faster’ builds from a moody and atmospheric introduction into the heaviest song on the ‘Bleed American’ album. And it’s absolutely bloody perfect.
Pain (From ‘Futures’, 2004)
‘Futures’ lead-off single, ‘Pain’ met with a mixed response at the time. The simplistic palm-muted riff at the song’s beginning seemed to promise more of the same for fans of ‘Bleed American’, but it carried with it the weight of expectation only a 3-year gestation period can provide. Nothing would have been enough; with a decade of hindsight and within the context of the album though, it’s one of their best songs.
Big Casino (From ‘Chase This Light’, 2007)
They left us waiting another three years after ‘Futures’ before unleashing this monster of a tune. The first time I heard this song was at Reading Festival 2007, when JEW played both a main-stage afternoon set and a headline set in the Lock-Up. So instant was it that both the friend I watched them with and I were singing along the second time we heard it. It’s also been the subject of some bizarre theories regarding its lyrics – a story all about Gerard Way, anyone?
The Authority Song (From ‘Bleed American’, 2001)
It would probably have made this list solely on the strength of the bass slide at the beginning, but thankfully ‘The Authority Song’ follows up on this promise with infuriatingly catchy male-and-female ‘Aye-aye-aye’s, custom-made for enormous audience singalongs. I defy you not to listen to this track without clapping along.
Disintegration (From ‘Stay On My Side Tonight’, 2005)
Closing out my playlist is ‘the controversial choice’. At over 7 minutes and without a riff or heart-lifting harmony in sight, ‘Disintegration’ is far from typical JEW material. It is, however, one of the most deeply affecting and textured songs the band have ever released. Three quarters of them are playing a dark epic about loss and failure while drummer Zach Lind apparently missed the memo and spends seven minutes playing a stadium rock drum intro. That it managed to fly in the face of everything we’d come to expect from the band without sounding like a deviation or a side project speaks volumes for their musical identity.
*Those so inclined can track me down on Twitter for a link to a much more comprehensive playlist taking in more of the band’s back catalogue.