Jimmy Eat World
Clarity
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Jimmy Eat World
Clarity
Capitol, 1999
RiYL: Counting Crows, Sugar, The Verve Pipe |
To be fair, there are a few pretty solid rock songs on Clarity, the Arizona band's second major-label record for Capitol. And indeed, Jimmy Eat World's sincere and humorless lyrics do at least offer a salient alternative to the trademark modern-rock crap of Third Eye Blind or Matchbox 20. Although the band would probably be loathe to admit it, this is emo with a capital E -- the kind of music (all wailed singing by the two vocalists and power-chord riffing from the guitarists) that packs general-admission venues with adoring teenagers. It isn't hard to picture songs like "For Me This Is Heaven" or the admittedly catchy "Lucky Denver Mint" soundtracking a prom or the final scene of a lovey-dovey teen movie.
Without speculating as to the band's amount of pandering to its audience, there's simply no real rock muscle to be flexed on Clarity. All too often the band opts for ineffectual, gooey choruses like the one on "Believe In What You Want," or momentum-draining excursions like "A Sunday" (save the string section for the fifth album, fellas) and the break-up-with-your-girlfriend anthem "Table For Glasses." Although Jimmy Eat World plays with a hell of a lot of conviction, one can only imagine a band like Sugar stomping these guys into the ground in the power-pop battle royale of the week.
When the band kicks up some dust, the results are definitely above average, like the propulsive "Crush," the kinda punk "Blister" or "Your New Aesthetic," which does a pretty good Jawbox impression with its "dissonant" riffing and back-and-forth singing from Jim Adkins and Tom Linton. But as has already been pointed out by a number of reviewers, Jimmy Eat World sports neither a distinctive enough sound or a reservoir of dynamism to overcome its prominent lack of cajones. Pardon me while I go crank Sugar's Copper Blue right quick.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"