The Scoop News 10.04
Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Let's make no mistake about it - The Scoop News is a big fan of the Jimmy. We have reviewed two of their latest CDs in the last couple of years and gave them both five stars. With this review, I mark the third consecutive Scoop reviewer to give a Jimmy Eat World CD five stars? why? Let's break it down all nice and simple like.

I may be one of the only "indie-rock" people on this planet that doesn't mistake musical growth for selling out. The last album Jimmy, Bleed American, was almost a complete departure from the album before it, the indie-rock desert island disc Clarity. This change in sound (read: growth) alienated a lot of Jimmy's long time fans but at the same time introduced the band to the mainstream radio listeners. Why bring up the past? Well, because I'm afraid this album will do some more alienating, only the other way around. Futures will be much more difficult as a whole for the radio listeners to grasp on to. As far as musical progression, this disc is a step back (if you can call it a step back), away from the popy Bleed American and back towards the openness of Clarity.

The songs on Futures are a lot less catchy and a lot more expansive. It seems the band has found a happy medium between Bleed American and Clarity? and it sounds fucking incredible. This is most evident on the songs "Drugs or Me" and "Kill." Please note that in this statement I'm not even counting the song "23." That's because I have become convinced that it was accidentally left off of Clarity.

The pop element is still there in all the songs and it manifests itself most aggressively on the album's title track, "Futures" and the first single "Pain." At times the album is also heavier than any of the previous discs. "Nothingwrong" is a pounding anthem about? politics! Did I mention that the album is also heavily political? If not, well? it is. And for those who say "keep politics out of music" need I remind you where rock and roll came from? Ok, is that all settled then? Let's move on.

All that said, there is another thing about this CD that puts it over the top - it's just a great sounding record. All the songs are extremely well crafted and fall along damn near perfect sequencing on the album. The engineering and sound design on the CD is flawless and better than any of the band's past discs. This says a lot considering the band fired long time collaborator/producer, Mark Trombino, while recording.

The album is full of amazing songs without a single skip track on the disc? although there almost was one. Originally a song called "Jen" was to be included on the disc but thankfully it got cut by the band. That is a really good thing. "Jen" is all pop and in the spirit of "The Middle" from Bleed American. The song just doesn't fit with the rest of the album (read: because it's not very good).

This CD is easily one of the best released this year and definitely worth buying. And if you are really curious, you can find the song "Jen" on the internet.

by: Eric Blair