Alright, so I'm a lazy bum. I wanted to review this new Jimmy Eat World album while it was still considered a "future" release. I had the good fortune of stumbling across the long-awaited album from the purveyors of catchy singles "The Middle" and "Sweetness", and I just sat on it for too long. But y'know, I'm kind of glad I waited. Early downloaded versions of album tracks can occasionally be misleading. In the case of JEW, they kept everything pretty much the same, only dropping one song that I had seen on the original track listing, so I was able to get a pretty good feel for Futures before it came out this week. But then they went and tacked on a bonus disc in the special edition that featured demos of all 11 songs. And you know, as a songwriter and a reviewer who listens carefully to other people's songs, I appreciate having that perspective.

In case you were hiding out in an anthrax-proof bunker in the year 2002 and have no recollection of ever hearing Jimmy Eat World, let me see if I can sum up. They're a pop/rock foursome from Arizona who somehow got mixed up with the "emo" tag early in their career due to sensitive-guy lyrics and... well, I'm honestly not sure what else. Even in the days of their lesser-known album Clarity, they struck me as having a reasonably polished and accessible sound - I usually associate "emo" with being a little rougher around the edges and more emotionally stark. These guys seemed to have a killer pop sensibility, which only got amplified on their breakthrough album Bleed American (which was later retitled Jimmy Eat World in an attempt to not offend people who were hiding out in anthrax-proof bunkers). Man, did they catch some criticism for compacting their sound on that album. I didn't care much - I still thought the lyrics were intelligently written and the music was solid. So there weren't any drawn out 16-minute songs. Big deal. Maybe I thought they were methodical to a fault about their clean pop/rock approach, but then there were grittier and less predictable entries like "Bleed American" and "Get It Faster" that helped to balance out the sugary fun stuff and the more delicate ballads. It was a good album for a summer romance... or rather, for trying to make up your mind whether you wanted to be in one or not. Yeah, indecisiveness seems to be a big part of JEW's lyrical M.O.

Well, it's the autumn of 2004 now, and Futures is upon us. Maybe it's a coincidence that there was unusually consistent rain in my neck of the, um, city the week this thing was released, but there's definitely a darker shade to this album. I don't know if it's one of those psychological things from examining the black, broken-down looking album cover (thanks to flamepillar for confirming that I'm not the only one crazy enough to think about that) , but you definitely won't find anything approaching the sweetness of, well, "Sweetness" here. That's not to say that the whole disc is downtrodden and hopeless - musically speaking, it's a pretty similar approach and you can even line up a lot of songs from the old album with their sonic counterparts here. I think there's just a greater sense of unease here because Jimmy Eat World is facing the prospect of a future that they can't seem to get too happy about. Part of that apathy is political, and part of it is more personal - a result of being depressed over stuff and using temporary pleasures in a vain attempt to numb the depression. It's not a suicide-inducing listen, but a quick glance at the sticker you might see on the album cover in some stores oughta give you an idea that it's a bit of a downer - "Features 'Pain' and 'Work'". Bummer, dude.

Futures
Say hello to good times, trade up all the fast lines
We close our eyes while the nickel and dime take the streets completely...
A fun enough riff starts the album off - the title track is actually an interesting, semi-political romp of a song that packs a decent punch despite its relatively calm pace. It's a great introduction to Jim Adkins' voice if you've never heard it before - he has a quality that makes him sound like the only football jock in the world who keeps a journal. He and his boys can definitely carry a tune, and sometimes he slips ever so briefly into this more chilling, menacing tune - here, it's just for one note at the beginning of every other line of the verse. Hard to explain, but it's even harder for me to emulate when singing along. Anyway, just as Bleed American led off with what sounded like a bit of social commentary, JEW is attempting to call for political change with this song. It doesn't come out in an obvious, Bush-bashing way, but there are lines like "hope for better in November", "now's the time to disagree", and "believe your votes can mean something" that work for both the specific pro-Kerry stance that the band appears to have and a more general sense of each person having a voice and the ability to use it to effect change. Because they don't get too specific, it saves the song from falling into the obsolete territory that the occasional political U2 song might long after the issue it addresses has been resolved and forgotten. I think the title here might be intended to have a double meaning - usually, when I see the word "futures", I tend to think of the financial term- you know, buying promising stocks and stuff. Since a deteriorating economy appears to be a huge part of the current political debacle, I can't chalk that one up to coincidence.

Just Tonight...
We're all tired of talk when it comes to shove
Put up, put out or stay at home...
More of a driving rock rhythm is established on the second song - it's a got an insistent pace similar to "A Praise Chorus", but this song is a little more moody and minor key. There aren't a lot of lyrics to go by in this one, but the strong electric guitar presence, which includes a simple but effective solo in the middle, more than makes up for that. There's an air of urgency or being rushed into something that comes with this song - it seems like he's trying to pressure a girl to make a decision. He seems frustrated with her, because "I give you everything you want, but you want pain". It's admittedly a bit morbid when he tells her, "I taste you all over my teeth" - I guess that could be interpreted as something as innocuous as a kiss, but for some reason I just get this image of him Chewing her up and spitting her out that I just don't want to think about! Fun song, though. I like the way they play a subtle trick with the chord changes during the bridge - it sounds like they resolve it to a major key instead of minor, and pause briefly before diving back into the song. It should be noted that the original title for this track was "Sex You Up", though that appears nowhere in the lyrics - Jim and the guys apparently have an interesting habit of coming up with odd working titles that stick (which may explain things like "Lucky Denver Mint" and "Cautioners"), and so I guess they utilized that one to ensure they'd come up with something better later!

Work
All the best DJs are saving
The slowest song for last
When the dance is through, it's me and you
Come on, would it really be so bad?
Slated to be the second single, this poppier number chugs along rather unassumingly with a few "Ohhh"s in the background, and even a guest vocal from Liz Phair. (Not that I would have known she or any female voice was participating if I hadn't been told as much.) The pacing and overall sentiment here are classic Jimmy Eat World - "Don't think we're not serious, when it's ever not?" is a good example of the high school-like sentiment that somehow says more than the average high school-like sentiment should be able to get away with saying. It's tough to say what the situation is with the girl that he's begging to hop in the car and take a ride with him to a faraway place (a sentiment that, while I can relate, I've heard one too many songs about lately), but when the title of the song factors into the lyrics as he tells her, "Work and play, but never OK to mix the way we do", it makes me wonder if this is one of those office romances that's causing a little controversy in the old cubicle cells. Pleasant enough song, and it's probably best that drummer Zach Lind turned down the overbearingly chunky rhythm he had been using on the demo version, but the end result doesn't stand out to me as much as some other songs here do.

Kill
I pick up, put down the phone
Like your favorite Heatmiser song goes
It's just like being alone...
Hmmm... track 4 on the last album ("Your House") was built almost exclusively around an interesting start/stop acoustic strum. Track 4 on this album works similarly, though the guitar rhythm isn't as jerky, some forceful electric guitars kick in later on, and there are no repetitions of "You rip my heart right out" to drive the less melancholy listeners insane. Actually, there's not a repetition of much of anything here - the music goes through an identifiable verse/chorus structure, as the band explains in the liner notes for the demo versions of each song, but the chorus has different lyrics every time. I love it when songs do stuff like that - I'm a big fan of musicians who use a lot of words to express themselves. Not that they've turned into Matchbox 20 or Alanis Morissette or anything, but you have to admit that it's an accomplishment to still have a memorable chorus that people can still sing along to even though the words keep changing (some echoing vocals go a long way towards achieving this goal). The meaning of the lyrics is murky - the title seems to refer to the desire to kill your feelings for someone whom you know isn't good for you to be with, but then, that's easier said than done. Jim kind of waffles about his feelings here, and it's nowhere close to being resolved by the time the song fades out. I've noticed that he still likes to refer to other people's songs within his own - he name-drops the band Heatmiser at one point, and while some might see this as hipster posturing to win back the indie kids, I don't see any reason why poppy bands like Jimmy Eat World can't like less well-known musicians, or date people who do, and use those references as pointers to the personality of those people.

The World You Love
Well, I'm a little ashamed for asking
But just a little helps
It gets me straight again
Helps me get over it, over it...
It's funny how Jimmy Eat World can record these big, spacious, sunny-sounding songs and yet leave you with an uneasy feeling, as if you don't know whether the song was really supposed to be happy or not. That's the feeling I get with this song, one of the poppiest on the album, which seems to find the guys looking up as they sing, "Don't it feel like sunshine after all, the world you love forever gone?" But wait, I thought sunshine was a good thing, so why would the world you love be gone? I think this may be a song about depression, and about one of those moments where the sun starts to peek out from behind the clouds and you think that there just might be a way out of your bogged-down mental state. But you've become so numb that you're almost comfortable with it - you love your crippling disease. Cold weather seems to be brewing even though the sun is shining upon this song, and it makes for a uniquely uneasy pop song that seems straightforward and maybe even easy to ignore at first, but definitely grabs the attention if you're listening more carefully.

Pain
I never thought I'd walk away from you
I did, but it's a false sense of accomplishment
Every time I quit...
The album's first single was definitely a great choice. It wastes no time in getting the guitars chugging and getting Jim's voice worked into a frenzy, confessing a dependence on someone or something that seems rather fake in order to numb his pain. The shouts of "It takes my pain away!" during the chorus are a great way to get swept up in the frenzy of it all, and it's almost so slick that you don't notice the self-conscious lyrics that, once again, sound like the kind of thing only an avid diary-writer would write - "It's a lie, a kiss with open eyes, and she's not breathing back!" Jim can read a lot into the smallest things here, and it makes him very paranoid, and yet he doesn't quite have the guts to walk away from what he knows is just an empty fantasy world. The whole song blows by in about 2 and a half minutes, but it's the kind that almost begs to be repeated with its weirdly buzzing guitar solo and cool percussion that sounds like sticks banging against each other (for some reason, that makes me think of a martial arts motif, like a sped-up battle from Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or something.)

Drugs or Me
Keep my heart somewhere drugs don't go
Where the sunshines lay, always keep me close...
A noticeable haze overtakes "Pain" and bleeds into this track in the form of cloudy guitar feedback, which serves as a disorienting anchor to this beautiful but dark ballad. Songs like "Cautioners", "Hear You Me", and "My Sundown" led me to accuse JEW of being a bit too methodical on the last album - it seemed like one or more instruments was stuck in a loop, playing the same note again and again, in their slower songs, and here, that's no different. But this time, it really works. A slow, pensive piano paces around the room and Jim utters his lyrics is a similarly measured fashion, speaking slowly and evenly to a friend who has gotten so whacked out on drugs that he doesn't even recognize her any more. I've heard plenty of songs that plea with friends to break out of a drug-addled numbness, but this may well be the most poignant drug-related song I've heard since the Barenaked Ladies surprised me with "War on Drugs" last year. A steadily strumming acoustic guitar, intertwining vocal harmonies that layer the bridge over the chorus near the end, and even the feedback (which would normally strike me as headache-inducing) are incredibly appealing elements here, but by far, the most powerful thing about the song is the chilling chorus, where Jim sadly shakes his head at this person and sings, "You promise, you promise that you're done, but I can't tell you from the drugs." It doesn't necessarily have to be physical drugs - this could be a response to the song "Pain", a plea to stop depending so much on whatever thing or person is being used improperly as a pain-killing agent. Whatever the case, it's one of those songs that you just have to stop and get totally immersed in, and it works for me every time. (Humorous aside - when I first downloaded this song, it had been erroneously given the title "Drugs for Me", which of course changes the entire meaning of the song!)

Polaris
Are you happy where you're standing still?
Do you really want the sugar pill?
Maybe it's the fact that this song more of a medium-paced track in between a killer ballad and a killer rocker, or maybe it's the fact that the title (which means "North Star") doesn't figure into any chorus or verse in a way that keys me in to a memorable lyric, but either way, this is one of those songs that I seem to always fail to notice. Frustrating when that happens, isn't it? Listening to it more carefully, I can detect a vaguely icy feeling created by an electric guitar echoing off in the distance and Jim giving us a travelogue of sorts about his trek "east and north" to return to a dark place where someone he loves is hiding away. Actually, that's a great mental picture, and I kind of wish they had gone more in that direction, describing the barren tundra that he's trudging through to find her, instead of wasting time on silly lines like "I'm sure your kiss remains employed". I'm actually realizing now that the chorus rocks more than I thought it did, but this still strikes me as more of a subdued, transitional song in between two better ones.

Nothingwrong
Turn them off, all tactless singers
(Don't ask why, don't cry, don't make a scene)
A forty-five, spin spin spin, give in
(Spin spin, who wins, who's not afraid to play?)
This stomping rocker is a much needed shot in the arm - the only truly upbeat track in the back half of the album. Its thumping drums and little blurts of guitar are the perfect backdrop for an angry-sounding game of vocal ping-pong between Jim and guitarist Tom Linton. It sounds like they're being sarcastic here, combining the menacing mood of "Get It Faster" with the overall tomfoolery of "The Authority Song" and speeding it up a notch as they feign innocence over what seems to be a controversial situation. Assuming that I'm hearing the song correctly and they're saying, "Turn them off all blacklist singers" instead of the more amusing "breakfast singers" (which would be the Newsboys, I guess), it sounds like they're trying to wash their hands of an ugly situation where people, possibly children are being influenced by ugly messages in the media. JEW seems to be taking on the role of the parent, insisting "We've done nothing wrong!" and blaming everything on the Eminems and Marilyn Mansons of the world, but then realizing, "But we've done nothing". In other words, maybe our inaction hasn't been the best response, and the behavior of our children is closer to being our fault than these musicians' fault. But we're still gonna go out there with our picket signs and boycott everything because we don't know any better.

Night Drive
Now's the right time for a good song
Got something to say well I can't
Do you feel bad, like I feel bad?
We'll pour us a road, we'll both drink and drive...
If the last song was "Get It Faster" crossed with "The Authority Song", then this one might as well be "Get It Faster" mixed with "My Sundown". There's a certain driving force behind it even though the paced is generally pretty relaxed, and a ghostly "ooh-ooh-ooh" floats above the guitar strumming, creating a rather disembodied mood that will later become the chorus melody. The "methodical to a fault" complaint definitely applies here - while the dynamics do change a bit between verse, chorus, and bridge, the chord progression is the same throughout over five minutes, and the band indicates that this was intentional. It creates a steady feeling appropriate for a late night drive, I guess. The lyrics here are probably the first time that I've been mildly troubled by a Jimmy Eat World song - depending on how you interpret it, this could be a song that uses driving as a metaphor for sex and basically invites a girl to spend some time in the old back seat. Or maybe the intimacy they're sharing is really just a long conversation on an otherwise boring drive, to keep them both awake despite the cold and the long miles. That second interpretation would fit the sensitive-guy persona a little more. But then Jim seems to indicate that there's an argument brewing here, telling her, "Hit me, I can take your cheap shots" and "It'd be easier if you get mad, with three fingers pointing at you". And his scary, chilling voice comes out later when he forcefully warns her, "Quitting alone will never get you drowning." Weird song. Definitely the creepiest thing I've ever heard from JEW, and it's tough to make up my mind how I feel about it.

23
You'll sit alone forever if you wait for the right time
What are you hoping for?
It's horribly unfair, really, but the closing track on every JEW album from here until the band's demise will probably get compared to the epic "Goodbye Sky Harbor". "My Sundown" seemed comparatively scant and simple at about five minutes, and "23" can even seem deceptively neat and tidy despite its sprawling length of seven minutes, with a full minute or so of guitar and drum noodling before the lyrics even show up. As you might expect from the length, this song takes its time and tries to build itself into an epic, and it more or less succeeds since the guitar and drums get reasonably big as Jim pleads with someone to take a chance and move out of the gloom they've been trapped in. It's actually one of their simplest lyrics - more of a song to meditate on than to puzzle over, I guess. I'm sure the "23" refers to a difficult age, or a time in someone's life when they had to make a tough decision - sounds about right on my timeline, anyway. (Incidentally - JEW now has something in common with Project 86, since both bands have ended an album with a long song named after my favorite number. Kind of funny, too, that this song was track 12 before a song was cut, and now it's track 11, and those two numbers add up to 23. OK, that's enough math geekiness for one day.)

The bottom line with Futures is that existing fans who enjoyed Bleed American and who didn't mind the comparatively more subdued shades of Clarity will probably find a good amount to love about JEW's latest. Those who were put off by Bleed American probably need not bother with this one, since musically it's more of the same for Jimmy, with just a shade more darkness. I'm fine with a band not needing to totally reinvent itself every album, as long as they still do at least a few things that I wasn't expecting them to. Jimmy passes that test with intriguing and compelling songs like "Pain", "Drugs or Me" and "Nothing Wrong", and even if the rest turns out to be mostly ear candy for me, it's still a worthwhile enough purchase.

The already convinced will probably want to invest a few extra dollars (really, it wasn't much for me on the album's release date) to get the bonus disc with the demos. While I wouldn't say that it's a totally engaging listen, and the odd mixing levels of the unpolished songs can be annoying on occasion, I definitely think it's interesting, once you've gotten used to these songs, to go back and see them all in rough draft mode. A few of them, especially "Drugs or Me" and "Work", are different enough that I almost want to label the bonus CD Alternate Timeline, since it indicates what they might have sounded like if taken in a different direction. I don't think any of them hold up as alternate mixes that most folks would take more of a liking to than the final versions, but some of us like the idea of getting to see a work in progress, as long as the price of admission is cheap.

ALBUM WORTH:
Futures $1.50
Just Tonight $1.50
Work $.50
Kill $1
The World You Love $1
Pain $2
Drugs or Me $2
Polaris $.50
Nothingwrong $2
Night Drive $.50
23 $1
TOTAL (without bonus disc): $13.50
Bonus Disc $2
TOTAL (with bonus disc): $15.50

Band Members:
Jim Adkins: Vocals, guitars
Zach Lind: Drums
Tom Linton: Guitar, vocals
Rick Burch: Bass

Website: http://www.jimmyeatworld.com

Great Music to Play While: Driving in the autumn rain.

Recommended: Yes