Jimmy Eat World - Futures

The word “sellout” always gets thrown around when an underground or independent band hits the big time. Whenever a back street name becomes a household name, there are always people that want to bring them down. With Bleed American, the Arizona quartet known as Jimmy Eat World definitely hit the mainstream, but the means taken to accomplish it made it hard to peg them anywhere near sellouts. Funding the album completely on their own, with no label, unsure of whether it would ever have a wide release, the boys were able to make the album they wanted, and by my accounts, the result was the best album of their career. Now they are at it again, but this time they are backed by a major label, with the production funds and marketing cash to really do whatever they want. What results is another rock solid album of catchy rock songs and dreamscape melodies whose title is as bright as the bands, Futures. Harkening back to the days of tapes and albums, this is a disc of two sides (figuratively, not literally); of Jekkl and Hyde; of fast and slow. Opening with the title track, the disc immediately lets you know where it is coming from and kicks down the door with overlapped guitars and straight ahead melodic rock. What follows is a string of like-minded rock songs that will infect you like a disease, making you sing along to the chorus before the first listen is even over. “Work,” “Kill,” and “The World You Love” lead into the albums first single, the rock anthem “Pain,” whose name could not be further from its being. From there to the finish line, the disc slows down and strolls through a beautifully flowing backside. “Drugs Or Me” delves into the trust and mistrust of a person who has disappointed the one they love, while “Night Drive” talks of young love and the innocence of not knowing mistrust even exists. Wrapping up with the epic “23,” the band shows its true talent for creating melodies that are good at any speed and in any setting. After their first taste of success, many bands crash under the weight of the expectations and new-found budgets that come with major labels and the limelight, but Jimmy Eat World exercises that weight and makes itself stronger, using that muscle to its advantage. Futures may not rub the indie purest the right way, but its solid writing, production, and quality cannot be denied. Some may label them a guilty pleasure, but there is no guilt in loving art that comes from a group of guys at the top of their game doing what they love. [www.jimmyeatworld.com]