Labels: Big Wheel Recreation
Review by: Andy Malcolm
James Eat World – the blueprint band for what “emo” is becoming all too quickly. Mainstream indie rock. And signed to Capitol too. Eek, major label! Still, this is actually quite good, just not as good as I was hoping for.
There are a good number of songs on here that I like a lot, and the whole feel of the album is very warm and kinda nice, but as a whole it doesn’t seem to ‘do it’ for me. They do some excellent, dreamy and light sort of Mineral-esque sleepyemo on tracks like “Table For Glasses”, and often chuck in chimes and bells, plus strings which often seem to crop up on chart bound indie rock these days.
Some very radio friendly efforts come courtesy of the fluffy “Lucky Denver Mint” – drifty, catchy, and guaranteed to stick in your heed cos it’s so repetetive. My favourite song on here is probably the most radio friendly of them all though, but I am a fool for pop, and pop is what “A Sunday” is. Lush, big sounding and packed with cello and violin, has Minerally verse and an utterly beautiful chorus.
Jimmy Eat World also do indie ROCK. A reworking of old song “Crush” crops up and is rather neato and driving in it’s Get Up Kids style, and “Blister” is exhuberant brilliance, whilst “Your New Aesthetic” is a prime example of why in general, noisy indie rock is so awful. And “Believe In What You Want” is dreay indie rock with balladism on the chorus *yawn*.
All in all, good album, but not great. It’d be a bit naughty to bestow greatness on this if you’re the kind of person who has disdain for the mainstream, as this WILL be the mainstream very soon. So yup, this is excellent indie rock, but it lacks the charm of other bands that are heading in a more ‘popular’ direction (Promise Ring et al). Jimmy EW blow all Brit chart indie bands outta the water, but be warned, the gap in the ideas between the two is closing.