Jimmy Eat World

Clarity

Gleam

Review Score:

(10/10)
I'm not going to be arrogant and say that this is the greatest album of all time. I will, however, say this: Clarity is the perfection of emo.

This is easily one of the most overlooked albums of the 90's. Many of my friends with tastes that run a bit more... acquired shall we say, have been skeptical about my rants and ravings over Clarity. Although my tastes continue to run more and more indie, this is still my favorite record.

Every song on here is a keeper. Even more points are scored for opening up with the string-and-glockenshpiel-laden "table for glasses," and ending with the brilliant "goodbye sky harbor." The sheer ballsiness of the placement of these tracks is enough to warrant a listen. Although the production is extremely thick, there is no excess. 16 minutes is just the right length for the closing track, and dont tell me that those overlapped vocal samples at the end don't give you the chills.

This album has MUSIC on it: real crescendoes, more than 4 tracks to a song, vocal harmonies. Every song has a bit more opened up in it with each listen. The whole thing flows like liquid from beginning to end, with nothing missing, and nothing to be spared.

If you have listened to bleed american and passed jimmy eat world off as a power-pop band, or if you have listened to static prevails and passed them off as an emo band, listen to this amalgum of pop/indie/rock/emo. The rock songs shake, the ballads float, and the epics surge;
This is music my friends.

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