Jimmy Eat World

Clarity

Blistering

Review Score:

(10/10)
Jimmy Eat World are probably the best thing to happen to music in a long long time. While one note wonders persevere in tightening their stranglehold on the popular music scene, JEW have emerged from the wreckage to build a much brighter future. I believe that they are rather big in the states at the moment thanks to their breathtaking tour de force, Bleed American (one of the greatest rock albums of recent years) but they are still to find a footing here in the UK. Usually I would say that it is a good thing. England has enough American and Canadian imports clogging up the airwaves that just don't make the grade, as it were. Sum 41, for instance, are a joke that's just not funny. Blink 182 are ok but seem to have taken what Green Day used to do so well and turn it into something from Sesame Street. The less said about Nickleback, Creed and Staind the better.

If I may digress for a moment, I must explain why England does not go for the dirgey, post grunge rock that America love so dearly. In a word - it's dull. While Creed's new album is, in this reviewer's opinion, a much better effort than the diabolical Human Clay, they are still nothing more than a normal, run-of-the-mill, by-the-numbers rock band and their songs, however overblown to feign some kind of awe, are simply ok rock ballads. We just do not go for pretence. While the USA may agree that Creed and Nickleback are the greatest bands in the world ever because they crank up the distortion to make their guitars sound all fuzzy and nice and specialise in hooks and magic tricks rather than riffs and rythms to create tracks, the UK mostly defines bands on how different they can be from the norm. We just don't go for all that Dawson's Creek false sentimentality.

That said (and I am not attacking Americans or Canadians in any way, I am just trying to shed some light as to why massive bands in one country don't necessarily cut the mustard with others - I mean David Hasselhoff is huge in Germany. But then everything is huge in Germany), JEW are possibly the one band that could possibly make it over here. Especially with Bleed American's perfect pop tune after heart-rending ballad. But, even if they don't, I won't be bothered because I like them and that's all that really matters.

Clarity is their thoughtful masterpiece, as opposed to the pop wizardry of their recent offering. Tables for Glasses is an unusual choice for an opener but is such a beautiful track. It acts pretty much the same way as gravity, while being weak on the surface you soon find out that it has you in it's grasp and you cannot defy it. Lucky Denver Mint is a grower with a masterful chorus. Infact, it is JEW's mastery of hooks and tunes that make them so compelling. Just a simple chord change or strike of a single note can seem so right when done by their capable hands. The effortlessness with which they pull it off is also another credit to them. You just have to listen to Sunday and For Me This Is Heaven to know what I am talking about. Clarity is track after track of excellent, well-crafted rock songs. Some are hard and made for getting the crowds going, others are intelligent ballads that have no trace of pretention and tons of honesty.

JEW are four young men who sound like they are enjoying what they are doing and, for me they are the correct ingredients and right conditions for genuine masterpieces to be created. Just listen to Goodbye Sky Harbor and you will know that only a few notes and chords can sound like heaven, but that it also takes a group of individuals with far more heart and integrity than Sum 41, Nickleback and Staind to pull it off.

A classic. A masterpiece from one of the best bands on the planet today.

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