#141

Drugs or Me and Night Drive are a bit much, to me at least. Drugs or Me has always felt a bit like a “we need another Hear You Me in the middle of the album” type situation. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were genuine, but it’s just so on the nose that it’s hard to listen to.

1 Like
#142

big 5 from me. been a fan since ‘99. one of those bands i reach for when i dont want to think about what to reach for.

his YouTube thing where he interviews other emo greats is really good. And their live concert shows they did last month were awesome. hope they release them at some point to the masses.

when i was working at f3nder they were playing nearby that night and my boss asked if i wanted to go and deliver some gear to the band. of course i took advantage and my wife and i got to go backstage before the show and hang around for a bit before the show. lovely fellas all around.

  • integrity blues is really a great album. upper echelon with futures, bleed & clarity.

  • invented and surviving not far behind.

  • damage, chase the light and static all third tier but still worthwhile.

the end of pass the baby <3 they really know their way around a coda

3 Likes
#143

Time for the score!

#144

Also, now it looks like polls let you include 0 in the options so I guess we’ll have to start again.

10 Likes
#145

quickly changes score to 5

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#146

Really good thread this btw.

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#147

It’s 3.49 for Jimmy Eat World and a place very close to the middle indeed!

2 Likes
#148

Ha, seems quite apt

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#149

prepares list of hard 0s

#150

Called it

3 Likes
#151

Absolutely furious I missed the vote on this, one of my favourite bands of all time.

That run from Clarity to Futures is untouchable. Chase This Light is probably an 8/10 from any other band but allow trying to follow that triumvirate (and also Futures being their most commercially successful album, so there was definitely a bit of cynicism at play there).

Jim Adkins seems like the nicest most genuine dude in the world. Clarity alone elevates them above most of their peers but regardless of your opinion on their later material (and let’s be honest, they went 13 years without releasing one Properly Good Album) I defy anyone to name a more influential album from that ‘scene’, than Clarity. Ridiculously young when they made it too. Bleed American is a straight up wall-to-wall radio banger album with one duff song and was my entry point to the band so I’ll always love it. Also appreciate that they never bought into any of the trends that they inadvertently kick-started (There’s an alternative universe where Jim Adkins dyed his hair jet black in 2003 and started writing screamo).

Undeniably fell off a cliff after Chase This Light but regained some of the magic with Surviving, the most recent album. Integrity Blues is basically unlistenable.

But they somehow keep getting better live with every tour, and watching the full performances of Clarity and Bleed American at the Forum was a bucket list experience that left me on a drug-like high for days.

Not an exciting band, not an interesting band, not even a relevant band, but one of the most important bands of my musical life who made quite possibly my favourite album of all time that isn’t Rumours

8 Likes
#152

loved this post. Definitely a band who wrote a perfect album that will always define their career and never found that chemistry again. however, if you enjoy the Bleed American side of Jim’s writing I recommend checking out Surviving from last year. I’m a die-hard fan who buys every album despite their wildly varying quality, and for me it’s the best thing they’ve released since Chase This Light and quite possibly Futures.

1 Like
#153

agree with everything you’ve writen except this absolute bullshit :smiley:

7 Likes
#154

I remember Futures getting bashed when it came out. Didn’t it get 4/10 in NME?

#155

Very divisive album tbf. I tried three or four times since I’d pre-ordered the vinyl and I’d say that at best there are three good songs on there. Hate it.

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#156

Exactly. 2/5

:wink:

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#157

Probably? I think that the NME under Conor McNicolas was a fucking rag tbh, something he’s essentially admitted since.

#158

Using the same tactics as Pitchfork weren’t they? Pick a release from a band with a fan base, but who aren’t considered “cool”, slaughter their album and then watch the clicks roll in.

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#159

Loved reading this. I think the circles I move in musically mean that Jimmy were never seen as anything other than a canon band (@elthamsmateowen and I did a Bleed American cover set at the 2001 Retrospectacular, in fact).

But I am genuinely gobsmacked that you like Integrity Blues. to the extent that I’m going to relisten to it this afternoon because to me, it’s the single terrible album in their catalogue. The only one I never revisit. I must be missing something.

Also very jealous you got to discover their entire catalogue up to that point in one go. What a day that must have been!

1 Like
#160

Going to say something that might be somewhat controversial but I don’t think Jimmy were ever really an ‘emo’ band, at least not after Static Prevails, so this tracks for me. I don’t care about any of that stuf, in fact I think The Get Up Kids are one of the most overrated bands of all time. Don’t even get me started on American Football aka Narcolepsy: The Band.

Jimmy are a pretty straightforward rock band who happened to have a run of form where they wrote some of the best pop-rock of all time (imo), but Clarity is an outlier. It just happens to be an outlier that’s been so influential, and came out at such a time, that it impacted the way the way the band themselves will be discussed forever

Possibly the worst opinion ever expressed on this forum