It's only been four days, but it feels longer. I haven't updated since Friday for two reasons:
1) I was trying to decide if I should give it a rest until the next edition of Thursday's Comics, and additionally I just wasn't sure what to review. I've got a few things planned that I didn't want to do yet, simply because they're big posts and I wanted a nice, compact post between now and Thursday.
2) Assassin's Creed 2 has been the fat, compulsive over-eating male to the cake that is my free time.
With that said, I was racking my brain trying to decide on an album to review when I finally decided on something, Clarity by Jimmy Eat World. It's an album that always tends to roll around in my listening habits during the end of the year, as well as holding a crapload of memories for me. So let me talk to you about it!
Clarity by Jimmy Eat World.
Jimmy Eat World happen to be a band that either people that know them love, or people that know them hate. Although, I've never met anyone who disliked then with any good reaso, it always seems to be that they "just don't". Regardless, they're not as dividing as some bands by virtue of the fact that they aren't really known on a major scale (At least not here).
I think the reason people dislike them is because they have a specific sound that's not easy to pin down with words. A lot of bands have, or had, adopted a similar kind of saccharine, uplifting musical aesthetic and it was received with backlash. I'm guessing this is what people can't get behind.
As of right now, J.E.W. (Not "Jew"!) have refined their sound and it definitely sounds more professionally produced and polished than their sound I'm going to be reviewing. They're still very much an amazingly capable band and one could argue that 2007's Chase This Light is their best - though, most recent - album, however, I don't think they've come quite close to topping this album in terms of its place in my heart.
Clarity has a very innocent sound to it. It's the sheer, unrefined dreamy and feathery sound that one expects from the band today. To my mind, I cannot easily recall another album that captures the spirit of just playing music for the love, as a young-ish band. Listening to this album, it really feels as though Jimmy Eat World have come of age in their later albums.
There are various lyrical themes on the album (One of the few albums where I sought out the lyrics), but to my general interpretation it seems to be a meditation of just what the title says; Clarity. Covering a broad spectrum of emotions, it sends the message that it doesn't matter what you feel or believe, so long as you believe it clearly.
This message, though stated in the lyrics (From what I personally interpret, feel free to see it another way), is most evident in the tone and sound of the music. The precise - if a little sparse - snare drum patterns that underpin each song provide a concise and steady bed for the interweaving and chimey guitars to dance over the top of it.
Songs like Lucky Denver Mint and Your New Aesthetic tend to follow the masterful pattern of having catchy and repetitive, yet memorable verses, only topped by the even more unforgetable nature of the choruses. Love or hate this band, even the most stern of critic can not deny that, if nothing else. Jimmy Eat World have mastered the memorable, sing-along chorus. There hasn't been a better band to do it since Weezer and The Beach Boys.
They have mastered it, like the two bands mentioned, in the best way possible. It's not trite or stale, it's the work of great musical craftsmen; men who are not afraid to gloss their rock-based music with the sheen of pop music and make it work. Pop is a dirty word to many, and it can indeed dirty a lot of good things. If used correctly, it unites people and becomes a language that we can all use. This is never more evident than on the epic and inspiring anthem, Believe in What You Want; to this day, one of my favourite songs of ALL time. I mean that and do not say it lightly.
Throughout this album you can expect to experience chimey guitars and echoey, understated keys, delicately wrapping a song at one moment, or exploding out of it at the next. The sound shifts from the magnificently uplifting call-and-response verses of Believe in What You Want and the pop sensibilities of Lucky Denver Mint, to the cheerfully-melancholic tones of A Sunday. The rampant, caution-to-the-wind happiness that exudes from Blister is second-to-none, but it's not in any of these areas that J.E.W. earn their greatest victories.
It's on minimal soundscape of the 12.23.95. as Jim Adkins' soft voice details regret at hurting a loved-one on Christmas, and the soaring masterpiece that is the 16 minute closer; Goodbye Sky Harbour. Sometimes there'll be nothing but a whispered vocal/backing vocal combo and wispy, echo-like guitar passages. Yet, it works like a dream.
Jimmy Eat World demonstrate a completeness and an understanding beyond almost ANY band doing the same thing, and yet they've always remained on the cusp of stardom.
Futures is probably their weakest album, yet it's still an album worth your money and time. Bleed American, Chase This Light and Static Prevails are all solid-to-amazing efforts in their own individual rights, to one degree or another. Clarity, though, has always been considered a high mark.
Overlooked upon it's release back in 1999, it was looked back on with a fondness that saw it become critically acclaimed and labelled as a masterpiece, landmark album of the '90s. Even the band themselves love this album so much that they played it in its entirity to commemorate the 10 year anniversary.
The production could be better, but I look at it like an old blanket. Sure, it has a hole in it, but would you REALLY ever want to change it?
I cannot recommend this album enough. It's truly a special piece of work.
Put it on, grab a warm drink when it's cold outside and just let yourself be taken to a place that not many albums will go. You won't be disappointed. Clarity by name, clarity by nature; there aren't many albums as clearly excellent as this.
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Coming up in the near future I plan to do a Deadpool 101, a guide to the great band known as Killing Joke and of course, my massive end of 2009 post.
Keep it fixed to this blog, ladies and gentlemen.
Until next time, peace.
-The Mast
