Jimmy Eat World – ‘Damages’ (RCA Records)
June 10th (or the 11th if you’re reading this from the States) will see the release of the new album, Damage, by U.S emo legends Jimmy Eat World via Sony owned RCA Records. I’m going to be honest and say I dropped off the Jimmy Eat World bandwagon after the release of Bleed American (2001) so I’ve no idea what the band have been up to for the last 12 years and thus can’t compare Damage to any of their recent records. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem thought right? I mean, without sounding insulting, a Jimmy Eat World album is a pretty uncomplicated thing; it will contain souring, sing a long choruses, heart breaking ballads and enough pop sensibility to make you wonder why the band isn’t massive, like Aerosmith or Nirvana massive.
Damage will be Jimmy Eat World’s eighth album and their first with Alain Johannes (Mark Lanegan, Chris Cornell) at the helm of the production desk, as the band elected once again not to work with long time producer Mark Trombino for this release. Mixing duties were handled by James Brown (Nine Inch Nails, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart). Damage sounds a bit, treble heavy through poor speakers (I realise you can make this criticism of many albums but it seems more pronounced with this one to me), but it comes alive through decent ones, or a pair of headphones.
We start our journey with “Appreciation”, a good choice to open the album as it’s firmly in the rockier side of Jimmy Eat World’s repertoire and instantly gets the head nodding. Its aggressively strummed guitar melody and sing along chorus seem certain to make it a Jimmy Eat World classic. Following on is the song “Damage” which keeps up the lively pace and again delivers another catchy chorus; it could quite easily be the album’s “Lucky Denver Mint”. “Lean” is another rocker and while less immediate than the two preceding songs it will get it hooks into you with repeated listens and would’ve fit nicely on 2001’s Bleed American album.
Elsewhere, the band slow things down with “Please Say No” a distressed tale of love’s missed opportunities; the guitars are reigned and featuring some lush backing vocal on the chorus and a typically melancholy vocal delivery from Adkins. “How You’d Have Me” is a typical album track, not filler by any stretch of the imagination but it’s far from the best this band can produce. “No Never” is a great song and picks up the second half of the album nicely. Rounding off Damage is “Byebyelove” a pretty turgid affair (again the band can do so much better) and “You Were Good” which features just clean guitar, some back ground strings and Adkins’ vocals.
Damage is a pretty damn solid offering from a band going into its twentieth year of touring and making records. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, even in the confines of the band’s output, but then when you can write songs this good why would you need to do anything else? I shall certainly be re-visiting the band’s back catalogue, including those albums I missed the first time around and spinning ‘Damage’ on my car’s CD player. 7.5/10.
Ian Weiss