Artist: Jimmy Eat World 
Album: Futures
Label: Interscope
Tracks: 11
Length: 49:24
Review by: Luke Kruse

Most albums I receive to review for Decapolis come with all the artwork and some sort of glowing press release telling me how “innovating,” “haunting” or “life-changing” the album is.  Most of these albums also get two stars.  However, the new Jimmy Eat World album Futures simply arrived as a silver burned CD with basic black writing of the title and track listing. It also came with a warning telling me that the CD is “watermarked,” and if I put it on a file sharing program it can be traced back to me.  Jimmy Eat World is certainly a band at the level where no sort of special packaging is necessary.  Everyone has heard Jimmy Eat World and knows the sort of emo-pop rock they bring to the table.  The big question for Futures, then, is how the album stands both on its own and compared to their previous landmark albums Clarity and Bleed American/Self-Titled.

Let me first admit that Clarity is one of my favorite albums of all time.  It was one of the defining albums of the 90’s emo scene, and helped me discover other great bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral.  I also enjoyed Bleed American quite a bit, but more in a “guilty pleasure” type of way.  The album was a huge hit, and Futures finds Jimmy Eat World attempting to follow the success of that album.

Futures is certainly a fair bit darker than Bleed American, both lyrically and musically, and it seems clear that Jimmy Eat World is trying to find a balance between that album and Clarity.  Ironically, for an album that derives so much from previous releases, Futures was done without longtime producer Mark Trombino.  Trombino has received a lot of credit for helping to define Jimmy Eat World’s sound, but the band opted to go with Gil Norton (Pixies, Radiohead) for Futures.  The production certainly cannot be faulted here; Jim Adkins voice has a warm tone and the guitars shimmer and shine. 

The album starts off promisingly enough with the anthemic, pulsating title track that hints vaguely at political ambitions (“I’ll hope for better / In November”), and before the album is over the band has ripped through 11 songs of radio-friendly pop rock (“Work”), rockers (“Pain”), and sprawling, Clarity-esque ballads (“Night Drive”)

The final verdict on Futures?  If you are a Jimmy Eat World fan, I see absolutely no reason why you would not enjoy this album.  For the most part, the songs are well-developed and memorable.  If there is one fault to this album, it may be that it does not always seem sincere.  This is a band that knows how to write songs that seventeen year olds will be gushing over.  Something feels a little off that in a band where the members are pushing thirty, they still write a five minute song about making out in a car.  This album is certainly no Clarity, but it is just as good, if not better than, their last album.  Well done, once again, Jimmy Eat World.