Jimmy Eat World

“Chase This Light”

(Reprise)

0 Stars



To say that Jimmy Eat World’s new album, “Chase This Light,” is “bad” doesn’t really do justice to this invasive, rash-inducing organism that festers in the drain of the alternative genre.

Annoying pop-rock zit-poppers Fall Out Boy and jaded nerd screamers My Chemical Romance also make bad music, but at the very least their products are aggressive in their mediocrity. Their albums are interesting in the way the Weimar Republic and Crystal Pepsi are interesting: in 20 years people will look back on their work and wonder bemusedly just what everyone involved was thinking.

“Chase This Light,” on the other hand, doesn’t even merit a second listen.

The album begins with the mid-tempo “Big Casino,” a boring affair with appearances by unremarkably layered guitars, a drum kit, and what may very well be a bass.

The second and third tracks are, for listening purposes, clones of the former. “Carry You” takes a break from the mindless guitar chug to showcase the band’s lyrical disability, soured since the days of passably-catchy singles like “Bleed American” and “The Middle.” When it fails to simply fizzle due to stupidity or lapse into cookie-cutter “oh”s, the writing resembles a cut-and-paste job exacted on the liner notes of a second-rate Green Day record.

The album makes two ultimately doomed plays for creative credibility: the back-to-back combination of “Gotta Be Somebody’s Blues” and “Feeling Lucky.” Not surprisingly, the first squanders the respectable tension built by an eerie string section, creepy vocals, and a disorienting beat. It quickly runs out of steam and reveals itself as a rip-off of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” without the grimy, visceral payoff.

The second possesses something remotely resembling the melodic quality of the band’s early hits, but refuses to develop beyond a split-second of inventive guitar work and a—debatably—unobjectionable chorus.

For all the faux-angst that lead-singer Jim Adkins’ voice projects, the album as a whole is without heart. Where mobs of skinny high school boys could once connect with the band’s intense—albeit fractured and unfocused—honesty, here the music sounds cheap and phoned-in. It’s easy to get lost in the monochrome sheen of throw-away numbers like the title track and its counterparts.

“Chase This Light” is a painful example of a band that has come to believe that making music is no longer a dream, but a job.

A testament to this apparent philosophy is the fact that each song adheres to the same tired pop-song formula and never exceeds radio-friendly length. Yet another would be that every single song is an absolute chore to listen to—how could any of them be fun to play?

One can only wonder about the motives behind releasing a record like this. Either the band is completely ignorant of their lack of any apparent skill, or they’re merely going through the motions to put the final nail in the coffin of their record contract. Either way, it’s irrelevant. From the sub-par album cover to childish song titles like “Dizzy” and “Firefight,” all the variables of a band on its last legs are in place. 2007 may be the year Jimmy Eat World’s name becomes ironically prophetic; the World is achingly close to eating Jimmy, bones and all, and I’m not sure anyone will miss them.