Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

The Best of the Best

This album is Jimmy Eat World their best. Clarity has more polish than their other early releases (Jimmy Eat World, Static Prevails) and is more genuine than their other, more mainstream albums (Bleed American, Futures, and Chase This Light). The album is insightful, different, and full of pure beauty from Table For Glasses to Goodbye Sky Harbor. August 8, 2008

WTF is EMO?

Who cares what genre this music fits into? This is classiclly beautiful, melodicly innovative music! I've listend to this record countless times, it's one of those albums that you never learn the track names of the songs because your never searching for tracks you listen straight through it, from the beginning to the end. I love it. I love it. Great to work out to! February 10, 2008

I Agree, Boring

I am a big Jimmy Eat World fan. I own all their CDs and I was just recently able to get this one. I was excited because of everyone saying this is their best CD. I strongly disagree, and completely agree with the reviewers who say this CD is boring. I only liked 2 songs out of the whole album. And a 16 minute song? Come on! Who actually listens to that all the way through?

If you're new to the JEW scene, get their self-titled, Futures or their new Chase This Light and steer clear of this one. January 25, 2008

Top Reasons to Get Clarity (if you haven't already)

1. A more intimate, introspective Jimmy Eat World. Ten's opening lyric seems appropriate in describing much of the album: We left behind the busy crowd / So it seems we slow down. See the slow burn of Table for Glasses, which opens with a sustained tone and unintrusive taps on the snare drum. Granted, the track swells into a grand overlap of Jim Adkins' vocal harmonies with the band in full sway, but there is something wonderful about the way Clarity retains a personal feel even in the more grandiose moments. It's like being in a large room with someone else.

2. The edge of Static Prevails--in just the right measure. All the introspection isn't to say that Clarity is quiet. In fact, there may never be another JEW song with the shrill attack of Your New Aesthetic. After the calm of A Sunday, Crush proves a welcome no-nonsense rocker, and the heavy riffs of Blister (featuring Tom Linton on vocals) hammer down the home stretch. Of course, the raw quality of Clarity's distortion would give way to the more polished rock of Bleed American two years later, but you can still find that patented guitar crunch here.

3. Just Watch the Fireworks. Need I say more? The title itself commands a sort of awestruck observation which really is much warranted. The unashamedly epic string arrangements, the sparkling guitars in Drop-D tuning, the pounding rhythms accented with the explosive wash of cymbals (which really do sound like fireworks, by the way)--it's all worth the price of admission. And to top it off, Fireworks is followed closely by For Me This is Heaven, another noteworthy track. If you liked Polaris off of Futures and haven't heard this yet, you'd love this.

Of course, there are numerous other reasons to check out Clarity if you haven't already--the driving, piston-like rhythms of Lucky Denver Mint; the quirky, Casiotone snapshot of 12.23.95; and of course the gargantuan build of Goodbye Sky Harbor, in all its 16 minutes of grandeur. To newer JEW fans: Clarity is different, but stay with it. I don't think you'd be disappointed.
October 30, 2007

I am but one small instrument....

Is there anyone that does not like Jimmy Eat World? Surely they are one of the greatest bands of our time.. and this is my favorite of their albums. I think most everything has already been said here.. but I will just mention that this is probably the most experimental and unique of their work(drum machine and lots of violins). They simply dont do songs like this anymore. Nothing wrong with that, just know that this is a step out of place for J.E.W. April 15, 2007

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