Jimmy Eat World is one of the most important bands in my life. My Mom has left my abusive father in 2001 and we were living in a domestic violence shelter while trying to figure where to go next. The only thing I had to pass time was my Gameboy with Pokemon Gold version and a shitty radio. We would listen to KROQ at night and The Middle released and rocked my world. That was the exact song 8 year old me needed to hear that that time. Been fan since.
I constantly think about the song "My Sundown". I dont want to sound cliché but that song... saved my life. It is a suicide song but it evokes emotion of wanting to be something more for yourself. Theres a girl i knew named Mavis who listened to them. She got me into the band and song. We entered a relationship in highschool. She passed away in senior year in a drunk driving accident and My Sundown was played at her funeral, it makes me cry soo much. The record truly makes her memory live on.❤
I was coming off of N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears when this was getting radio play, and that reviewer said it right it got me away from pop and into rock. I remember driving with my father to the beach every other weekend and The Middle would be on the radio on the way there and Sweetness would play on the way back. I was hooked on these two songs and Jimmy is what got me in to rock. It wouldn’t be until late middle school when I found Clarity or went back and listened to the entirety of Bleed American. Unlike most other Emo albums, I got in to Jimmy Eat World all on my own. As I say in most of my other comments I found a lot of these albums on my brother’s iPod shuffle or in a book of CDs from my much older Cousin. When I had an IPod of my own and internet access I remembered how much I loved The Middle and Sweetness and downloaded Bleed American, Clarity, Futures, and Chase This Light. I was hooked. And to this day they are my all time favorite band. This album is not their best (Clarity is), nor is it the one I have the most emotional attachment to (Futures); but it is the one that captured me and steered me in to rock and eventually into Emo. Definitely a top heavy album but I think that If You Don’t, Don’t, and The Authority Song are the most fun songs on the record. I give Bleed American a 7/10. Jimmy Eat World is an uncommonly talented band who can REALLY craft a song and make it uniquely theirs. This might not be their strongest or most coherent album, but bc they are Jimmy Eat World that still means they put out a 7. Just a foot note bc I love talking about this song whenever I get the chance. Closer, off of Static Prevails by Jimmy Eat World, is my all time favorite song.
The comparisons to Blink are wilddddd hahahaha. I got tickets to take my 14 and 8 year old nieces (I’m 32) to see FOB this month with Jimmy, so it’s a pass for me at the fest. I’m super stoked for bands that quit doing shows once I got old enough to have money to go to them. Like The Starting Line and Cartel.
