Jimmy Eats the World's Future

While this is technically supposed to be a 'book blog', there is only so much you can write about books that hasn't been written to death about already. And since I STILL have not finished The Name of the Rose (but I'm almost there!), or any other book, for that matter; I shall refrain from writing about them for this post. Instead, I shall review a music record, in this case - Jimmy Eat World's Futures.



I usually don't buy many music CDs (I prefer buying books and toys). In fact, unlike some of my friends, I only buy an average of one CD every few months. My last purchase was Green Day's American Idiot, and THAT CD has not left my car CD player ever since I bought it two months ago. Until now, that is.

Jimmy Eat World is one of my favorite bands, and when I saw their newest album - Futures - on sale, I simply had to buy it, and now it's taken over Green Day as the resident CD in the car CD player.

Futures is another Jimmy Eat World's follow-up to 2002's Bleed American, which featured lots of great songs like The Middle and Sweetness. Futures follows in pretty much the same vein as BA: nice melodies, catchy lyrics and a certain melancholic sweetness to the songs. There's even a silhouette of the Petronas towers on the album notes!

Bleed American was one of my favorite albums ever, mainly because the band's songs are not just about noise, loud riffs and pounding drumbeats. Their songs have nice melodies that are not just catchy, but in a way, are pretty melancholy as well. While I'm happy that they did Futures in pretty much that same style, at the same time, I'm also a bit disappointed that they did not try something different.

But I'm not complaining TOO much because I've always been a sucker for melancholic rock songs (which explains why my all time favorite song is Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls). And Futures has loads of these kind of songs, such as the title track, the first single Pain, 23, and Polaris.

I may not be a music expert like some people I know, but I know what I like. I like rock songs with nice melodies. I like catchy tunes that have emotion. Even though I like to tell people that I don't listen to anything without electric guitars, I also don't listen to EVERYthing WITH electric guitars. Bands like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte are loud, but their songs a so predictably loud and monotonous that I get bored after the second time I've heard it.

Bands like Jimmy Eat World, Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls, The All-American Rejects and Third Eye Blind rank very highly on my 'favorite albums' list because they fulfill my criteria, that is:

• Melodic and catchy tune, usually with some soaring moments that just lift your heart
• Easy to sing (or scream while in a car)
• Some melancholic moments that tend to make me feel a little emotional
• Interesting lyrics, some of which made me wanna quote it over and over again

That's just a part of my criteria. Of course, I also like other bands and songs that DON'T feature any of the above criteria. But these don't get a permanent spot in my CD player, only on my PC in mp3 format. Downloaded.

I believe in the principle that if only ONE song in the album is worth listening to, then the album is not worth owning. But if more than 5 songs are good, then I'll delete the files in my PC, and go get the album. Futures is one such album.