Jimmy Eat World announce Clarity tour. Why, exactly?

Published Nov 19 2008, 10:23 AM by Ryan Stewart

They don't even look different now than they did ten years ago!

Recently mainstream emo-punkers Jimmy Eat World announced a tour to honor the tenth anniversary of Clarity, in which they will play the album in its entirety. My immediate reaction: "seriously, guys?"

I'm not knocking Clarity. I used to listen to it quite a bit back when it first came out - particularly during my first two years of college - and I'll still revisit it every now and again for a pleasant nostalgia trip. It gets a little overwrought at times, a little too syrupy and corny at others, but there are some really good songs on there, particularly if you're measuring within its genre - "Crush," "10," the title track, and "Believe in What You Want" come to mind. Certainly Jimmy Eat World will likely not record an album to equal it; they haven't been able to so far.

But this still feels like a stretch. Leaving aside the hubris necessary to suggest that Clarity is somehow by association now on the level with other albums that have gotten the top-to-bottom treatment, like Daydream Nation, Vs., or Spiderland, I'm just not sure who is clamoring for this. If the idea is that Clarity somehow inspired the generation of inferior, drippy, schmoopy mall punk that we've suffered through for the last ten years, then I guess that's fine. If Jimmy Eat World wants to take credit for, say, Plain White Ts or Say Anything then I guess I shouldn't want to stop them. But the connection seems dubious - coincidental as much as anything. Yes, Clarity came out ten years ago and these bands starting sprouting up shortly thereafter. But Jimmy Eat World were one of, like, fifty bands doing something similar at the time. I'm not sure how anyone can separate out their influence from anyone else's. Are the Promise Ring and Braid going to tour together and play, respectively, Nothing Feels Good and Frame and Canvas in their entireties now, too?

What's even weirder is that Jimmy Eat World never went away or anything; they didn't break up or go on hiatus. They released an album in 2006 and toured behind it. And on that tour, they played songs from Clarity. So why are they doing this again?

Of course, all that said, I'm still interested in checking it out. So maybe there's less to this than you think: maybe they're just trying to get people talking about them again. Whatever works, I guess.

MP3 of the Week: Henry Gale, "Stay Warm"

Tuesday: AA Bondy at Great Scott

7 Comments

Jon said:

You're overthinking it, pal. It's just a concert with older songs. You have wasted a page of cyberspace, as well as whatever time it took to craft your little smug critique. Whatever makes you feel good, I guess. And maybe it will help next time you start to lose your erection.

November 19, 2008 11:36 AM
Lorenzo Lamas said:

Damn, and here we're already running low on cyberspace pages!

November 19, 2008 2:55 PM
Chris said:

Not overthinking it at all...I think this is dead on. Good record but not worth a dedicated tour. I am a JEW fan but I would never reconignze this record as a release that needs to be celebrated in this fashion.

November 20, 2008 9:43 AM
Ryan said:

As a big JEW fan from way back in 1998 I have to say this is a great idea. I am one of those fans that thought their first couple of albums were better as a whole than anything they have put out in the last few years, but that is not to discredit them from anything they have done in the last few years because most of it has been good. I just think they were a lot more creative in that era especially Clarity with which most of their hardcore fans agree that is the best album by JEW. Very underated album and for it's time was very creative and well put together compared to everything else that was out then. Musically it was Jimmy Eat Worlds most diverse and best album they have put out. Never got the credit it deserved.

November 29, 2008 11:07 PM
Ryan said:

By the way I love Jims vocals, but I really wish Tom would sing lead vocals on some new material. He has a great voice and when Tom and Jim sing together it makes them sound so much better. Come on Tom take lead on the mic on some new stuff you have a great voice.

November 29, 2008 11:11 PM
thepaintedman said:

Wow, I didn't realize the levels of pretentiousness that one could reach. A genre defining album and yet you won't allow it to be in the same category as Vs...

I dig on Promise Ring and others from this period, as well, but to deny the importance of this album is ludicrous.

I should hope you stick to writing something other than music reviews in the future.

December 9, 2008 6:33 PM