I think Futures and Chase This Light are meant to be complementary opposites. Black and white and moodier vs bright colourful and poppy. Integrity Blues and Surviving are also feel like complementary opposites. Integrity Blues is a little my rhythmic, smooth and groovy and Surviving is more riff, individual instrument stand out moments.
Top 13: Table For Glasses Lucky Denver Mint Your New Aesthetic Believe In What You Want A Sunday Crush 12.23.95 Ten Just Watch The Fireworks For Me This Is Heaven Blister Clarity Goodbye Sky Harbor
I'm surprised you thought I was actually being serious. BUT... About half of Clarity is in my top 10 Jimmy songs, for sure.
Just listened to the Stay On My Side Tonight EP for the first time and this is such a good sound for them, wish they explored it further
It's my favorite release from the band, no question. If they expanded that sound for a whole album I would have lost my shit
Integrity Blues is definitely the closest they came to doing that. “Sure and Certain” in particular sounds like it’s a descendent of “Closer.” But they’ve really never captured the unique darkness of “Disintegration” again.
This album has solidified itself as top tier JEW for me. Hasn’t left my regular rotation since it came out. So good.
1. Happy birthday to this record. 2. They hinted on their socials that they are working on some “surprises” and whatnot. Fingers crossed for those b-sides!
Just revisited Surviving last week. Solid record, and I definitely prefer IB/Surviving to Invented/Damage.
I feel like IB is a definitive statement from the band, regarding the expanded sonics and use of keys. Surviving took that and reigned it in to featuring the JEW guitars that we know and love.
Happy birthday, Surviving! This album means a lot to me. It was my favorite album of the year and it came out a month or so after the break up of a 3 year relationship, and also my first significant relationship. I got into that relationship at the very start of early adulthood, so after it went it away, I felt alone against the gravity of the adult world after losing someone who understood me in every sense of the word. I remember the entirety of September and the first half of October feeling so empty, as I was also struggling with other stuff in my life as well, and felt alone even in a room full of friends. I'm a very social person but I was so overwhelmed with where I was at in my life that a lot of the pleasures I've had didn't really impact me the same way. Then I found out this album, from my favorite band, the artists who put out my favorite album (Futures), was on its way. I remember counting down the days. It gave me something to look forward to again, when the past few weeks felt like I was just going through the motions. I remember hearing lyrics like "There's no straight line to live, recommit" and "The life we build, we never stop creating" for the first time, leaving shivers down my spine like the first time I ever heard the opening lines to Futures or The World You Love's second verse when I was just getting into the music scene as a teenager. I remember, even in my darkest days, I'd always be full of bliss and joy while playing these songs in my car during the drive home. I remember entering the dating scene again and blasting this album down the highway, anxious about the first dates, but excited to see where life would take me. I didn't really think of it as a comfort album at the time, but looking back at it now and listening to it again today after being removed from it for a while, I think this was a definitive experience for me. I remember reading mentions of the title track being the "open the curtains" track of the album, and in a lot of ways, it was also the curtains opening a new stage of my life.