Always enjoy listening to favourite artists speak, then add in another favourite artist in there it's fantastic. Good on Jim and Brian Fallon (for his Sitt-in' Around At Home) artists interviewing artists series to keep us entertained.
The podcast got me diving back into "Surviving" yesterday and this morning. How's this latest album holding up for everyone? Where is it falling in their discography for you?
I still enjoy this record as a stylistic response and counterbalance to Integrity Blues. I still wish it was a longer album or had more tracks to make up the Surviving era, but I think we’ve already busted that topic. I took away from that interview with Mark that Jimmy Eat World’s writing and recording process may be pushed a little forward because of the pandemic (and lack of touring. Wishing hearing or thinking maybe?
I think it’s overall middle tier, but it has some excellent tunes that absolutely kill it for me: title track, 555, Love Never, Recommit, Congratulations.
I think Surviving just breaks into the top 5 JEW albums for me. still absolutely bangs almost a year later.
I think they delivered a strong and to the point follow up to Integrity Blues, which is such a beautiful piece of art.
It is probably my overall favorite of their 2010s records, all of which I rank below their 2000s records.
My 2nd least favorite of their albums. Some songs on here I really like but nothing about this album excites me
Tough call for me. I’ve come to love pretty much everything they’ve ever done. It’s great and I think some of the lukewarm reception it got was uncalled for. And that closing track is dope
I really need to dive back into their recent releases. I'm a big fan of their earlier work--For whatever reason, Invented + anything after hasn't really clicked for me minus some singles/songs.
It’s strong and stylistically an excellent choice for a follow up. Maybe because Jimmy is an album every 3 years band, or because they have musical diversity, they are band that could put out a longer record without the album feeling repetitive. My one criticism about the album is really just a complement to the band.
This is a mid-tier JEW album for me, but still very enjoyable. I would rank it at least below Clarity, Bleed American, Futures, Chase This Light, and Integrity Blues.
The reason Surviving falls into mid-tier for me is the length. If you're releasing an album with 10 songs on it (one of which had been released a year before - Love Never), they'd all better be bangers, and as "solid" as the last 4 tracks are, they just don't hit the way JEW's best closing runs do. Diamond in particular does not work for me, and neither particularly does Love Never 555 and Delivery are classic tier JEW though
Surviving is my favorite they’ve made since Chase This Light, but I agree that it’s a mid tier record. I think they did a phenomenal job of making an album meant for me as a listener. So many songs are riff driven, similar to Get Right, which is my favorite song off of Integrity Blues. Overall, it was Jimmy Eat World stepping on the gas pedal, while Integrity Blues sounded like them with the car in cruise control just kind of enjoying the view of the world around them. I love the more straight forward rock sound with nasty good riffs. 555 felt like more of an outlier track, but it shined as a result of that. It’s like you could have swapped 555 and Get Right and almost fit them in even better with the vibe on either record. futures - bleed American - clarity - chase this light - surviving - integrity blues - invented - damage - static prevails (I guess, I barely have ever bothered listening to it) I think it’d be hard for them to really top the nostalgic era for me, no matter how great these newer releases are.
Honestly, it's a mid-tier album from them for me at this point too, as much as I hate to admit that. It just feels short to me and like it's missing a track from the middle of the album that just knocks it out of the fucking park. Like the centerpiece. 10 songs is fine but I guess 36 min feels a little short to me from them. I know those are silly quibbles but that's where I'm at with the album. A mid-tier Jimmy Eat World album is still a great fucking album though. I think "Delivery" is probably my favorite track, but "Diamond" is awesome too and the opener and closer are phenomenal.