Inside Music with Katie Hasty

Jimmy Eat World 'Invent' new album for September

Will the new album triumph over their flatlined last?

By Katie Hasty Monday, Jul 19, 2010 5:21 PM

Jimmy Eat World's "Invented"

Credit: DGK/Interscope

A couple years ago, I had a very short but sweet debate with a co-worker about Jimmy Eat World. When the rockers announced they were to release their new full-length “Chase This Light” in 2007, I was a defender.

“Jimmy Eat World?” he snickered.

“Yeah!” I said, cawing, as I did my freshman year in high school, “They’re awesome.”

There was a pause.

“Clarity.”

“’Bleed American’.”

“Yeah, you’re right. They’re awesome.”

“Chase the Light” definitely wasn’t the album we expected, nor, upon listening, the album we hoped for. There constant hiccups of required renewal and, while I personally thought “Big Casino” was a killer single, I can hardly remember any of the rest of it.

But I’m allowing the heart on my little sleeve to skip a beat again. JEW is releasing another new set, “Invented, “ on Sept. 28, and at least one tidbit of information gives me hope: producer Mark Trombino, -- who produced those two aforementioned solid records, plus “Static Prevails” -- is back on board.

It’s not that “Chase This Light’s” engineers Chris Testa, John Fields or exec producer Butch Vig weren’t able-bodied. Their body of work combined would put any middling pop producer to shame. Frontman Jim Adkins’ strength is in writing pop songs for a Big Rock Record, but there was too much lean on pop and not enough rock. The delivery was tepid. It’s like they all just started getting to know each other and then it went to mastering.

So we’ll see what happens when the first single from “Invented,” “My Best Theory,” hits in August. I look forward to hearing the band working behind the decks again with a guy who clearly knows them at their finest.

JEW will hit the road later this fall, and are likely happy to be done with their Clarity 10^th Anniversary Tour, even if it was a great success and good fun (for me).