Friday, August 24, 2001

Music Review
New Jimmy album packs power-pop
by Jack Bullion
skiff staff

Bleed American
Jimmy Eat World
In the sludge of today’s modern-rock radio, finely crafted pop-rock has been wasted on one-hit wonders.

The last band to take power-pop and do it truly well, the New Radicals (that one hit: “You Get What You Give”), got all flustered with the business and each other, and disbanded before they could make any lasting impact.

Here’s hoping that the same descent into anonymity doesn’t befall the dues-payin’ Arizona quartet Jimmy Eat World, whose fourth and latest album “Bleed American” fairly secretes pop hooks by the gross.

More than any group in recent memory, this band displays an uncanny understanding of how power-pop is supposed to work: start with a jangly guitar riff, get the bass player to play the same note over and over as fast as they can, ignite some explosive drums and smash it all together for that glorious, cathartic chorus.

That recipe is used to perfection on the opening title track and current first single. A song that in the first ten seconds has already established itself as the best rock song of the year. It’s an urgently flawless anthem that will have even the most hardened tuning their air guitars to the key of H.

The other hard numbers are also tinged with musical variations and ingenuity, without sacrificing the power element one iota. “Cautioners” thuds with a towering bass, and “The Authority Song” scoots along with a snazzy shuffle reminiscent of The Clash.

The album’s apex is the sublime “If You Don’t, Don’t,” which blends saccharine and genuine so effortlessly that it should shoot straight to number one once we all start living in a perfect world.

Bleed American does flag in some places. The band gets clumsy on “Get it Faster” and “Sweetness,” the latter of which wouldn’t seem out of place in a 1980s hairband’s repertoire.

On the whole, the album’s not exactly a heavyweight, either. This is the kind of music that plays over closing credits on the WB network, or pipes out of the back of a Jeep Wrangler on its way to the beach.

So Bleed American is not great art — but so what? It is a surprisingly sturdy album, performed by a band that seems to not only have more pop hooks than they know what to do with, but also the sincerity and talent needed to get ‘em under the skin.