Jimmy Eat World – Clarity Live

Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity (1999) played a significant role in their success, and remains this critic’s favorite of their albums. While Jimmy Eat World (aka Bleed American) had more MTV anthems, Clarity was the best in sound and substance. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the Arizona group selected Clarity for their whirlwind full-album tour. I doubt they had to draw straws.

The positives of Clarity Live, which is available exclusively through their official website, are more nostalgic than anything else: these are songs that emo/pop/rock junkies chewed on years ago. The original album was a great cover to cover listen, featuring hard hitters like “Your New Aesthetic,” “Crush,” “Blister,” and “Clarity” as well as bittersweet ballads like “Table for Glasses,” “A Sunday,” “Ten,” “Just Watch the Fireworks,” and “For Me this is Heaven.” The material is still easily accessible by melancholy high schoolers and college students whose lives are (still?) upside down. You’ll hear these folks on the album, screaming lyrics and wetting themselves.

The negatives are enough not to buy this album, however. Having seen Jimmy Eat World live, I (and possibly some others, too) will be the first to recall a mediocre effort in which the poor vocals were distracting and the energy just wasn’t there. Chalk that up (maybe) to the vocal demand of the music—Jim Adkins certainly has some pipes, but they’re more strained than trained. With Clarity Live, we’re getting more of the pitchy vocals. At various points in every song. The musicianship is close, but missing some mojo—after all, this material has been around since well before Clarity came out in ’99. To steal a phrase from fellow emo-ers The Get Up Kids, this new effort certainly isn’t “something to write home about.”

Am I being too harsh? Maybe, but I have to be true to my ears. Many groups deliver live, and make live performance the absolute standard for their music. A tired Jimmy Eat World makes for a sub-par live album after the fact, and considering all the excellent new music out there that’s deserving of the revenue, I’m going to suggest you not spend any money or time on Clarity Live. Unless Jimmy Eat World is donating all the proceeds to charity, the original album is all you need. Trust me.

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