Chase This Light.

SO.

I am actually very glad I waited to write this review. Glad because I have had a change of heart about J.E.W.'s latest album.



Well, about a few of the songs anyway.

This is for those of you who have NOT yet downloaded the album, and may be considering it. I pre-ordered it, and have (not joking) listened to it probably 12 times--completely through, song for song.

I should here note that it took me probably 5 listens before I shifted from disappointment to enjoyment. Again, not the whole album, but a few songs began to really grow on me.

(I remember that when I first heard CLARITY, I couldn't stand it. It since has become my single favorite album--ever. I cannot begin to tell you how it moves me.)

Don't believe me? Look up Clarity on iTunes. It's the only album I've found whose "Average Rating" is the HIGHest rating you can give. It is the most perfect compilation of music I've ever, ever heard.

J.E.W. is not the band it was in 2000. You have to accept that. Bands evolve, and you can't expect them not to. Jimmy has gone from hard Emo to Emo Emo; from Indy Rock to what they now are, which is more mainstream. Some people dumped J.E.W. when Futures came out: if Bleed American was different, then Futures was unacceptably mainstream. But again, evolution. Futures has some GREAT music in it, and Chase This Light does as well.

The problem is, I find that I enjoy fewer songs with each album since Bleed American.

AND IT'S NOT FOR A LACK OF TRYING...

The only devolution of J.E.W.--if you can call it that--has come in the lyrics. They have changed from nebulous WONDERS to something much more straight-forward and a bit too predictable. There are exceptions, of course, but I sincerely miss the ambiguity of old J.E.W. lyrics. Like poetry, they allow you to assign your own meaning to them, and that makes them hugely powerful--and personal.

"Sweep the dirty stairs, the ones I waited one. This is just for me--I felt it watching her...lead my skeptic sight to the table and the light...
...Not asking of me anything, saying nothing about what it means, without anybody telling me what I should feel--what I should do."

"Here, you can be anything--anything, that scares you. I think that scares you...

...WHAT GIVING UP GIVES YOU, AND WHERE GIVING UP TAKES YOU: I'VE HAD AND I'VE BEEN."

"If I don't let myself be happy now, then when? If not now, when? When the time we have now ends, and when the Big Hand goes 'round again...Can you still feel the butterflies?"

I mean, C'MON! That is GOLD. Solid and Pure Gold.

TO WRAP this up:

What you'll find with Chase this light is a very polished, refined Jimmy. Too polished, perhaps. Almost slick. It is their most "mainstream" work to date, and that's really the only thing that saddens me. I feel like I know the greatest band on the planet, but all every one else gets to hear is their poppy, peppy work that is just to much like everything else...

THAT BEING SAID, I have 3 picks for you--one of which has become one of my favorite J.E.W. songs of all time. So that's saying something, right?

Here they are:

--"Firefight." It's harder, but very catchy.

--"Always Be." Give this songs a few tries, and you'll be singing for sure. The Chorus is great, and the song really gains momentum in the 2nd verse.

AND MY FAVORITE:

--"Here it Goes." Speaking of choruses, I cannot STOP singing this song.

"Waiting for attention--I'm not. Cut it to the left and I rock. Need an invitation--I don't. Slide it to the right and I Roll."

Now that's what I am talking about. It is so damned catchy, I think it wrote the book on catchiness. It's is very up-tempo and great for an old-fashioned Rock Out. And it is one of the most technically perfect songs I've ever heard.

SO, that's that. I am hoping to photograph J.E.W. before too long, so if they read this I hope they won't change their mind. They are my favorite band, and that's how it is. While I don't love the direction they've gone entirely, I do think they are more talented than ever. I just hope they'll bring all that talent back for another album at the caliber of Clarity.

I've already posted that their show at the M.A.C. was the 2nd greatest show I've ever seen--next to U2 themselves--and that IS saying something.

wesman.