I’ve been listening to the newest Jimmy Eat World album at work for the last two days straight (interspersed with some Adele, who is stuck in my head whenever JEW isn’t playing). I keep having thoughts I want to share with someone, but none of my current gchat buddies know the album, so I’m logging them here. So, my official, detailed, biased review of Invented.
1. 1. Heart Is Hard to Find—I love it. I do. I hate, hate, hate though, that they include the F word (warning for you). It makes me want to cry. Because the song is gorgeous in every other aspect. Also, if you listen with only one earphone in you will be confused as to the key until you hit the first chorus. I can never get it right unless I’m using both ears, and that is very confusing to me.
2. 2. My Best Theory—Classic JEW. I dance in my chair at work and probably look like an idiot. Great driving song.
3. 3. Evidence—Also good. Feels more like Chase This Light than Futures. Poppier?
4. 4. Higher Devotion—Meh. I have to be in the exact right mood. Skip it 50% of the time.
5. 5. Movielike—But if you skip High Devotion you get to Movielike, and that one is great. The harmonies in the chorus are so fun to sing, reminiscent of Futures. (Futures was the best JEW album, as we all know.)
6. 6. Coffee and Cigarettes—Routinely skip this as the acoustic is better. See number 14.
7. 7. Stop—First five seconds you think you're listening to Stevie Wonder. Then it resolves into JEW. But it does make for a strange first five seconds.
8. 8. Littlething—One of my favorites on the album. Maybe my absolute favorite song in its entirety, although I like parts of others better. I'll think on that one. The high piano part makes me happy.
9. 9. Cut—I really like this song too. Movielike through Cut is a great set of songs. Sort of a 23/Polaris combo to me. More mellow. And the guitar around minute 3:00 is slightly (slightly) like Moses Mayfield.
1010. Action Needed—Hmm. No thanks. Nine times out of ten I skip it.
1111. Invented— Is it bad that I love the slow, sad songs best? Man. And I really love the female vocals. And the opening guitar. The only bad part to me is from minute 4:57 to 5:44 when it gets rougher. Why couldn’t it have stayed soft and sad and slow? It ends that way though, so the song redeems itself for me.
1212. Mixtape—The first 25 seconds of this song always make me want to skip it. Then I switch tabs, see it’s Mixtape, and hold out. The last 6:06 of the song is great.
1313. You and I—Here we’ve hit the deluxe edition. This is a cover of a Wilco song. I like it. I haven’t compared it to the original, so who knows how that pans out. Kirs probably does, actually. Ask her.
1414. Coffee and Cigarettes (acoustic)—The acoustic is much lighter than the original, and it’s better. To me anyway. I like the chorus the best; it’s a happy song. “I’ve been a lot of places since, but nothing else compares.”
1515. Precision Auto—Too much for me. It feels like Nothingwrong on Futures.
1616. Anais (Demo)—Catchy. Not spectacular. I like the vocals, though. Best lines are “But neither of them ever met you at your best/Come and see me and we’ll brush up on bad habits.”
17. Mixtape (acoustic)—Remember how I liked the original? Acoustic’s good too.
so I finally listened to the whole album.
ReplyDeleteI don't have as much commentary as you, and mostly agree with you, but this is what I thought:
1. Agree with you, and would add that the end kind of sounds like The Decemberists, no?
2. Not my favorite.
6. and 8. Agree, and loved Littlething
12. What don't you like about the beginning? I liked it ...
13. I liked the female vocals on 11 too, but on this one especially.
and I didn't even notice 15 ... so maybe that's not a good thing.
On the other songs I mostly agree with you.
all in all I like it a lot.
I might have more to say after I listen to it some more :)