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Jimmy Eat World
Jim Adkins' voice is a mixture of stern vocals and whisper-soft longing, much like the disc as a whole. The album starts off strong, turns it up a notch and then, well, just keeps going. Full of taut music and bountiful lyrics, it is more than emo and more than rock; it is just plenty good. Futures is a bold step forward for this band. It is the recognition of hard work, honest-to-goodness talent and sheer love of music-making. Maturation isn't just in the music and the burgeoning global popularity of the band. With songs like "Drugs" and "The World You Love," Adkins undertakes the painful task of explaining exhausted relationships and the boredom of life that leads to dependency. Like an inconsolable houseguest, weighty songs like this could turn old fast, but with tracks this smooth the band makes it easily palatable. So touching and universal, Futures will make you long to have your heart broken just to feel something again. Until then you can just listen. —Kevin Yeoman
Rise Against
Siren Song of the Counter Culture, besides being one of the most heavy-handed titles in recent memory, is in its heart of hearts just a title. The album itself is a thinly veiled series of partially re-hashed songs, conjuring up a rush of cynicism meant as sentimentality. It is not as though the songs themselves aren't laden with meaning. They are. But the songs, as well as the band—especially lead singer Tim McIlrath—seem to lack the courage of their convictions. On "Tip the Scales" they sing, "Are we so alone, so distant, so forgotten as we think ourselves to be?" If this is the standard Rise Against is looking to set, the listener just can't be compelled to follow or believe. After several listens to this disc, it all comes down to stuff we've heard before. Nothing new, nothing original. Rise Against doesn't pack enough power into their punch to live up to the namesake. It's false advertisement. —Kevin Yeoman Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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Jimmy Eat World—or James, if you don't know them that
well—had, prior to the release of Futures, large shoes to fill: their
own. Having found widespread success with their previous album, now a much
larger audience is watching the boys of Jimmy. With Futures, the band has
proven they are ready to impress us all and accept the moniker of "great rock
band."
For all the preclusion to what they are about—all the
pre-selling and posturing just from the name alone, the obvious attempts at
riding the coattails of a certain similarly named, but now defunct, rock 'n'
roll outfit—Rise Against sure do leave a lot to be desired.
