Bleed American

Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" is one of my favorite albums of all time, as I concluded as I was packing for Sydney today and played the whole thing through after having not heard it for a while. It wrenched my guts when I was at 13 and it wrenches my guts still at 21. I've kind of lost track of what they're doing right now; I wasn't too crazy about Futures and I heard Chase This Light got unenthusiastic reviews, but Bleed American...man. If there were ever an album that came out within the past 10 years that's a display of powerful, emotional, unadulterated rock and roll, this would be it. Dueling electric guitars and sublime drums aside, I love Jim Adkins' voice, which can be totally raw and guttural on the more rockin tracks but also can morph into a soulful croon which works just as well over the acoustic numbers. There was a time in 9th grade where I would sit immobile on the floor in front of my stereo for an hour with a bowl of cereal and just listen to "If You Don't, Don't" over and over and again. God, I loved that song. The driving piano is awesome, and the passion in Adkins' voice over those lyrics makes it simultaneously one of the most uplifting and heartbreaking songs I have ever heard. Except for "The MIddle," (which I eventually found to be sort of grating after hearing it on every TV show, in every coffee shop and in every shopping mall for months in 7th grade) I can listen to every track from "A Praise Chorus" to "Hear You Me" to "Sweetness" over and over again. They are all fantastic. "Bleed American"'s optimism, romanticism, youth, mystery and energy will never get old for me. Hats off, boys.