Album Review: Jimmy Eat World - Damage

Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins recently said to Time Off that Damage is simply a collection of love songs – the kind that appeal to him. On the quartet's eighth record, this involves being challenged by adversity and tackling personal pain. Work your way back through the Mesa, Arizona band's catalogue, though, and you'll find plenty of love there, too, just in a different scope. And that's what Damage is. It's not a reinvention, it's not an evolution, it's merely a continuation.

But like all journeys, some parts are more exciting than others. Damage isn't a terrible record – not in the slightest – but the ten tracks are rarely amazing. It moves seamlessly song-to-song, and producer Alain Johannes has done a great job maintaining the performance honesty of each individual band member, however, it washes over you a bit too easily without leaving something on a subliminal level.

There's a few spiky rock riffs scattered about – opener Appreciation has a rogue breakdown towards the track's end, while there's some howling six-string upheaval that carves through Lean quite nicely, but as a whole Damage is devoid of any slick licks. And although Jimmy Eat World aren't exactly DragonForce, a lot of their benchmark singles (Bleed American, Just Tonight) have been built around a bold guitar line that's captured the same raw emotion of the band themselves. Damage misses those.

It's an album that's full of questions (“Are we only damaging the little we have left?” – Damage) and promises (I Will Steal You Back), but unfortunately few answers. And without any punch to define it on a musical level, Damage sadly underwhelms.