Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
Jim Adkins And Crew Continually Chase Their Production-Heavy Light
Feb 2, 2008
The newest offering from Jimmy Eat World, entitled 'Chase This Light', contains as many questions as it does answers. For just over a decade now, fearless alt-rock bandleader Jim Adkins has crafted a sound that is unique, crisp and ultimately over produced, boasting ultra-tight stops and starts, power pop guitar riffs and songs that have staying power within both the indie and mainstream music scenes. How does he do it?
'Chase This Light' is more of the same from Jimmy Eat World but still, and almost impossibly, taken up another notch in its production values and crisp time signatures. The lead off track and radio hit 'Big Casino' has already jammed hundreds of radio frequencies with its convalescent pop sound, showcasing driving electric guitar, throttling drums and Adkins' trademark jittery, passionate vocal chords. Though the words of the song have been debated through several zines as a first person story about Adkins, it is of a more informed opinion that it is actually a fictitious story about a gambling, average joe character from Jersey (as Adkins, himself, was born in Mesa, Arizona):
"I'm the one who gets away/
I'm a New Jersey success story/
And they'll say 'All the salt in the world/
Couldn't melt that ice.../
And they'll say 'hey, gimme a chance to
shake that hand...they'll say.../"
The song, though, seems to be more layered than what a first glimpse would indicate. Oddly enough, 'Go Big Casino' has been the title of a somewhat secretive musical side project of Adkins for years. Though there are some other decent songs on the album (i.e Let It Happen, Gotta Be Somebody's Blues, Carry You), the standouts and possibly thematic emblems of the album lie in 'Big Casino' and the title track 'Chase This Light' which speaks of the inevitable clock of life over a bed of soothing, guitarscapes: 'Tonight, Chase This Light with me...my life is yours, in your gifted hands'.
But what stands out about 'Chase This Light' in a time where creative music is at its distributional peak? What will make both fans and non-fans of Jimmy Eat World acquire this album? One word comes to mind; Integrity. Jim Adkins has stayed true to his form and style of song-writing (though lessening a little on the experimental side since tracks like the 9 minute epic 'Sky Harbour'), sticking more to the straight ahead values of displaying his message through a highly accessible medium.
In a sense, it could be argued that 'Chase This Light' is representative of Adkins and the band - they have never stopped chasing the light that started all of them down the road of music. On the album back cover artwork, the light is displayed in the form of a lit match which may indicate, on a deeper level, that Adkins and crew know just how powerful that light really is but yet how quick it can disappear.
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