Chase This Light

Jimmy Eat World were sitting on top of the emo pop world before the release of their last album, Futures. Its dark, inward-looking, and more mature-sounding songs didn't wreck their career, but the record didn't exactly further it. With Chase This Light, the band returns to the straightforward, hooky, and radio-friendly sound of Bleed American and lightens up some in the lyric department in hopes of recapturing its position in the marketplace. They aren't exactly singing about sunshine and lollipops, mostly love problems and the ills of society, but the cloud of gloom that settled over Futures has lifted. The band is back to following the rough template of Bleed American and the albums that came before it, with a mix of rousing anthems like "Big Casino," "Electable (Give It Up)," and "Feeling Lucky," melancholy rockers with singalong choruses like "Always Be" and "Chase This Light," and sweet ballads like "Carry You" and "Dizzy" (which strangely sounds like an outtake from Def Leppard's Hysteria). Only the moody and dark (with strings) "Gotta Be Somebody's Blues" hints at the mature sound of the last album. Try as they might, Chase This Light isn't as good as Bleed American, Still, it's a pleasant listen and Jim Adkins has a solid knack for writing hooky modern pop songs.