Blogs
  • Go! 3/7-3/9
    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
    04:06AM 03/08/08
  • The Morning Brew: Monday, 3.10
    10:12AM 03/10/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
    06:08PM 11/09/07
Recent Articles
Related Articles

Recent Articles By Shae Moseley

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

The first lyric on Jimmy Eat World's new album Chase This Light is a very self-assured — if not presumptuous — one-word imperative: "stay." But an enormous wall of distorted guitars then suckerpunches the listener, just before a raucous burst of power drill-buzzing guitars bolts one to the chair. (In other words, vocalist/songwriter Jim Adkins is basically saying, "Um, yeah, you're not going anywhere for the next 40 minutes.") "Big Casino" is perfectly crafted to be an album-opener in the same way that the song "Bleed American" — which was renamed "Salt Sweat Sugar" after September 11 — demanded one's full attention from the get-go on the band's self-titled 2001 album.

That disc catapulted the Arizona quartet into the mainstream consciousness on the strength of undeniably catchy, radio-ready singles such as "The Middle" and "A Praise Chorus." And like those songs, Light finds Adkins continuing to paint vivid, nostalgic scenes of the simple moments that are often life's most exciting. "Before this world starts up again, it's me and night/We wait for the sun/The kids and drunks head back inside," introduces the first verse of "Big Casino," a song that epitomizes the desperate epiphanies which often accompany the first moments of sunrise to a soggy, party-drenched brain. Light cements Jimmy Eat World as a band that banks on its strengths (i.e. inventive arrangements that transcend the "emo" tag and glossy production tricks) to create infectious music that's familiar but doesn't pander to a formula. In the process, it finds that elusive place in pop music where mental pictures of a romanticized past serve as fuel to push one toward the mysterious future.

About Us | Work for Riverfront Times | Esubscribe | Free St. Louis Classifieds | National Advertising | Privacy Policy
Problem With the Site? | RSS | Site Map
©2008 Village Voice Media All rights reserved.

Riverfront Times Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff

buy, sell, trade (3,283)
musician (445)
rentals (3,962)
jobs (2,697)
adult entertainment (1,107)
Personal of the Day


More Personals >>
NOW CLICK THIS
  • - SXSW Showdown!
  • - Ultra Music Festival
  • - Cocktails for a Cause!
  • - Virtual Career Fair
  • - St. Louis Home Search
  • - Restaurants 2007
  • - Digital Jukebox
  • - St. Louis Spaces
  • - 2008 RFT Restaurant Guide Poll, Vote Now!
  • - RENTstlouis