Jimmy Eat World
Integrity Blues

Jimmy Eat World are back. Some have missed them, others not at all, but I'm writing the review anyway because they, whether you like it or not, deserve credit for bringing the emo genre to rather high positions in the American charts and beyond. The point is that, after the commercial success that was Bleed American, the band started to decline, and honestly, I don't know how many continued to follow them in recent years — I think very few. Apart from a few songs here and there, the albums were really quite bad, and it was also a bit disappointing. But 2016 brought a revival of the nineties that many would have gladly done without, and among all the bands that showed up, there were Jimmy Eat World with Integrity Blues. An album that distances itself from the emo that characterized their entire career, sometimes influenced by punk (especially at the beginning), sometimes by pop (in the successful period) but still emo. Now the group has decided to explore, or at least come very close to indie rock, and once you hear it, it's not even that displeasing. The album fascinates, captivates, creates beautiful atmospheres, and makes you nod along despite the sweet melodies. The singles work well; in fact, if I hadn't liked them right away, I wouldn't have even listened to this album. However, it all seems to have a limit, and despite getting out of the hole they were digging themselves into, there's still a long way to go. It almost seems like a new debut, and for a band with twenty years of career behind them, it sounds pretty bad. But what I think is that Jimmy Eat World, continuing at this pace, have — or rather, will have — a second chance, and life doesn't offer many of those. We'll have to see if, in their forties, they'll manage to hold their ground and seize this opportunity.