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Review Summary: Damage is much like reading a stranger’s diary; you can sort of pick up what’s going on but it’s not meant for you. Released recently, Damage is the eighth studio album from Jimmy Eat World, Damage. 2013 is the band’s 20th anniversary and they’re certainly earned the right to make a reflective record. Whether it be my young age or lack of familiarity with their previous records, this album was much like reading a stranger’s diary; you can sort of pick up what’s going on but it’s not meant for you. Add in a few ordinary drum fills, routine guitars, standard basslines, James Adkins’ predictably good vocals and you get a musically underwhelming album. It’s an unintentional lullaby from start to finish.
Any song that covers the theme of love (yes you’ll have to search very hard for that one) has to make the listener do one of three things: think of the one they love, want to fall in love or remind them of the love they lost. What I’m trying to say here is personal connection, something that Damage lacks for an album that covers love to the extent that it does. I’ve struggled to find tracks that deserve an honourable mention, only two of them made any kind of impression. “Byebyelove” has a repetitive chorus that was made for kids to mindlessly wail at a concert and “You Were Good” was the first track that I could get in to. Pity it was the last song on the record.
In saying all this, Damage is a solid (though unremarkable) album. There’s nothing really wrong with it, but nothing particularly right either. The maturity will definitely isolate younger fans, a huge risk for a band that has a punk-pop label (how this happened we’ll never know). Damage is nostalgic to the core and wrapped up in itself in a way that only the writers themselves (or perhaps a few die hard fans) could fully understand. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it good record, but it’ll do.
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Album Rating: 3.5
omg get outta here
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Great review.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I have to disagree. I found the album very relatable in the love lost category. The record from beginning to end is about a relationship falling apart. How it starts unravel, ends, and the reflection of anger and regret that comes afterwards.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
i really want to see the correlation between people who like vs. dislike the album, and people who have had vs. haven't had relationships. it seems to me from the reviews ive seen / people i've spoken to etc. that the people who don't like this album tend to not have had much relationship experience, and vice versa.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
ya girls poison ur mind and vitiate ur appreciation for good music
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
ummm what if they just plain hate this type of music. if that is the case, which it certain is for some people, they'd give it a low rating no matter what.
and remember that correlation = / = causation. it really sounds like you're on a wish fulfilling quest right now.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
im not so much talking about people hating this type of music in general im more referring to people who are negative about the lyrics over anything else. people who have liked previous albums but dont like this as they find the lyrical theme of the album childish or lazy/boring. i feel like if you don't have experience in the area that this album's theme portrays then you wouldn't be able to see the meaning in it and vice versa. it's so focused towards one particular idea and experience that if you can't relate to it then the whole album is pretty much wasted on you, at least lyrically. whereas with most albums there is so much variety in the lyrics that a couple of misses doesn't do too much... damage.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Dude you don't have to relate to the music to like it. Some songs just speak to you. A lot of songs about relationships speak to me. I love everything on Futures(though some songs on there aren't about break ups). A great example for me is Orestes by A Perfect Circle. It is most likely about the singer having to go through the pain of letting his mother go eventually which is what he had to do sadly. I don't relate to something like that, yet it's my favorite song of all time. And much like Damage I can't relate to it, and I love some songs on here. But it just lacks a certain level of complexity. People are different man.
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ha people feel strongly about their JEW
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
you dont have to relate to music to like it but this album relies very heavily on its theme; that's my point. 80% of the enjoyment of this album comes from the lyrics for me. whereas usually i enjoy music for riffs and catchy choruses. i don't remember any riffs from this album and the only songs i'd really call catchy are damage and how'd you have me. this album puts all of its eggs in one basket, in a way that most albums just don't. the lyrics are so simple and not particularly creative or original... but they're honest and its their simplicity that makes them relatable. and i feel like it would be a lot harder to relate to the lyrics without having had similar experiences; and for an album that relies so heavily on that, it would make sense that people who can't relate to it wouldn't favour it very highly at all.
strip away the lyrics and this album isn't all that fun. i totally understand why people who don't relate to the lyrics would give this a 2.5. and i see nothing wrong with that rating. i more just find it an interesting observation as i've never really come across an album like this before that, as i said, puts all its eggs in one basket.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Personally I don't have lots of relationship experience, but I still like it. It's not their best work
imo but it's solid. It's just very common lyrical content that's all. I just like they covered content
like this so much better in the past.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
and btw i dont know if people misinterpreted me, but i wasnt trying to be like "oh you just dont GET it man, cause you cant relate so you dont understand, this album is beyond you". i think both opinions are equally valid and i was meaning to say that it's a pretty fascinating observation i think. i've rarely ever found an album where lyrics and themes are so heavily the focus of every review and discussion and weigh in so much on peoples opinions of it. thats why i think this album is so special and powerful (to me), because its so personal, and your experience of it and enjoyment of it depends on who you are as a person. its common lyrical content, yes, but ive never heard it be handled so honestly and relatably. most songs about love are so dramatic and heart-on-the-sleeve and go on about feelings and nothing else; they often dont tell a story or convey what it's really like to be going through a breakup. this album doesn't actually go on about feelings that much, he more sings about experiences one has to fight through if they're going through a break-up. it's even logistic at times.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Good clarification haha. I do really love Appreciation though. "We bulid, we box, we carry on." That's a great line.
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