Review Summary: I've been here before.
"Table for Glasses" is the true definition of a grower. At first, it may not seem like much of a song, yet with further repeated listen, it truly sinks into the deep recesses of human emotion. The violins play, the drums methodically pound to the beat, and Jim's vocals ring true with a soft, yet pained demeanor. Then, there's a crescendo, and everything gets swept away in a sea of sorrow. Lead my skeptic sight. Not asking of me anything, saying nothing about what it means. Then I press repeat, and again I experience those moments of romantic agony and self-caused heartache. Press repeat. Feel the emotions. Do it again. Then "Just Watch the Fireworks" comes on, and seven minutes of pure unadulterated glory awaits me as the pure epicness of that song brings to mind moments where I myself was forced to just watch the fireworks in my own misery and sorrow.
It’s moments like that that make
Clarity the album that it is. It’s the memories of regret and sorrow, interlaced within the wintery atmosphere of the slow, brooding opener “Table for Glasses” and the riff-driven post-breakup angst of “Blister” featuring Tom Lindon on the mic. It’s the memorable chorus and the foreboding hopeless optimism in “Lucky Denver Mint” set behind a backdrop of engrossing guitars and harmonic vocals, making Jim Adkins’ repeated cries of “You’re not bigger than this, not better, why can’t you learn?” so much more effective and powerful. There’s a reason why
Clarity is often considered one of the greatest emo records of the 1990s – everything it does encapsulates the feelings and emotions of heartbreak and melancholy. Whether it’s through fast-paced rockers or atmospheric tearjerkers, the album relates to so many people in so many different ways.
Every word that comes out of Jim Adkins’ mouth is heartfelt and sincere; he never comes off as overly saccharine or trying too hard. You can just hear the pain when he delivers that final whopper of a line in “Just Watch the Fireworks” – over the crashing drums, swooping violins and pounding riffs, he declaring “I said, said, said it out loud over and over, said, said, said it out loud, but what do I know?” with such fervor stands amongst the rest as the strongest component of the song. It’s his vocals that make up so much of the emotion that the band produced on
Clarity, riddled with the sadness of a thousand doomed relationships and a wiser man because of the struggle he went through. Even the most upbeat songs still feel like a downer because of this, a great example being the title track which has Jim’s raspiest singing performance on the whole album, delivering lyrics like “With pride keep every failure in, and with pride hold on to the sinking.” Then again, there are exceptions; “Your New Aesthetic” plays out its message of anti-conformity with a fervent, rockin’ instrumental section and fiery vocals that draw passion from anger instead of misery.
But after all, that’s what
Clarity is about. It’s an album for the memories, and associating a certain scene of your life with a particular track on it only multiplies the emotional sentimentality it carries. Even though “Just Watch the Fireworks” will now always be associated with my breakdown in the Atlantic and “12.23.95” immediately takes me back to that snow-covered winter when I first heard this masterpiece, that’s only part of what makes it so special to me. On its own, this set of thirteen songs carries enough emotional weight through its emotive vocal performances and beautiful guitarwork that it’s pretty damn hard not to be moved by it. That moment in “Fireworks” when the guitars suddenly come in after a brief period of quiet while Jim belts out “I’ll stay up as long as it takes” at the top of his lungs encapsulates everything great about this record, from the songwriting to the singing to the instrumental section.
Clarity is trying to mend the pieces of a broken heart.
Clarity is trying to recuperate after yet another painful breakup.
Clarity is discovering yourself and who you are in the midst of personal struggle. But above all things,
Clarity is about the sheer emotion that inevitably occurs along the path of human life, and it’s about displaying all those feelings for the world to see. When the band titled the album’s tenth track “For Me This Is Heaven”, they must have known how it would eventually become a paradise for me, one where I could get lost in the frigid atmospheres and the angst-ridden riffs. I’d stay up all night, no matter how long it’d take, just to sit with Jimmy and experience this for the first time all over again.
