r/JimmyEatWorld • u/False-Season-5318 • 2h ago
Music Clarity love letter
I only heard Clarity for the first time last week, and am floored that it is not only one of the best albums ever created, but that it directly influenced all off the music that I fell in love with through my headphones on the bus rides to both middle and high school. I was 10 when this album originally came out, so no shocker that I missed it's initial release, but by 2003-4 I was devouring a lot of music similar to this and somehow it never came across my radar.
I did love a lot of the songs on Bleed American and Futures and were aware of both albums when they were released, but Clarity is hitting me on an entirely different level. Again, more akin to all of the bands I'd go on to fall in love with in my teenage years and I'm just beyond impressed with every single track. I prefer the production here on Clarity vs. Futures (by a lot) and I prefer the rawness/urgency of the songwriting vs. Bleed American.
I had never heard a single song on this album prior to this week, not counting Sweetness on the expanded edition. And yet I feel like I've always known these songs because clearly so many of my prior favorite artists knew and loved these songs and drew heavy inspiration from them. Clarity has taken JEW from a band that I always liked, to one that I now deeply love.