On several tracks Zach Lind’s percussion unit sounds so mechanical (“Here It Goes”, “Always Be”) you’d swear it was a drum machine, but he’s still not the worst off member here. But the texture they shoot for is lost in syrup, and the anthems they want to emerge are all muffled. Production is crucial to such a ‘big’-sounding effort as this, where the songs are so shiny they practically tinkle and sparkle out of the stereo. Vig’s shimmering, top-notch knob-fiddling might work in the favor of his own outfit Garbage, but it comes off processed and sterile on a Jimmy Eat World record. High-profile producer Butch Vig was once accused by Kurt Cobain of over-softening Nirvana’s tough spots during the hammering out of Nevermind for commercial success, but in Jimmy Eat World’s case, he snuffs the life out of them instead. It sounds like a weaker, limper version of their last work, Futures. Every chapter in their back catalog so far has built on the previous in some conclusive way, but Chase This Light doesn’t. It’s the first Jimmy Eat World album that is uniformly average.

The Arizona crew have a perfect track record up until now (excluding perhaps the sheer amount of time they take to deliver each studio outing), which is why Chase This Light is so disappointing.

Meanwhile 2004’s Futures tied stadium riffs in with more visceral songwriting. 2001’s Bleed American developed those strengths further and delivered a hook-laden, bolder set of anthems. 1999’s Clarity was a pretty rough starter, but already showed signs of their knack for deft lyricisms channeled through kinetic post-punk heritage. At its best, their music is an affair that bubbles with every sort of feeling that rings true. Their themes are universal rather than teen-tailored.

The key to their success has always been about defying trends and bandwagons and evolving in their own direction with each release. Jimmy Eat World has continually proven their worth as a unique group of the highest order, refusing ever to be narrowed into the stereotype of ‘that band that had that hit “The Middle”’. They helped the sound to make the great leap across from the indie scene to mainstream at the turn of the millennium. Years before faceless, angst-ridden acts drifted endlessly in and out of MTV’s revolving doors, Jimmy Eat World had all the elements of the so-called emo genre laid out.

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