Futures (album)


Futures is the fifth studio album by American rock band Jimmy Eat World, released on October 19, 2004, through Interscope Records. Futures was led by the successful single "Pain", followed by "Work" and "Futures". The album has sold 620,000 units in the United States, giving it Gold Record status.

Background

Jimmy Eat World released their fourth album Bleed American in July 2001 through major label DreamWorks Records, becoming a commercial success, selling over 1.3 million copies. Due to the popularity, the band supported it with two years of touring, which made the members harder to unwind after returning home. In May 2003, Adkins said the band had a lot of new material and would record sometime thereafter with Mark Trombino in Los Angeles, California. Trombino worked with band previously, producing Static Prevails, Clarity and Bleed American. They began pre-production in mid-July with Trombino, where they worked on 18 songs; recording began in early August, with the aim of working on 14 songs.
By September, after five weeks, sessions were nearly finished. The group reached a breaking point with Trombino as they ran out of song ideas; disagreements led to Trombino's departure from the project, with Adkins saying, "I wouldn’t want to work with people who aren’t extremely passionate about their ideas and their contributions." The band subsequently took a break and performed a few shows. Believe in What You, a stop-gap video/live album was released in October. The following month, the band's label DreamWorks was bought by Universal Music Group and absorbed into Interscope Records in January 2004.

Production

The band re-grouped sometime after; they had been working with Trombino for around 10 years and wanted to try working with another producer to see what ideas/suggestions they would bring. Gil Norton spent two days at the band's own studio, where they showed him demos they had done. The members had liked albums by the different acts that Norton had previously produced, such as Pixies, the Distillers and Dashboard Confessional. Norton enjoyed the demos and was enlisted by the band to produce their next album. Pre-production started and lasted for a month, before sessions began in February 2004 at Cello in Los Angeles. Norton and engineer David Schiffman were assisted by Jason Grossman and Steven Rhodes. The drum parts and a few basic tracks were completed at Cello. Drummer Zach Lind said he felt into the habit of doing simple drum patterns during the making of Clarity and Bleed American, but when working with Norton, he pushed Lind to challenge himself.
Sessions then moved to Harvey Moltz's home studio in Tucson, Arizona. Most of the album was recorded at the home, which belonged to a friend of the band's. Adkins said the group simply wanted a change of scenery from California, as Tucson helped them work without distractions. During the course of the sessions, they band recorded up to 9 or 10 versions of each track. Additional recording was done by the band at Tempe Studio. Strings were recorded at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles with Jake Davies, who was assisted by Greg Burns. Rich Costey and Davies acted as additional engineers; the latter also did digital editing. Sessions were concluded in May 2004, with mixing taking place in mid-June with Costey at Cello. He was assisted in this process by Claudius Mittendorfer with secondary engineer Dan Leffler Costey mixed "Drugs or Me" at Avatar Studios in New York City with secondary engineer Ross Petersen. Ted Jensen then mastered the recordings at Sterling Sound in New York City.

Composition

Overview

Musically, Futures has been described as alternative rock, arena rock, emo, pop punk, pop rock and power pop. It saw the band shy away from the pop-influenced sound of Bleed American and expand on the mood of Clarity ; they incorporated more guitar solos, which Linton had been insisting on, and complex guitar lines. Adkins viewed the release as a sequel to Clarity, which shared its denser production. When working on material, Adkins would show the band the rough outline of it, which the rest of the members would flesh out and potentially add further instrumentation, such as piano. Discussing the title, Adkins said it could be perceived in different ways: "It’s pessimistic, it’s optimistic, and hopeful, and greedy all at the same time."
Some of the material on the album dated back to when they were recording Bleed American, while others existed for two weeks before they entered the studio for Futures. Linton said Norton provided a number of "really good" song ideas in regards to the sound and final arrangements. Norton helped the band think about transitions between sections in songs; previously Adkins felt "the best transition was none … I always thought it was more powerful not to do one." The album drew comparisons to Jets to Brazil and Maritime, while some of the guitar lines recalled Hüsker Dü and Fugazi. The lyrics delve into darker subject matter, such as despair, politics, drug abuse and self-loathing.

Tracks

The opening song "Futures" was a mid-tempo track that was compared to other acts Norton had worked with, such as the Foo Fighters and the Pixies. It starts with two harmonizing guitar riffs, shifting into the verses which puts the vocals at the forefront. A tremolo-effected guitar line in the pre-chorus leads into the half-time chorus section, complete with echo-enhanced vocals. Adkins said the track was about George W. Bush, as well as being disillusioned to things happening. "Just Tonight..." was in the vein of "Run to You" by Bryan Adams, and recalled the group's Static Prevails material. "Work" is a pop rock track with vocal harmonies that recalled "The Middle". Liz Phair contributes backing vocals to it; the group felt it would be a song she would sing. The band's A&R representative personally knew Phair, and eventually got in contact with her. Adkins said the track was simply about "doing something you know you shouldn't be doing". "Kill" opens with a piano and acoustic guitar intro, which builds to crescendos in vein of the Pixies. Burch's bassline plays a counter-melody to the acoustic guitar; strings are barely audible during the bridge section. Adkins set himself a challenge to write a track that had no repetitive lyrics, which became "Kill"; it features a reference to the Heatmiser song "Half Right".
The AC/DC-indebted track "Pain" discusses the pros and cons of self-medicating through the use of alcohol and drugs. It was the last track written for the album, done before they entered the studio. He came up with the lyrics while walking around the University of Arizona campus. "Drugs or Me" is a piano-and-feedback led ballad about Adkins' friend choosing him or drugs. It features strings that were arranged by David Campbell, and was compared to Death Cab for Cutie. "Polaris" was done in the vein of U2; the guitar part was a mixed of "Frontwards" by Pavement and "Hysteria" by Def Leppard. The following track "Nothingwrong" was the most reminiscent of Bleed American, specifically the track "Get It Faster". The power ballad "Night Drive" opens with a "ooh" vocal melody; it talks about an alcoholic person in Adkins' life. "23" recalled Disintegration -era the Cure. It starts with a bass part and echo-effected acoustic guitars, before the drums and Adkins' vocal part accompany them. Adkins said it is about discovery and taking chances on opportunities that arise.

Release

On July 16, 2004, Futures was announced for release in October. On July 30, the album's track listing was revealed. Samples of three new tracks, "Futures", "Nothingwrong" and "Night Drive", were posted on the groups website shortly afterwards. In late August and early September, the band performed at the Street Scene and Summerfest festivals. "Pain" was released as a single on August 24. Two versions of the CD single were released: one included demos of "When I Want" and "Shame" and the video for "Pain"; while the other features the demo "Shame", a live recording of "Yer Feet" and the video for "Pain". The video, which premiered on September 14 through Launch.com, was directed by Paul Fedor and roughly followed the theme of the film Better Off Dead. It was shot in North Bridge, California.
Later in September, the group played two shows in the UK. Futures was made available for streaming on October 11 through MTV's website, before being released on October 19 through Interscope Records. Some promotional copies featured the extra track "Jen", which was left off as Adkins felt it was out of place on the album. The artwork was a photograph taken by Christopher Wray-McCann at Burning Man. According to Adkins, the event had a phonebooth "in the middle of nowhere with a sign above it that says ‘Talk To God’". A deluxe edition of the album was released showcasing the album's songs in demo form. To promote its release, the band played in-store gigs, held listening parties at the Fast Forward chain stores, a session for Launch.com. They appeared on Daily Download, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
In October and November, they embarked on a US tour with the likes of Recover, Emanuel and Razorlight. "Work" was released to radio on December 7. To coincide with this, the band played a series of radio festival throughout the month. In January 2005, they went on a brief two-week tour with Elefant and Reuben's Accomplice. In February and March, the group went on a European tour, which ended with a stint in the UK; to coincide with this, "Work" was released as a single in the latter territory. The CD single included the Styrofoam remix of "Drugs or Me", an acoustic version of "Work", as well as the song's music video; the 7" vinyl featured a cover of the Teenage Fanclub track "The Concept".
At the end of March, the band performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A short series of shows in Japan lead into the two-month co-headlining US arena tour with Taking Back Sunday in April and May. Some shows featured support from the Format and Mates of State. "Futures" was released to radio on May 10. The group supported Green Day for two shows in the UK in June, which was followed by a European tour in June and July. In late August, the group performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Following this, the band had a support slot on Green Day's three-month US arena tour between August and October. The group supported Green Day again, for two shows in Australia in December.
In 2014, the band went on a celebratory 10th anniversary tour for the album, where they played it live in its entirety. They went on stints of the US, Australia, and New Zealand. To coincide with this, Futures, alongside Static Prevails and Clarity, was re-pressed on vinyl.

Reception

Futures was well received by music critics upon its release. On the review aggregating website Metacritic, the album obtained an average score of 73, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
Tim Sendra at AllMusic stated "Futures will most likely not be the sensation that Bleed American was -- it is too dark and inwardly focused for that." Sendra, however, noted that the album shows a sound progression that fans should accept. Brian Hiatt of Entertainment Weekly opined that "if Jimmy are in the middle of a long ride, Futures retains just enough tunefulness to keep us from jumping out of the car." At The Guardian, Betty Clarke noted "singer-songwriter Jim Adkins jumps neck-deep into heartbreak. His lyrics are his strength."
Futures sold 98,000 copies in its first week, charted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200. It was ranked at number 44 in Kerrang!s "50 Albums You Need to Hear Before You Die" list.

Track listing

All songs written by Jimmy Eat World.
;Deluxe edition and bonus tracks
The CD was issued simultaneously as regular and deluxe editions, with the latter containing a bonus CD with exactly the same track listing as the regular album, but carrying demo versions of the songs, which were recorded in Jimmy Eat World's home recording studio. In addition, there were several bonus tracks scattered among import and vinyl versions of the album:

Personnel

Personnel per booklet, except where noted.
Jimmy Eat World
Additional musicians
Production

Weekly

Year-end