Clarity (Jimmy Eat World album)
Encyclopedia
Clarity is the third studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World is an American alternative rock band from Mesa, Arizona, that formed in 1993. The band is composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins, guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind....

, released on February 23, 1999 through Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

. Overlooked upon its release, Clarity has since amassed cult status and critical acclaim, often lauded as one of the best records of the 1990s. Praise centered on its dynamic instrumentation
Instrumentation
Instrumentation is defined as the art and science of measurement and control of process variables within a production, or manufacturing area....

, as well as the heartfelt delivery of singer-guitarist-lyricist Jim Adkins. Various music critics have credited the album for serving as a huge influence on modern-day emo music. However, despite critical praise and promotion of the single "Lucky Denver Mint" in the Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

 comedy film Never Been Kissed
Never Been Kissed
Never Been Kissed is a 1999 comedy film directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, Leelee Sobieski, John C. Reilly, Jessica Alba, Marley Shelton, James Franco , Giuseppe Andrews, Jeremy Jordan and Garry Marshall...

, Clarity was commercially unsuccessful in a musical climate dominated by teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....

, and the band were dropped from their major label record deal the following year.

Ironically, it was Clarity’s initial failure that put Jimmy Eat World on the path to their eventual success. After being dropped by Capitol, the band used this time to undertake extensive touring which allowed them to self-fund recording sessions for their eventual mainstream breakthrough, Bleed American
Bleed American
-Personnel:Jimmy Eat World*Jim Adkins – vocals, guitar, percussion, bass guitar on "Your House", piano, organ on "My Sundown", bells, art direction*Rick Burch – bass guitar, vocals*Zach Lind – drums, percussion on "Your House" and "My Sundown"...

 (2001). The album was remastered and re-released in 2007, featuring additional bonus tracks. Two years later, the band released Clarity Live
Clarity Live
-Notes:* "What Would I Say To You Now" originally appeared on a 1997 split-7" EP with Jejune, and also later appeared on the rarities compilation Singles and as a bonus track on the 2009 reissue of Clarity....

 (2009), recorded during its commemorative tenth anniversary tour.

History

The album was recorded in late 1998, to early 1999 at Sound City and Clear Lake Audio, both in North Hollywood, tracks were mixed at One on One in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood.

The album Clarity marks the start of Jim Adkins - as opposed to Tom Linton providing lead vocals, with the exception of the song "Blister," Tom from this point only provides backing vocals on various tracks. The song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" is written based on the John Irving novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Prayer for Owen Meany was the seventh published novel by American writer John Irving when it appeared in 1989. It tells the story of John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany growing up together in a small New England town during the 1950-60s...

.

"Lucky Denver Mint" is featured on the soundtrack of Never Been Kissed
Never Been Kissed
Never Been Kissed is a 1999 comedy film directed by Raja Gosnell and starring Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, Leelee Sobieski, John C. Reilly, Jessica Alba, Marley Shelton, James Franco , Giuseppe Andrews, Jeremy Jordan and Garry Marshall...

.

Release

The 2009 vinyl re-release package includes bonus tracks “Christmas Card” and a demo of "Sweetness
Sweetness (song)
"Sweetness" is a single by Jimmy Eat World from their 2001 album, Bleed American. The song was also featured on the soundtrack for the EA Sports video game NHL 2003...

", as well as a Clarity 2009 tour t-shirt. The 16 pictures used on the album's cover were shot by Paul Drake, Crissy Piper and J Gnewikow, on the original releases of the album, for the 2009 re-issue all 16 images appear on the front of the vinyl. Art company The Uprising were hired to re-work the art for the 2009 release, using the original images, "...we were brought on to reconstruct and reinterpret the original artwork. We wanted to stay true to the original, but give it a slightly more sophisticated and updated look & feel. These reconstructions are always a little tricky because you rarely get all of the original art assets you need, but this turned out fantastic. And the actual prints look amazing!".

Clarity x 10 Tour

The 2009 US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Clarity x 10 Tour, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Clarity, was announced in November 2008 and goes across 10 dates in 10 different states, opening on February 23 at Terminal 5, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, February 24, 930 Club Washington DC, February 25, Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia, February 26, House of Blues
House of Blues
House of Blues is a chain of 13 live music concert halls and restaurants in major markets throughout the United States. House of Blues first location was in Cambridge's Harvard Square. It was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, star of The Blues Brothers...

, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, February 28 at the Metro
Metro Chicago
This page is about the concert hall; for the metro region surrounding Chicago, see Chicago metropolitan area.Metro is a concert hall at 3730 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in...

 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, March 2 at the Ogden Theater in Denver, March 4 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, March 5 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, March 6 at San Diego's House of Blues and then ending in the bands home state of Arizona on March 7 at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...

, support for the tour comes from No Knife and Reuben's Accomplice. The band has been extensively rehearsing in studio and on February 12 performed a rehearsal live over the internet. The band has also been using the social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...

 Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 to update and share photos and other material from the studio. The band released Clarity Live
Clarity Live
-Notes:* "What Would I Say To You Now" originally appeared on a 1997 split-7" EP with Jejune, and also later appeared on the rarities compilation Singles and as a bonus track on the 2009 reissue of Clarity....

 - a digital-only release of the Clarity x 10 tour's finale, recorded in Tempe - on April 7, 2009.

Reception and legacy

Despite being largely overlooked upon its release, the album's critical stature has grown in time. In retrospect, the album is now viewed as a "masterpiece", a "landmark album of the 1990s", and "the Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin IV
The fourth album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums...

 of emo rock". In 2008, Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

 magazine polled members of seventeen modern-day bands, all of whom cited Jim Adkins’ writing and performance on the record as a primary influence. Similarly, Manchester Orchestra
Manchester orchestra
Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2005. The group is currently composed of rhythm guitarist-singer-songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, keyboardist and percussionist Chris Freeman, bassist Jonathan Corley, and drummer Tim Very...

 bassist Jonathan Corley, in an interview with Rip it Up
Rip It Up (magazine)
Rip It Up is a bi-monthly New Zealand music magazine. Started in June 1977 as a free monthly giveaway, it grew rapidly, with its monthly print run reaching 30,000 copies by the mid 1980s...

 magazine, said that Clarity was one of his all-time favourite records and one that "changed the way I look at music." Preceding the bands tenth anniversary tour of the album, Pete Cottell of The Phoenix New Times wrote, "What's truly admirable about the album is that it moves in so many different directions without getting lost on its journey. There's a tirade against shameless conformity ("Your New Aesthetic"), a herky-jerky, post-punk Police homage ("Believe in What You Want"), and a shimmering power ballad ("For Me This Is Heaven"). While ("Goodbye Sky Harbor") spills over with layered harmonies, chiming guitar passages, and 808 spurt. Unlike the 12 other tracks on Clarity, it's an almost impossible undertaking upon first listen. Once you've made it to the 13-minute mark, however, you'll never hit the skip button again." Leor Galil of the Bostonist, noted that, "The album has been hailed as a cult and indie classic, and is one of a few go-to records that cemented an aural aesthetic known as emo, and is a genuinely deft and moving piece of music from start to finish. No wonder a proposal for Continuum
Continuum
Continuum may refer to:* Continuum , anything that goes through a gradual transition from one condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt changes-Linguistics:...

's 33⅓ book series about Clarity is in the running for potential-future publication." Writing in 2003, Andy Greenwald
Andy Greenwald
Andy Greenwald is a writer of social commentary, specifically about popular music. He is currently a senior contributing writer at Spin Magazine, and has also written for such publications as The Washington Post, Blender, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, MTV Magazine, Complex, and Magnet...

 called it "one of the most fiercely beloved rock 'n' roll records of the last decade. It is name-checked by every single contemporary emo band as their favorite album, as a mind-bending milemarker that proved that punk rock could be tuneful, emotional, wide-ranging, and ambitious."

Upon its re-issue in 2007, Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....

 magazine awarded a 4.5 star rating and noted that it was, "1999's masterful Clarity that established a foundation for 21st century emo. Dozens of weepy bottom-feeders have tried to write mid-20s angst anthems better than the soaring ‘Lucky Denver Mint’ or the delicately heartbroken ‘Just Watch The Fireworks’– but few have succeeded." Allmusic praised the album and awarded a four star rating. Mark Vanderhoff stated; "Clarity mixes introspective balladry with power-chord punk rock, elements of chamber pop, and subtle doses of electronica to create a remarkably unique album". Tim Nelson of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 was praiseworthy in his 2007 review of the remastering. "The band and Trombino deserve credit for blending heartfelt, yearning vocals and rock dynamics with adventurous production and unique instrumentation" Alternative Press included the album in their "10 Classic Albums of 1999" feature. Scott Heisel wrote, "Like Weezer's Pinkerton before it, the album has gone on to serve as the birthplace of emo's third wave. The sixteen-minute closing track "Goodbye Sky Harbor", with its organic breakdown/electronic build up is often imitated but never duplicated. Proving its far better to test your own limits than rely on the parameters of others - which is the exact reason why Clarity resonates with tens of thousands of people, a decade later". Nate Chinen, writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, accounted that "Clarity was a pivotal album for Jimmy Eat World, the first to feature Jim Adkins on lead vocals instead of Mr. Linton and the last to reflect the heart-on-sleeve values of emocore more than the hard gleam of pop-punk. The songs convey acute self-awareness along with flashes of grace and insolence: the album is a pitch-perfect teenage plaint." Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...

 magazine awarded the album five K's, which indicates "classic", and also labelled the album as the band's "Essential Purchase" in an article years later; "Glorious is perhaps the best word to capture the essence of Clarity. Overflowing with flawless melodies backed up not only by magnificent musicianship but a ton of heart, this is the album that renders the label 'emo' redundant. Every note and syllable resonates with the kind of heartfelt emotion we'd like to think is poured into everything we listen to".

Harry Guerin of RTÉ Entertainment gave the album a full five star rating in his review. He described the album as a, "dense, beautiful collection which sees them bring in orchestras, drum loops and programming and find space for killer choruses, ballads and left field forays. The shortest song is under three minutes, the longest over 16 and the more you listen to all of them the more you'll wonder why this masterpiece wasn't massive" Record Collector
Record Collector
Record Collector is the United Kingdom's longest-running monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.-The early years:...

 were also highly favourable. Eleanor Goodman awarded four stars out of five in her review and commented, "though the multicoloured cover of 1999’s Clarity became familiar in music shops. Its combination of melancholy, introspective pop with faster punk rock broke the band in the US". Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...

 staff reviewer Andrew Hartwig rated the album with a "Superb" 4.5 out of 5 rating. He praised the musicianship of the band; "Musically, the band are excellent. The drumming is sophisticated and original and the use of two guitars is a great addition to the band. The aforementioned range of added instruments adds immensely to the arrangements of the songs". He went on to summarise, "Clarity is an album full of sensible pop songs, replay value and a diverse range of instruments and sounds. Truly one of the best albums of the 90s". Charles Merwin of Stylus
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....

 gave the album an "A" grade and called it a "minor masterpiece — a product of its time and as important to modern emo as Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...

's Pinkerton
Pinkerton (album)
Pinkerton is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Weezer, released on September 24, 1996. After finishing tours in promotion of their 1994 album Weezer, the band originally planned to record a space-themed rock opera entitled Songs from the Black Hole...

".

Track listing

All lyrics written by Jim Adkins and Tom Linton; music composed by Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World is an American alternative rock band from Mesa, Arizona, that formed in 1993. The band is composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins, guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind....

.

Personnel

Jimmy Eat World
  • Jim Adkins – lead
    Lead vocalist
    The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...

     vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

    , rhythm
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

     guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , keys
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , string
    String instrument
    A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

     arrangement
    Arrangement
    The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

    , lyrics
    Lyrics
    Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

    , art direction
  • Rick Burch – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , backing vocals
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

  • Zach Lind – drums, percussion, vibes
    Vibraphone
    The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

    , bells
    Bell (instrument)
    A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

    , chimes, programming
    Programming (music)
    Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...

  • Tom Linton – lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

    , vocals, piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

    , lyrics


Additional musicians
  • Joel Derouin – violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

  • Suzie Katayama – cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

    , string arrangement
  • Mark Trombino
    Mark Trombino
    Mark Trombino is a rock music producer. He started his career as the drummer of Night Soil Man, before playing for Drive Like Jehu. He also played in a Long Beach-based punk rock band called First Offense which released a seven inch on Mystic Records entitled "Broken Home."-Bands:*Alive in Wild...

     – minimoog
    Minimoog
    The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970 by R.A. Moog Inc. , and production was stopped in 1981. It was re-designed by Robert Moog in 2002 and released as Minimoog Voyager.The Minimoog was designed in response to the use of...

    , sequencing
    Sequencing
    In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure of an unbranched biopolymer...

    , additional percussion, programming


Production
  • Dean Fisher – engineering assistant
    Audio engineering
    An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

  • Brian Gardner – mastering
    Audio mastering
    Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

  • Nick Raskulinecz – engineering assistant
  • Ron Rivera – engineering assistant
  • Justin Smith – engineering assistant
  • Mark Trombino – production
    Record producer
    A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

    , engineering, mixing
    Audio mixing (recorded music)
    In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...

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