Jimmy Eat World has had a pretty successful and stable career and have earned themselves a title as a respected band. Their new album, “Surviving”, brings back that sound that is original to them and recognizable by artists and is a garage-band rock sound that not many mainstream artists are going for in today’s music. The album cover resembles an old Ed Sheeran one, the same orange and black style. This album brings a refreshing sound, while most instrumentals for songs are created electronically, which is a sound that I normally gravitate towards, but I can appreciate when artists still use instruments to prove that music can still be created the “old-school” way. The tracks on this album have that familiar sound that may make fans consider this band “dated”, and when I listened to it, I pictured the songs as something that I would gravitate towards playing in a 2008 Guitar Hero round with some friends. Something I enjoyed with this album is the balance of the rock instruments with also some easy-listening factors, which made me appreciate how I could listen to a rock/alternative album and not feel like the rock element is being thrown in my face and a message is being forced to me with headbangers. The vocals that are produced on this album are very impressive because when bands make a comeback, the aging of the lead singers voice is very evident, and that was not the case here. Jim Adkins still puts the same emotion and sound into the group, 25 years later after many hits and tours. Awesome job in that category. I was checking some things off of my to-do list while giving this album a listen and was presently surprised with it. The opening song, the title track, is the perfect introduction to the album because it gives you a good preview of to what you will be hearing throughout the album, because as good as the songs are, sometimes I couldn’t tell when one song ended and another one began. Overall, the album did not bring something new to the table and recycles a lot of past, but it made me remember the good elements of music and brought back that classic rock feeling that has been missing from music that is mainly streamed today Rating: 3.5/5
-By: Gio Battaglia