Jimmy Eat World - Futures

The road to success is not an easy one - but some handle its hurdles better than others. In 2001 Jimmy Eat World was a widely adored but criminally underappreciated band capable of drawing capacity crowds all over the world, but unable to find a record deal to their liking. Having just been unceremoniously spit out of the major label machinery, the band opted to record a new album entirely on its own dime and let labels come a-calling. The gambit more than paid off, with the resultant Bleed America (later re-titled Jimmy Eat World), yielding the hits "The Middle" and "Sweetness," and ultimately selling over 1.4 million copies in the U.S. By the time two full years of touring had wound down, they'd made triumphant breakthroughs everywhere from Saturday Night Live, being nominated for an MTV Video Music Award and topping, "Best Of" lists at Blender, Alternative Press, SPIN, USA Today, People and Rolling Stone to name a few. Not bad for a little band from Mesa! , Arizona. But then came the problem once all your rock dreams come true, what do you do for an encore? The band's new album, Futures, is the answer to that question. It's a sprawling, gorgeous, heavy-yet-quiet epic with songs ranging from ambitious hard rock to epic ballads. With the hard driving first single "Pain" kicking off the campaign to the beautifully constructed follow up single "Work," Futures is perhaps the best sounding record in Jimmy Eat World's career.