Futures is the fifth studio album by American rock band Jimmy Eat World, released on October 19, 2004, through Interscope Records. After touring in support of Bleed American (2001) for two years, the band returned home and began working on new material by mid-2003. Following fruitless sessions with producer Mark Trombino, the band re-grouped and recorded with Gil Norton. The sessions lasted from February to May 2004 and were held at various studios in California and Arizona. Described as encompassing several rock styles, Futures included more solos and complex guitar parts than past releases, intended to expand on the atmosphere of their third studio album Clarity (1999). The songs on the album were compared to the work of Jets to Brazil and Maritime, while some of the guitar parts echoed the sound of Fugazi and Hüsker Dü.
Futures was met with favorable reaction from music critics, many of whom found it an enjoyable listen and praised the songwriting. It charted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200 after selling 98,000 copies in its first week. It would go on to sell over 615,000 copies, and was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Pain" was released as the album's lead single in August 2004. Futures was promoted with headlining tours of the US, Europe, and Japan, before the band toured with Green Day in the US, the UK, and Australia. Jimmy Eat World followed the album with two further singles, "Work" in December 2004 and "Futures" in May 2005. Some publications, such as Blender, Rolling Stone, and Spin included the album on their list of the year's best releases. "Pain" was later certified gold by the RIAA and peaked at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Work" and "Futures" both reached the top 30 of the radio-only Alternative Airplay chart, with the former peaking higher at number six.
Background and development In July 2001, Jimmy Eat World released their fourth studio album, Bleed American, through major label DreamWorks Records. It became a commercial success, selling over 1.3 million copies, being certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Two of its singles charted on the Billboard 200, namely, "Sweetness" at number 75 and "The Middle" at number five. Due to the album's popularity, the band promoted it with two years of touring, which made it hard for the members to unwind after returning home. In May 2003, vocalist and lead guitarist Jim Adkins said that the band had a lot of new material and would record sometime thereafter with Mark Trombino in Los Angeles, California. Trombino worked with the band previously, having produced Static Prevails (1996), Clarity (1999), and Bleed American.
Jimmy Eat World 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 2003, after five weeks, recording sessions were nearly finished. The group reached a breaking point with Trombino as they ran out of song ideas; their 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 Want, 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 Jimmy Eat World regrouped sometime after and wrote "Work", "Pain", "Polaris", and "23". The band had been working with Trombino for around 10 years and wanted to see what ideas another producer would suggest. Bassist Rick Burch said they felt it was too soon to work on an album, having spent a considerable amount of time touring Bleed American, suggesting that they should have taken a six-month break. The members had liked albums by the different acts that producer Gil Norton had previously produced, such as the Pixies, the Distillers, and Dashboard Confessional. Lind said that while Trombino was able to handle recording, mix and be a producer, Norton preferred to focus his efforts on the production. He added that Norton's long career producing aided the band's direction. Norton spent two days at the band's own studio, where they showed him demos they had done. Norton enjoyed the demos and was enlisted by the band to produce their next album. Pre-production started and lasted for a month before recording sessions began in February 2004 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles.
When they entered the studio, they had accumulated about 30 tracks to work with; Norton and engineer David Schiffman were assisted by Jason Grossman and Steven Rhodes. The drum parts and a few basic tracks were completed over the course of three weeks. Drummer Zach Lind said he fell into the habit of doing simple drum patterns during the making of Clarity and Bleed American, but Norton pushed Lind to challenge himself. Sessions then moved to the home studio of Harvey Moltz, a friend of the band, in Tucson, Arizona, where most of the album was recorded. Adkins said the group simply wanted a change of scenery from California, as Tucson helped them work without distractions; guitars and vocals were done there. During the course of the sessions, the band recorded up to 9 or 10 versions of each track.
Additional recording was done by the band at Tempe Studio in Tempe, Arizona, where they recorded vocals. 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. While recording strings for "Drugs or Me", there were 30 minutes remaining for the session. Davies transcribed a synthesizer placeholder part for "23" into string notation and had the musicians record it with the time left over.Jimmy Eat World 2020, event occurs at 0:15, 0:29–32, 1:06–29 Sessions were concluded in May 2004, with mixing taking place from mid-June over the course of a month, with Costey at Cello Studios. 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. The album saw the band shy away from the pop-influenced sound of Bleed American and expand on the mood of Clarity. The band incorporated more guitar solos, which rhythm guitarist Tom Linton had been insisting on, and complex guitar lines. Adkins viewed the release as a sequel to Clarity, with which Futures shared greater musical density. When working on material, Adkins would show the band a 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."
Lind compared its darker sound to the middle portion of Clarity and said the album's second half was more atmospheric than their previous work. Some of the material on the album dated back to when the band was recording Bleed American, while other material had existed for only two weeks prior to the band entering the studio for Futures. Linton said producer 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 the bands 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. Adkins said several tracks were influenced by the presidency of George W. Bush; he said he was "reacting to the political climate of that period".
Tracks The opening song, "Futures", was a mid-tempo track that was compared to other acts Norton had worked with, such as Foo Fighters and the Pixies. The song starts with two harmonizing guitar riffs, shifting into verses that put the vocals at the forefront. A tremolo-affected guitar line in the pre-chorus leads into the half-time chorus section, complete with echo-enhanced vocals. In an earlier iteration of the song, the bridge section was a wall of loud guitars, instead of the final version where it shifts to acoustic guitars and a Rhodes piano. Adkins said the track was about Bush as well as disillusionment. One of lines from the song's chorus – "Trade up for the fast ride" – is taken verbatim from "In the Same Room", a track from Static Prevails. "Just Tonight..." was in the vein of "Run to You" by Bryan Adams, and recalled the group's Static Prevails material. "Just Tonight..." was one of the earliest songs written for the album, and ended up receiving constant minor changes during the writing process. The track was originally called "Sex You Up"; Lind said its final name "Just Tonight..." was a reference to Color Me Badd.
"Work" is a pop-rock track with vocal harmonies that recalled "The Middle". Liz Phair contributed backing vocals to it; the group felt it would be a song she should sing. The band's A&R representative personally knew Phair, and eventually got in contact with her. Adkins, who wrote the song while having Phair's "Divorce Song" (1993) in mind, 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 the 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". Lind had discovered a piece of music that became "Kill" partway through writing when looking through their ideas on a computer. It had scratch vocals from Adkins and a 30-second acoustic guitar part. Lind was impressed that out of all the ideas they had, this section had fallen by the wayside. He showed the clip to Adkins, when the pair quickly expanded it into a full song.
"The World You Love" was initially titled "Suicide" and went through many versions before the band landed at the final one. 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 just before they entered the studio. Adkins 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's friend choosing him or drugs. It features strings that were arranged by David Campbell and was compared to the work of Death Cab for Cutie. An earlier version included an acoustic guitar playing eighth notes, which the rest of the song was then based upon. They later re-made it, building the song around Adkins' vocals and swapping the acoustic eighth notes for arpeggiated guitar and piano parts.