Jebediah/ Jimmy Eat World

split (Big Wheel Recereation)
by Tim Den

Boy are those JEW guys active these days… First the Singles collection, now this split, soon to be followed by a full-length… Good for them. We need as much Jimmy Eat World as we can get, particularly to show bands like Jebediah how it’s really done. Hailing from Australia (and apparently a double-platinum act there. What did you expect from the country that spawned Silverchair?), Jebediah tries really hard not to sound like a wimpy Nirvana crossed with Sixpence None The Richer (yes, that Christian AOR group who sings “Kiss Me,” and whose mesmerizing cutie female singer I’ve dedicated my life to pursuing [figuratively]), but gives it away by writing six minute pop tunes that should’ve been under three. It’s already a bad idea to milk the same verse/chorus three times in one song, but somehow Jebediah have convinced themselves that the listener needs to hear the repetition seven times. With hardly any variations. Played at a mid-tempo to drag everything even further into oblivion. Oh, and did I mention there’re no variations? Just thought I’d point that out because either I’m slowly losing my sanity from listening to this, or they really meant to sing one hook – the same way, over and over – longer than I take a shower.

Do yourself a favor: get this, play the living crap out of the three Jimmy Eat World songs (which, as always, are heavenly slices of melancholy drowned in ear-candy instrumentation, topped with yearning/crooning so evocative it almost surpasses the vocals on Clarity), but stay away from tracks three to six. Unless you like Sixpence None The Richer for their music.
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