Jimmy Eat World: Futures

By SCOTT KARA

(Herald rating: * * * )

Spit and polish sometimes does bad things to a band. Jimmy Eat World, not too many years ago, were still star-jumping sideways, rattling their knee joints and lunging into their riffs. It was, at times, beautiful stuff, but it had punch. Now, on the first four tracks of Futures, the Arizona four-piece are standing round like Maroon 5, or at best, Incubus.

On The World You Love we finally hear the bursts of beautiful excitement and those stirring head nodding hit-ups that have graced their previous albums. The 6 1/2-minute-long Drugs Or Me is the best example. It never gets past a slow dance but with the right person, what a dance it would be. Though many bands could get away with saying they're maturing, Jimmy Eat World are left flat-footed. Jimmy has to stop trading under the banner of pop-punk from this point on - for one, there are far too many songs here over the 5-minute mark, and two, it's a far too mature album for any of the emo-kids who used to be into them.

Label: Interscope