Damage (Jimmy Eat World album)

Background and recording

Damage was recorded in October 2012 with producer Alain Johannes (formerly of the band Eleven, and regular Queens of the Stone Age collaborator). Unlike the band's previous two studio albums, Chase This Light (2007) and Invented (2010), which were both recorded at the band's rehearsal space in Arizona, the album was recorded at Johannes' home on both analog tape and Pro Tools. Regarding the recording process, vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins stated: "We used tape for the first time in a long time, as well as computer. I hate saying more raw, but it's more raw and warm. We just set up all around Alain's house. There were instruments in his bedroom and drums in his living room. Just noise all day long. There was less an emphasis on it being clean and perfect. There's a lot of stuff that's more about the performance than it sounding pristine. And I think it feels better for what the songs are."

Regarding Johannes' contributions, Adkins stated: "He's an amazing solo artist. We met him and he just had the best ideas. For what we wanted to do he felt like the right guy. We have a better idea of what we want now, so we didn't need someone that was heavy-handed. We wanted someone to be more like a partner, an ideas guy with fresh ears."

Writing and composition

Jimmy Eat World began writing Damage in early 2012, with vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins noting: "I think with [previous album] Invented [there was] an outline that it would be themed around. Not necessarily a subject, but we had a direction before we wrote it. As you get older it's more interesting to have a theme that everything tries to support – I would say this album [also] has a theme. I would describe it as an attempt at making an adult breakup record. The consequences to what the characters are going through are more significant. There's just more to it. I'm 37 and the world around me is a lot different than when I was writing breakup songs in my 20s. I tried to reflect that in what the lyrics are." Adkins elaborated: "With Damage the point was love songs. But the type of love songs that interest me deal with adversity and emotional injury. If you have a happy song about how happy you are, I just want to slap you. There's no story there for me. I can't have any empathy."

Adkins compared the process of writing the album's lyrics to that of the band's third studio album, Clarity (1999), stating: "It's similar to [Clarity] because that's how I approached a lot of emotional things in those days. It's the observation and experience of the world around you, and you develop the ideas from that. It's similar to how I worked on the material for Damage because I'm asking myself the same kinds of questions about things, it's just that I'm in a different place in life, a completely different environment."

Regarding the album's stripped-back closing track, "You Were Good", Jim Adkins stated: "A fair amount of the ideas for Damage started out as acoustic songs, like really rough acoustic songs. 'You Were Good' started out in a pretty acoustic-based world and when we tried to take it out of that world, we realized that without the acoustic guitar in there as a bed, it didn't feel the same without it being there. With 'You Were Good', we experimented around a little bit with fleshing it out and building the dynamics of it in a full band sense, but at the end of the day we all looked at each other and agreed it sounded better with just me and a guitar and the weirdo, Indian drone thing on there." Guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton elaborated: "It was just [Jim] with an acoustic guitar and his vocals, and there was never a point where he stopped and started over. He just played it from the beginning to the end live. Then I overdubbed an organ part and Alain [Johannes] played the guitar part. That was really fun to do, and I don't think we had ever done it before, especially with vocals."

Release

Damage is Jimmy Eat World's first studio album to be released on RCA Records. Regarding this, vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins noted: "There's a lot of people there we've just crossed paths with over the years and who have been really supportive of us even if they didn't have a stake in how our records did. It's an interesting time. It's our best educated guess on where we feel comfortable being." Guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton stated: "[For Damage] we just toured, saved up all of our money and were able to save up enough money to record by ourselves, and then we shopped the record around. That's what we did for Bleed American too. We ended up signing to DreamWorks and eventually got bought out by Interscope and we were on Interscope for awhile [sic]. The fans basically made Damage for us by showing up to concerts and supporting us." "I Will Steal You Back" was released on April 16, 2013, and impacted radio the same day. Damage was released on June 11. "Damage" impacted radio on August 6, 2013.

Critical

Damage received largely positive reviews from music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 71, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favourable" feedback. AbsolutePunk's Craig Manning gave the album a very positive review, writing:

Damage is unequivocally my favorite album of the year so far, and I have a feeling that a lot of people who hear these songs at the right moment in their lives are going to share that sentiment. Maybe the connection will come on some late and sweltering summer night, and a teenage kid will be climbing into his car with heartbreak on his mind and nothing left to say.

Allmusic's Matt Collar also gave the album a positive review, stating: "Damage, is a mature breakup album that still retains all of the band's youthful, sock-to-the-gut pop energy. [...] The album also builds nicely upon the power pop/dance-rock vibe of their 2010 release, Invented, with an even more focused, lyrical approach that helps make this one of the band's most cathartic and moving albums of its career." Scott Heisel, writing for Alternative Press, praised Johannes' production, stating: "Thankfully, Damage easily bests the previous two Jimmy Eat World full lengths, and its high points rival those of Futures and Bleed American. Recorded to tape by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, No Doubt), the album is full-bodied and warm, with an organic bleed from the drum mics and a sonic resonance you just can't get digitally."

Rock Sound named Damage "Album of the Month", writing: "Jimmy Eat World are undoubtedly an enigma. Now eight albums deep into their career, they never really slumped into any sort of mid-season funk that other bands of their age and ilk have. [...] With no reason to buck the trend, Damage very much continues the Arizonan four-piece's reliability streak." Consequence of Sound's Ryan Bray wrote: "In their quest to update the breakup record for those a bit too old to mope and stew in their juices, Jimmy Eat World succeeds here for the most part. Society might expect those broaching 40 to have their shit more or less figured out, but Damage proves you're never too old to reevaluate and take stock of the past."

Drowned in Sound's Sammy Maine, however, gave the album a mixed review, writing: "There's flashes of Jimmy Eat World brilliance and even a few classics in there, but this is an album that's also prone to a few fillers and cheesy one liners. This is a band that should be beyond mediocre offerings but sadly, there's just one too many on Damage." The A.V. Club's Kyle Ryan gave the album a mostly negative review, stating: "While the group's predictability has traditionally been a positive assurance of quality, it's now more indicative of stasis. Damage doesn't offend, but it doesn't offer much that's memorable, either." Rolling Stone's Nick Catucci gave the album a negative review, stating: "On their first album since 2010, the Arizona guys still sound sweet. They're also hall-monitor dull – these meat and potatoes sure could use some fresh gravy."

Chart performance

Damage debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 24,000 copies in its first week. As of October 2016, the album has sold 50,000 copies.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Jimmy Eat World.