Welcome to liveforthepage’s new series on some of the classic albums I’ve loved during my decades of putting the iPod click wheel to the first song on an album and listening until conclusion. I generally think this is the way any band’s work should be considered: the album as a whole. There is no doubt something great about a band that just gets it perfect once, it’s hard not to love a ‘one hit wonder.’ I think more discerning listeners would agree that for a band to be truly great, they have to have THAT record.

When you press play on Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 breakthrough album of my youth, Bleed American it doesn’t even give you a chance to think before it hits you with a driving guitar riff and a great opening line, “I’m not alone, ’cause the TV’s on, yeah.” It settles into an energetic alt-rock standard of distorted guitars and passionate vocals which Jim Adkins had been known for on the indie circuit, becoming the band’s lead singer on the previous album “Clarity.”

It’s very difficult for me not to do a song by song breakdown of this album, but I want this to be accessible, so let’s say I don’t skip on this album. “A Praise Chorus” comes next and, “I wanna fall in love tonight” is a lyric I can almost always get behind. Later in the song it blends a bridge of “crimson and clover, over and over” an homage to the Tommy James and the Shondells hit from 1968. The reason you probably recognize the album cover, or Jimmy Eat World in general is from the third track, “The Middle.”

“It just takes some time, little girl you’re in the middle of the ride, everything, everything’ll be just fine.” Can’t hate the sentiment. As one of the most recognizable rock songs of the 2000s, it is their claim to fame. I have heard it so many times, including 7 times live–it’s just a good pop song. If it is the case that all musical elements must come together in such a way that facilitates airplay and record executives’ jets to make the most money, at least it sounded like this. That guitar solo never gets old, and that catchy chorus helped it sell over 1.5 million copies in the Napster landscape.

“Sweetness” is so energetic live and always the sweatiest one if memory serves me. “Hear You Me” is the perfect ‘palette cleanser’ song in the middle that starts out acoustic and builds to beauty. “The Authority Song” hit me immediately and I never looked back. How has that guitar riff not been featured in every coming of age teen movie of all time? “I don’t seem obvious do I?” There are just too many good songs on this album. I hope this serves as nostalgia of the noughties for the people I grew up with. I bet you made out to this album.