“Damage” Review by Alternative Press
After one listen of Damage, Jimmy Eat World’s eighth full-length (and first for RCA Records), one thing will be abundantly clear: Either frontman Jim Adkins had his heart broken pretty goddamn badly at some point during the past few years, or he is remarkably good at faking it.
Instead of continuing down the odd lyrical path he explored on 2010’s uneven Invented, where he publically stated he was drawing inspiration from random photographs and inventing stories for each, Damage feels extremely personal. There’s the yearning for reconciliation (the title track), the admission of weakness (“Lean”), the realization of romantic failure (“Book of Love”), the petty jealousy (“I Will Steal You Back”) and the wistful reminiscing (“You Were Good”). Damage might as well be the 10 stages of grief when it comes to heartbreak.
