Emo Heroes Jimmy Eat World's 'Integrity' Is Still Intact
photo: Jimi Giannatti
Mesa, Arizona’s Jimmy Eat World are well aware that the time is right for them to put out a new album. Since the release of their last full-length, 2013’s Damage, the emo scene has enjoyed a wave of nostalgia that has seen the music come back in a big way. Among the genre’s success stories of late are regular emo clubs nights in Los Angeles and New York and the return of the Taste of Chaos tour, featuring the Used, Dashboard Confessional, and more.
“We’re super-lucky and grateful there are people out there that are connecting to our music or bands that are like us. And there’s more interest generating towards that,” drummer Zach Lind talking backstage at the Life Is Beautiful festival about their new album, Integrity Blues, out Oct. 21.
However, Lind adds that, as exciting all this renewed interest as this is, Jimmy Eat World are not looking to be just a nostalgia act, going out and rocking tracks like “The Middle” and “Sweetness” for twentysomethings reliving their high school and college years. “We want Integrity Blues to be a record that is something that anchors into the lives of our audience in the same way our other records have,” Lind says. “So I think just going into making Integrity Blues it was something where, rather than revel in the glory of what we have done, we wanted to make something where in 10 years we’ll look back and think, ‘OK, we f—ing accomplished what we wanted to do creatively.’”
Jimmy Eat World’s hope is that in 2026 they’ll be able to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Integrity Blues the same way they did in 2014 to commemorate 2004’s Futures.
For frontman Jim Adkins, the Integrity Blues’ title track was instrumental in shaping this album, saying it was “something that I wrote in the years that we had off. That song, for me, summed up everything in a really general kind of way. There might be problems, there might be pain that shows itself in your life, but what’s really behind that might not be the thing that you think it is, that’s causing it.”
To Adkins, “Integrity Blues” is all about examining the deeper questions that shape our lives. “You have career anxiety or relationship issues or general restlessness that prevails around your life,” he says. “Then there are the things you think will fix that, what’s really behind that? Why do you care about that external validation this relationship might bring you? What is it that you really want? What’s the real solution behind it all? Those are kind of the general marching orders for this album.”
Lind and Adkins have grown up with their fanbase in the 20 years they’ve been Jimmy Eat World, so the questions they face in life now are the same ones their fans address on a daily basis. “We try to be ourselves, and we’ve kind of consistently done that for over 20 years,” Adkins says. “And I think that every album is sort of a snapshot into where we are creatively, where we are in our lives, and that’s OK. You can’t open up your old yearbooks and be too hard on yourself when your picture looks s—y. That’s who you were then, and that’s OK.”
However, Adkins is also aware that, just as they can be too hard on themselves, they have to recognize that the album will endure with fans for decades. “Just on the flipside of that, having this longevity and going in and making a record, I think you realize this s— lasts,” he says. “This will always be around for someone to listen to, so each record is your opportunity to trust where you are in that moment. And we have to take advantage of it.”