Chase This Light

Jimmy Eat World released their fifth album Futures in October 2004. It charted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200, and would later be certified gold in the US by the RIAA. The album was promoted with headlining stints in the US, Europe and Japan, followed by a co-headlining US tour with Taking Back Sunday, and a support slot for Green Day in the UK and the US, leading into October 2005. That same month, outtakes from the Futures sessions were released as part of the Stay on My Side Tonight EP. Following the EP's release, vocalist/guitarist Jim Adkins revealed they were working on new songs. In January 2006, drummer Zach Lind said the band resumed work on new material, and by February they had seven demos. Recording for Chase This Light began in August 2006, the band entered the studio with 17 songs. Despite initial reporting that said Butch Vig would travel from Madison, Wisconsin to work with the band in Tempe, Arizona, he ended up in a consultant-esque role. Subsequently, the band and Testa earned a split producer credit; John Fields co-produced "Here It Goes" and did additional production on "Big Casino", "Let It Happen", "Always Be", "Electable (Give It Up)", "Feeling Lucky" and "Dizzy". with mixing being done by Chris Lord-Alge the following month at Resonate Music in Burbank California with assistance from Keith Armstrong. Ted Jensen mastered the final recordings at Sterling Sound in New York City. ==Composition==

Musically, the sound of Chase This Light has been described as pop punk, pop rock and power pop, with influence from pop, The pop punk number "Let It Happen" Its acoustic guitars evoked the Futures song "Kill"; Adkins said it was "[a]nother loser anthem" about a bar fight. "Firefight" was reminiscent of the band's early records with its punk rock and post-hardcore guitars; The latter comes across as a more melodic iteration of "Hear You Me", a track from Bleed American. ==Release==

In July 2007, the band went on a tour of the US, before doing several shows in South Africa as well as appearing at several festival dates in Europe the following month. On July 30, Chase This Light was announced for release in three months' time; "Big Casino", the first single from the album, was released August 28 for download. Two versions were released on vinyl: one featuring "Beautiful Is", and the second one featuring "Open Bar Reception". The album's artwork was released the following day, taken by Davies and Starr. In mid-September, a music video was filmed for "Big Casino", which starred the band performing in a wasteland. Chase This Light was released on October 16 through Interscope. The UK version included "Be Sensible" and "Distraction" as bonus tracks, while the Japanese version included both of these, with the addition of "Beautiful Is". The "Big Casino" music video was released on October 24. Following this, the band embarked on an east coast US tour in October and November 2007 with Maritime. On November 9, the band performed two songs on The Sauce. "Always Be" was released to radio on December 4; the vinyl version included a live version of "Big Casino", while the CD version featured the Tempe Sessions version of "Firefight". Throughout December, the band appeared at various radio festivals. In January 2008, the band supported Foo Fighters on a few US shows. A music video for "Always Be" was released on January 29. From late January to early March, the band went on a European tour. The shows from 28 January (Brussels) through 22 February (Leeds) were supported by Sparkadia, while the later dates were supported by Styrofoam. On March 5, an acoustic version of "Always Be" was released online. On March 25, the video album Tempe Sessions was released through the iTunes Store. It featured live-in-the-studio performances of tracks from the album, in addition to interviews on the making of the album. Bookended by appearances at the Bamboozle Left and The Bamboozle festivals, the group embarked on a co-headlining US tour with Paramore in April and May with support from Dear and the Headlights. Throughout June, the band performed at Download Festival, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Hultsfred and Norwegian Wood festivals, They followed this with a North America tour in July with Dear and the Headlights. In 2013, an iTunes Sessions EP was released, which featured a rendition of "Chase This Light". ==Reception==

Chase This Light received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66, based on 25 reviews. making it the band's highest-charting album in the United States. It appeared on various component charts: number 2 on Alternative Albums and Tastemaker Albums, and number 3 on Top Rock Albums. It reached number 11 in Canada, and number 22 on Bubbling Under Hot 100. It also reached number 59 on Canadian Hot 100, and number 119 in the UK. "Always Be" charted at number 14 on Alternative Airplay, and also reached number 37 in the UK. ==Track listing==

All songs written by Jimmy Eat World. == Personnel ==

Adapted credits from the booklet of Chase This Light. Jimmy Eat World • Jim Adkins – lead vocals, guitar • Tom Linton – guitar • Zach Lind – drums • Rick Burch – bass Additional musicians • Amy Ross – additional vocals (tracks 2, 5 and 8) • Finn Adkins – additional vocals (track 5) • Jackson Adkins – additional vocals (track 5) • Ava Lind – additional vocals (track 5) • John Fields – keyboard (tracks 4, 8 and 11), additional bass (track 5) • Stephen Lu – keyboard (track 11) • David Campbell – string arrangement, conductor (track 6) Production • Butch Vig – executive producer • Jimmy Eat World – producer, additional recording • Chris Testa – producer, recording • John Fields – co-producer (track 8), additional production (tracks 1–3, 5, 7 and 11), additional engineer • Ross Hogarth – additional engineer • Chris Lord-Alge – mixing • Keith Armstrong – assistant • Ted Jensen – mastering • Morning Breath Inc. – art direction, design • Davies and Starr – cover photography • Jason Odell – band photography ==Charts==