Jimmy Eat World (again)

Click here to watch the video for "Work" by Jimmy Eat World (in Windows Media format)

Jimmy Eat World unseats Usher or whoever the hell else sits atop TRL and stays there until the video is retired. The lyrics to "Work" are quoted in yearbooks across the country and 1 in 5 schools use the chorus as its graduating class's motto/quote.

JEW never bullshitted about wanting fame and selling a lot CDs. That was the point. With their new CD, and now new video, they will acheive even greater fame, and much will be written about the band that is full of personality yet are just average boring dudes and how they came to sell millions of CDs. This video will push them over the edge.

It's so cliche and but it's all fucking true. Featuring teenagers spewing their holden caulfield rhetoric and showing them full of ennui, creativity, passion, and the obligatory angst seems too obvious.

Despite the initial cynical reaction of falseness and idiocy, upon closer look, this is pretty real. I remember when I worked at the video store with my best friend and stole videos. I remember that kiss by the door and then watching her leave and wondering if I would ever know the meaning of "relationship" or when I would have sex. I remember sitting in school and having no clue where I would be 5 years later. I remember feeling stifled by adults, but feeling kinda scared about venturing out on my own. I remember feeling like it would be forever until I would be free from the pains of schoolwork.

"Work" turns out as a rallying cry for teenagers across America. When I first heard the song, I knew that it was about high school, but I tried to deny it and I thought that was kind of dumb. But this song needs to be about high school, and all that bull shit that is being a teenager. It's just the way it is.

Not too shabby boys, not too shabby.