Bleed American

When Jimmy Eat World began work on 2001’s Bleed American, they were free—unattached to any label or schedule, recording entirely on their own time with their own money. “There was the sense that we didn't know where this was going or what we were going to do with it once it was completed,” frontman Jim Adkins tells Apple Music of the album 20 years after its release. “There were no rules for us to follow. We were just making something that we think is rad. That’s it. That was our mandate.” On the other side was mainstream stardom. After two LPs with Capitol Records—1996’s Static Prevails and 1999’s much-beloved Clarity—the Arizona rock outfit had developed a small but dedicated following as one in a burgeoning scene of emo and post-hardcore bands in the late ’90s, The Promise Ring and The Get Up Kids among them. But where Clarity revelled in added layers of instrumentation, Bleed American saw them embrace a more direct approach, from the swift and wordless hooks of “Sweetness” (originally written for Clarity) to the fizzy romance of “A Praise Chorus” to “The Middle”, a runaway hit (and Taylor Swift favourite) that was inspired by an email from a fan who’d been excluded at school by a clique of friends who claimed they were punks. “She couldn't sit with them,” he says. “Everything I've learned about the punk-rock world is it's inclusive and accepting and there's no such thing as not being punk enough that you can't be part of the club. I just thought that was ridiculous.” Though the band would temporarily change the album’s title to Jimmy Eat World after 9/11, its sense of openness and possibility ran deep and undiminished. In setting out to make an album for themselves, they’d made one for everybody. “It’s a snapshot of us in our early twenties, curious and trying to protect the rewards of playing music, the part that makes it stay fun,” Adkins says. “I think that comes through.” Here, he shares the lessons he learned along the way. Don’t Be Desperate “Having a b