Blood on the Tracks

Jimmy Eat World has spent years perfecting being Jimmy Eat World. They’ve gone through some transitions, but the underlying factor is that they’re comfortable in their shoes, and are still making some great music. The same cannot be said for any band that impersonates Jimmy Eat World. Blood on the Tracks, this means you.

Attempting to combine the sugar sweet melodies JEW employed on their last two records with a bit rougher of a guitar sound, Blood on the Tracks come up quite a bit short on their self-titled EP.

Singer Millhows spends a substantial amount of time trying to carry the same sort of soaring harmonies that Jim Atkins has become so well known for, and I regret to report that all such attempts have come up quite a bit short. It’s not that there’s no effort, it’s that the vocals are a lot more nasal than anything displayed in JEW’s songwriting technique. The songs are all relatively mid-paced, vocal-driven efforts with chunky rhythms and just no real direction. It’s at times hard to differentiate the chorus from the verses, only because of how off key the singer often travels.

“Tonight” starts off in a semi-promising fashion, with the singer not trying to strain and hit any high notes, or drag any of those same notes out, but before long there he is singing at about a 4-second per syllable rate, the only reprieve being the more slowed down parts where he sings within his key range. “Love Is Dead” has a very cheerful feel to it, complete with some handclaps and decent, almost reggae sounding guitar work, but ends up ultimately too repetitive for its own good.

I think the lesson in all of this is that if you want to name your band after a Bob Dylan record, don’t suck. Somebody didn’t get the memo.