"Sweetness" - Jimmy Eat World

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This is my favorite piece of guitar-pop on the radio at the moment, largely because of the interplay between the major key and its relative minor. Also, it's the best use of stop-start guitar I've heard since "Chop Suey!"

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

argh i hate this song because of the "oooooooh oh oooooh oh" part which to my ears makes up 98% of it

― V, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"sing it back, whoahoooohhohhhhohhh"

― Chris, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the major minor does make it interesting, but the large amount of bad wooooaaahs versus the small amount of good sounding woooahs make the song unequally bad.

― tyler, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love it for those reasons you proposed AND for its "Whoa!"s. At first I thought: "This sounds like an '80s Poodle Rock anthem with its 'whoa!'s" but I changed my mind quicksmart. I love its insistence on its "whoa!"s. Top shag.

I still prefer "Chop Suey!" for its stop- start manic nature.

― Lek Dukagjin, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i remembering hearing it when the album came out last summer and it toally sticking out at me and adoring it, and thinking gosh it'd be great if a band with their insurgent popularity had the guts to put out a song this weird-yet-catchy out as a single, and then they actually did, but unfortunately i've tired of it pretty quickly. the video is pretty, though.

― al, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

SWEETNESS RULES!!! ARE YOU LISTING? oooooooh oh oooooh oh SING IT BACK! oooooooh oh oooooh oh!!! OGH YEAH THATS SOME GOOD MUSIC!!!

― Matt W, Tuesday, 30 March 2004 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Christ, it seems that I will have a Googler-originated-thread-revive to blame for my confession that I love this song and album.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Not as good as "The Middle."

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

The Middle blows

― Lil' Won Jilliams (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

shut your hole. this whole album is great!! "sweetness" is so lovely. "praise chorus" is my fave though

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I love "Sweetness." It's almost like emo techno. "The Middle" is slightly more gargantuan in its effect for me (whether despite or because of the trite lyrics, not sure).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"Authority Song" is my favorite song of theirs. "Sweetness" ain't bad. I never thought I'd like Jimmy Eat World but I do, they're a good powerpop band.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I like "The Middle," I admitted sheepishly

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I love 'Your House'. I am horribly emo.

― cis (cis), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sweetness" has kind of a Killing Joke bassline

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sweetness" has kind of a Killing Joke bassline

They fuckin' wish.

I liked "Bleed American" (the song) though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I had the Bleed American demo version back when I was an emo fag and this band wasn't being adored by 16 year old hot topic pigs. :/

― Lil' Won Jilliams (ex machina), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't front on Bleed American. It's probably the only emo album that I have ever wholeheartedly endorsed.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

As a whole I find that album a little insufferable. But I swear by "Sweetness" (I remember calling it "Emo Bon Jovi" in my radio station review of the album), "The Middle" and that earlier single "Lucky Denver Mint." I liked "Lucky Denver Mint" as radio bullshit LONG before I knew what emo was.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean was Deep Blue Something emo? Cuz I thought that group had stumbled upon something enjoyable when I first heard "Lucky Denver Mint."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

As a whole I find that album a little insufferable.

YET GOOD CHARLOTTE IS PERFECTLY PEACHY KEEN WITH YOU?!?!?!?!?!?!

You make no sense, Anthony. I love ya, but you make no sense. None. Whatsoever.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

dude Good Charlotte have way better lyrics, more humor, ROCK harder (despite having creamier production), etc, etc, blah, blah. I find James Taylor more insufferable than the Osmonds too.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

You may be right about the lyrics (not sure) and the humor (I've yet to detect any in either band, honestly), but Good Charlotte do NOT rock harder than J.E.W.. That's not a matter of opinion (to hell with them both, honestly), but merely a fact. GC couldn't rock themselves out of a urine-drenched paper bag.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, the GC boys seem a lot more obnoxious and loud than JEW.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean the Jimmy guy sings like he's trying out for the Heights. And Josh Freese's drumming on the GC album is pretty damn hard.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

By that criteria, Avril Lavinge rocks harder.
(xpost)

― Lil' Won Jilliams (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Vocally, yeah, but GC's music is way more bombastic and pummeling than either Avril or Jimmy (though I always thought "Sk8terboi" was similar to JEW musically).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't remember the lyrics to "The Middle." I mostly remember the so-weird-its-cool video - nekkid house party orgy? Huh?

I was forced to endure whatever the album before this one was on a short trip with a girl I was dating. 12 hours in a little fucking Cavalier with this guy whining, argh. I hated JEW with a burning passion from then on, but I can't deny the greatness of "The Middle" and these other singles.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

haha that video is so weird. Total skin exploitation with a story about how all these naked people we're watching rock out to J.E.W. aren't the "heroes" of it.

Most of the lyrics of "The Middle" are basically "stay the course" but there's a few weird references to "bitter hearts" who are "all the same." Like the video, its very have your cake and eat it too. But songwise that thing is so finely honed and uptempo that I adore it. Plus I love the way the guy says "ehhhverything."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 00:44 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

'Polaris' from the new album is fucking great. Gets that same YES! reaction like whenever I hear the chorus to 'Swing Swing'

― Michael B, Monday, 11 October 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

All I've been been bumping today is "The Middle" by JEW, "Welcome Back" by Mase, and "White Houses" by Vanessa Carlton. In this new life without amphetamine and amphetamite acessories I feel so fragile, adolescent and hopeless/hopeful that these three songs are MY WORLD right now, I'm smoking a lot of cigarettes, and I'm on the phone way too much while I crack my toes and scratch fuck out my balls nigga

― LC, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I just got the new jimmy eat world album because it was 8.99 in woolies.

Polaris is great and so is 'Night Drive'

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

I dug this song when it came out and was ashamed to admit it. Now I want to scream it from the rooftops.

― Hurting 2, Friday, 14 March 2008 06:35 (eighteen years ago)

what Dan Perry said in the first post pretty much nails it. Also I like the Whoa-oo-oo-ooaoohs

― Hurting 2, Friday, 14 March 2008 06:36 (eighteen years ago)

I love this whole album, with this being the highlight.

― Savannah Smiles, Friday, 14 March 2008 07:41 (eighteen years ago)

good song, good album

― electricsound, Friday, 14 March 2008 12:29 (eighteen years ago)

The whooahhs make it.

i had no idea these guys got so much love on ILM. This album was my favourite the year I left high school. Right album, right time.

― Roz, Friday, 14 March 2008 12:43 (eighteen years ago)

This song is so great! I should check out the album some time. I'm not as crazy for "The Middle" though.

― Sundar, Friday, 14 March 2008 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, I haven't heard another JEW song I liked as much.

The video is ace too:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wU3KBI5qyEY&feature=related

― Hurting 2, Friday, 14 March 2008 13:05 (eighteen years ago)

ten years pass...

dan perry otm

― flappy bird, Thursday, 26 April 2018 06:22 (eight years ago)

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