Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World

Bleed American, Jimmy Eat World's fourth album, came out on DreamWorks Records on July 24, 2001, and it's the sound of a band that had been dumped and decided to swing for the fences anyway. Capitol dropped them in late 1999 after Clarity (1999) flopped, so they worked odd jobs and toured to pay for the next record, then cut it with Mark Trombino, co-producing alongside him, at Cherokee and Harddrive studios in Los Angeles in October and November 2000. After the September 11 attacks the album was retitled Jimmy Eat World, and it kept that name until its original title came back in 2008.

The songs are more direct than anything they'd done, with simpler chords and hooks that go right for the heart. "Bleed American" is a loud, crunching blast, "Sweetness" a surging, shout-along rush, and "A Praise Chorus" a giddy, rousing sing-along. "The Middle" is the one: a bright, bouncing pick-me-up that topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and got as high as number five on the Hot 100. "Get It Faster" kicks the tempo up and the guitars harder.

All of the album's singles landed inside the top twenty somewhere on the US charts, and the band spent the next year on the road, opening for Blink-182, Weezer and Green Day among others. Critics loved it too, and in July 2026 it was certified double platinum.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.