Futures by Jimmy Eat World

Futures, Jimmy Eat World's fifth album, came out on Interscope on October 19, 2004, and it's the sound of a band that had just spent two years on the road behind Bleed American coming home and deciding to dig deeper. Sessions with producer Mark Trombino went nowhere, so they regrouped with Gil Norton and recorded from February to May 2004 in studios across California and Arizona.

What came out is bigger, darker and more ambitious than the hits that made them. There are more solos and knottier guitar parts than ever, and the band was aiming for the atmosphere of their third album, Clarity, while some of the guitar work nods to Fugazi and Hüsker Dü. "Pain" is the lead single and the heavy hitter, a grinding, restless song that bites down hard; "Work" is a yearning, driving anthem that reached number six on the Alternative Airplay chart, and the title track closes out the trio of singles with a slow-building sweep.

Critics liked what they heard, praising the songwriting, and several year-end best-of lists found room for it. A first week of 98,000 copies sent it to 6 on the Billboard 200, and it went on to pass 615,000 and go gold. The band took it on headlining tours of the US, Europe and Japan, then hit the road with Green Day.

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