On April 7, Jimmy Eat World will release Clarity Live, a digital-only album available exclusively online. The collection is being recorded on the band's Clarity X 10 tour, during which they are performing their 1993 effort Clarity in its entirety.
There may be only a few shows left on Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity x 10 tour, but on April 7, anyone unable to get a ticket to one of the ten sold out shows will be able to experience Clarity Live, a digital-only release available exclusively at Jimmyeatworld.com. Clarity Live will feature DRM-free MP3 and lossless format options, as well as a digital booklet featuring photos from the tour. Clarity x 10 was conceived as a series of ten one-time-only shows during which Jimmy Eat World would commemorate the 10th anniversary of its 1999 breakthrough album Clarity by playing the record in its entirety each night. The ten shows began February 23-the 10th anniversary of Clarity’s actual release date-at Terminal 5 in New York and will conclude with a March 7 homecoming at the Marquee Theater in Tempe AZ. Criminally overlooked upon its 1999 release, Clarity has since amassed cult status as an overlooked masterpiece. The media ultimately came around to the record when it was reissued last year, with a 4.5 star Blender review hailing it as “masterful” and Alternative Press calling it “one of the most beloved albums of the ’90s.” Ironically, it was Clarity’s initial failure that put Jimmy Eat World on the path to its eventual mainstream success: Left to its own devices after being dropped by Capitol, the band built up a base via relentless touring which funded the recording of its platinum-plus 2001 breakthrough Bleed American. Response to the Clarity x 10 tour has been overwhelmingly positive from the get-go, not only from the media that has embraced the record a decade later but from the fans themselves. In keeping with the direct-to-fan relationship that sustained Jimmy Eat World in the wake of Clarity’s 1999 release, the band allowed fans access to pre-tour rehearsals via a live stream at Ustream.tv. The band/fan dialogue has continued through the tour with band members actively using Twitter to provide updates from the road (see photos here) and fans’ “tweets” about specific shows appearing on the band’s Clarity website.