“In the wake of all the frustration and banging our head against, it felt like everything aligned perfectly. I don’t think a lot of people get that moment in their life”: The two millennial classics that turned Jimmy Eat World into low-key emo royalty

Jimmy Eat World posing for a photograph in the early 2000s.

“Hey, don’t write yourself off yet…’

The lyrics to The Middle – Jimmy Eat World’s breakthrough hit and an absolute emo anthem – might have been intended as words of encouragement to a teenage punk struggling with ideas of self-worth and acceptance, but they could equally have applied to the band’s own career as they entered a new century.