It’s been three years since the release of Jimmy Eat World’s last album, Futures, and it’s clear from its latest record the band has spent that time hard at work.

Alternative rock is often difficult to define with clarity. But Chase This Light features titles that push the boundaries of the genre.

Jimmy’s first single off the album, “Big Casino,” features that mainstream rock sound the band was able to make successful on their album Bleed American. Lead singer Jim Adkins’ crooning about being a “New Jersey success story,” will get it’s due playing time on the radio.

But that’s not a bad thing. “Big Casino” is the opening track for a reason — it’s an easy and catchy intro to some of the songs more atypical of the genre and more typical of indie rock.

The encroachment on that boundary peaks in the middle of the album on “Gotta Be Somebody’s Blues,” a slower-paced, darker piece that employs the use of a string arrangement.

The disappointment however, is the band doesn’t do enough with this experimentation.

Aside from “Blues,” the band does very little to break out of a mold set by its previous albums — most notably with Futures. Several titles on this 11-song album are easy to skip, and even worse, to forget.

But the majority of the album is solid in its own right. It follows Jimmy’s tried-and-true formula of combining melodic lyrics and simple guitar work to create a brand of alternative rock that, quite frankly, still puts it ahead of its lackluster peers.

In short, Chase This Light is a good buy if you’re a Jimmy fan. But if you’re not, this might not be the best way to start.

Futures was a tough act to follow, after all.