Cold Confession and Let It Ride - Avocado Outtakes

[Fuzzcharger]

Inside Job is okay. Big Wave isn't very good though.

[Birds in Hell]

I like Big Wave a lot but I'd still happily cut it in favour of either of these tracks. I'd enjoy it just as much if it were a b-side or benefit album track.

[VinylGuy]

Inside Job is okay. Big Wave isn't very good though.

i actually like both of them. Specially the music...Mike and Stone work in Big Wave is pretty awesome...there are some cool versions of it in the 2006 tour.

As for Inside Job, i dont why is so hated around here...even if the lyrics are kinda dull; the music itself is great, and fuck it, i lie those lyrics as well.

[Birds in Hell]

I love that these songs are out there but my excitement is partially cooled by the poor quality of the files. Let it Ride, in particular, sounds as though it's not only lossy but transcoded too (ie. it's gone through at least two lossy conversions.)

The most incredible part of the "Rarities and Unreleased Cuts" CD surfacing was that we were able to get a FLAC rip. We now have incredibly dynamic, lossless recordings of those songs that sound undoubtedly superior to any potential eventual commercial release. I wish we could say the same about these, they certainly deserve it.

[Norah]

Serious request for one of the audiophile people. Can someone post one of those compression graphs for these two songs and compare it to something from S/T (the brickwall pics)?

Nuff said.

those are the two new songs? Could you post, say unemployable and Parachutes for comparison--a mid tempo and slower song?

All the compression comes from the mastering doesn't it?

Individual instruments receive compression prior to whole track mastering (think about how much greater the volume spikes would be from, say, a snare hit, if this wasn't the case), but the vast majority of the the type of compression that drives sound geeks crazy is during mastering.

I don't currently have the s/t album (yeah, I said it. I'd say it again if I had to), but here's the shot of Mind your Manners I posted a few weeks back. Keep in mind that Manners is noticeably less compressed than s/t tracks were....some of those were virtually just a big smear of blue.



Getting unmastered versions of modern songs is just about the only way you can hope to hear the kind of sonic dynamics that was the norm in the 60's and 70's.

Here's Parachutes

[Birds in Hell]

Good lord, that's atrocious.

It appears it's even louder than Mind Your Manners!

[Norah]

Good lord, that's atrocious.

It appears it's even louder than Mind Your Manners!

I would love to hear an unmastered recording of Parachutes.

Oh, and agreed on your previous post about how lossy these are.

[Stardog Champion]

Nice write up on the main page. Haven't found these yet but the reviews piqued my interest quite a bit, especially in regards to Cold Confession. Looking forward to eventually checking these out.

[Birds in Hell]

I would love to hear an unmastered recording of Parachutes.

Good heavens, yes.

Given the satisfying sense of space on both of these new songs, I'd really love to hear the unmastered mixes of all of the songs that eventually made up the record. It's staggering how much of the character of the music they appear to have obliterated in mastering.

Oh, and agreed on your previous post about how lossy these are.

It's a bummer.

[VinylGuy]

Parachutes has always sounded really strange to me; the guitars are too loud and Eddie´s multi layered vocals sound weird.

[eciglover]

wasnt the avocado vinyl brickwalled also? seems like a lot of money to shell out for a cd master.

[darthvedder81]

I prefer Let It Ride to Cold Confession so once again I'm the minority. CC is interesting but just too slow and repetitive for me.

Ride has a nice slow burning build to it and I love the outro chord progression with the layering of the guitar parts.

Neither song sounds completely polished to me--like they are maybe 90% done but both are artistically more intriguing than anything I've heard from "Lightning Bolt" so far.

[darthvedder81]

I want every next PJ recordings to go this way:

I've seen this before . Does anyone know what was going on?

No Way is such a kick-ass song. Almost impossible to really pull off live though. They do the best possible job there.

[Release_Me]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does. That's probably because this is a demo and Ed did only one take. If the vocals could be redone, this song would be the best slow one they made since Vitalogy. It's that good.

LIR is sitting somewhere close to 4 stars for me. The first half of the song I'm just waiting to get over with so I can listen to the eargasm that is the second half. Again, could do with a slightly better vocal but very good song nonetheless.

MYM is also sitting at 4.5 stars at the moment. I think it's the best song they've made with this kind of blueprint. I prefer it to STBC because it is more melodic.

I'm liking LB at least as much as LIR at the moment. It's more engaging from the get-go and Ed's vocals just soar. LIR has that amazing second half though so hard to split the two.

FD is easily the song I like the least from the five which have surfaced. 3 stars at this point. I put it in the same boat as most PJ ballads post Vitalogy; Around The Bend, All Those Yesterdays, Thin Air, Parting Ways, etc. Pretty, but not essential PJ. I do relate to the sentiment because I'm married and our first one is on the way.

[WtOB?]

Yeah, the Avocado mastering is just disgusting. How can a so-called professional engineer ruin sound so badly? After listening to these two songs on a re-tracked Avocado the compression really stood out to me more than ever. So claustrophobic and suffocating.

[Birds in Hell]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does.

Madness.

There's a very good chance this is my favourite Vedder vocal on record ever; it's certainly top 5 material. It's perfect.

[Release_Me]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does.

Madness.

There's a very good chance this is my favourite Vedder vocal on record ever; it's certainly top 5 material. It's perfect.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I love what he's trying to do, I just think he can do it better and without his voice actually breaking.

[LetMeSleep]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does.

Madness.

There's a very good chance this is my favourite Vedder vocal on record ever; it's certainly top 5 material. It's perfect.

The cracks /breaks are what gives this so much character. They're my favourite bits too.

I'm sure that this song was never meant to see the light of day. I can't see Ed ever releasing something so bare and can't see him ever wanting to revisit it ever again, whether that be live or again in the studio. IMHO, it's this song that has made 10C wipe away any written trace on the pit.

[Birds in Hell]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does.

Madness.

There's a very good chance this is my favourite Vedder vocal on record ever; it's certainly top 5 material. It's perfect.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I love what he's trying to do, I just think he can do it better and without his voice actually breaking.

I particularly love that pained, crackling quality in his voice.

Embracing, rather than trying to deny, the limitations of his weathered instrument is exactly what I want to hear Ed doing more often.

[dimejinky99]

CC is a solid 4.5 star song for me. That's heading into Black/Nothingman/Immortality territory as far as PJ's slower songs/ballads are concerned. The only thing needed to make it a 5 star song is for Ed to redo the vocals. Not differently, just better. I love his approach and I don't want him to sing lower or in a different tone as some have suggested. I just think there is never a good enough reason for a studio song to have unintentional voice breaks like this one does.

Madness.

There's a very good chance this is my favourite Vedder vocal on record ever; it's certainly top 5 material. It's perfect.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I love what he's trying to do, I just think he can do it better and without his voice actually breaking.

That's where I am too. But in a way the rough feel to this does sort of add to it. It'd probably end up all polished and shiney had it made the record.