Riot Act: Official Album Thread

[PHATJ]

I hate those songs.

you DID hate those songs

[Teeeeeekay]

Instead of being wrong about I Am Mine, you should go listen to that backspacer remix. Just listen to Got Some and Unthought Known and you'll want to go back for the rest

Backspacer Remix?

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtop ... 8#p1030438

Got it.

Thank you.

[stip]

I hate those songs.

you DID hate those songs

Can you make this fit our avatar parameters so I can use it?

[bodysnatcher]

damn this album is hitting a sweet spot right now.

i don't think any album ever – pearl jam or not – has grown so much for me as Riot Act. i've said it before, but it was always bottom of the barrel in my mind since its release. At least until BS and LB came out. and even then, i ranked it with those albums. now? on any given day, it could be top 5. there's something they captured here that they never have before. and a lot of it is environmental for me. i can't listen to this album on a sunny summer afternoon. but given that i live somewhere that's dreary, gray, and dark for 9 straight months, something about this album just speaks to me during those days.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[bodysnatcher]

so, Green Disease has a second life now, huh? seems even more relevant.

[Norah]

I remember talking to people on the 2003 tour who were saying things like "I hope they play everything but Riot Act, because this new one sucks" and I remember thinking those people were dumb fucking meat heads.

[bodysnatcher]

i never thought it sucked. i just didn't relate to it whatsoever. it was too mature for me. it took me a solid 15 years to catch up to this moment in life.

[E.H. Ruddock]

what are mjd's thoughts on this album?

[chewm]

It was my least favorite for a while too, now I think it's pretty great.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Man, this album came out for me at just the right time. I was in Iraq, pissed off I was in Iraq, came back home for a couple of weeks and saw PJ in Vegas. What a fucked up year that was for me. That's also when my tenclub membership lapsed because I was deployed, and at first they were very against giving me my old number back.

[bodysnatcher]

To myself I surrender
To the one I'll never please


probably the singlemost gutpunch personal lyric in PJ's repertoire

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[E.H. Ruddock]

Man, this album came out for me at just the right time. I was in Iraq, pissed off I was in Iraq, came back home for a couple of weeks and saw PJ in Vegas. What a fucked up year that was for me. That's also when my tenclub membership lapsed because I was deployed, and at first they were very against giving me my old number back.

I am curious if Eddie's lyrics on this album had a strong influence on your evolving opinions at the time, and if so would you care to expound further?

Yeah definitely, even if I wasn't interpreting them right at the time. I mean, I wasn't singing "I Am Mine" while insurgents were trying to kidnap me or anything, but there was a point where I was over there and G.W. announced the "end of combat operations" in May (I think) of 03. We all knew it wasn't, and that is pretty much when I had had enough and wanted to get home and get out. So songs like Green Disease "A satiation with occupation And like weeds with big leaves Stealing light from what's beneath Where they have more Still they take more I know, then I don't There's a stow-away with my throat", Can't Keep "The bad feelings, It's just me. I won't wait, For answers. You can't keep, Me here", and Ghost "Breaking news and building walls Selling us, what I dont need" all had an impact.

I love Green Disease for the lyrics, just wish the music was a little better, but I still really like that song.

[epilogue]

I remember talking to people on the 2003 tour who were saying things like "I hope they play everything but Riot Act, because this new one sucks" and I remember thinking those people were dumb fucking meat heads.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[epilogue]

Listening to Riot Act for the first time just completely energized me. Yield and Binaural both took some time for me. I had to come around on those records. So, for me, Riot Act was just this huge bomb. It felt like my all-time favorite band was FUCKING BACK! I love that record so much.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Listening to Riot Act for the first time just completely energized me. Yield and Binaural both took some time for me. I had to come around on those records. So, for me, Riot Act was just this huge bomb. It felt like my all-time favorite band was FUCKING BACK! I love that record so much.

yeah and listening to Save You is just a big ol' smack in the face. The kind of smack that makes you stand up and go "FUCK YEAH LET'S GO"

[Hatfield]

It was my least favorite for a while too, now I think it's pretty great.

It was a disappoint for me. It felt like they just didn't produce their best work. I loved the music to LBC, but the lyrics....Cropduster and Ghost felt like b-sides....Ed's vocals never got all the way there....."love is a tower and you're the key?!"

I loved the 2003 tour though and loved the songs live. The memory of what Can't Keep felt like opening the main set at Boston III still gives me chills.

Now, like many of you, this album has comfortably settled in. Organic, natural, real. I put RA in the Tom Petty category. My inner self has slowed down enough that it is finally ready to appreciate this music.

Ruddo, thank you for sharing. My favorite lyric on the record is, "Tell the captain the boats not safe, we're drowning. Turns out he's the one making waves."

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now