i am going to defend my 2 rating for this album since i noticed it's the only one logged below 3.
when i listen to them individually, i at least like most if not all of the no code songs. who you are was an instant favorite back in 1996 and has remained so since. but as an album, i've never felt the songs as a group sit together very well and the album usually just ends up being a chore for me to listen to by the time habit rolls around. pearl jam albums have almost always seemed "top heavy", but even then the top half of no code is disjointed in sound and just pushes me in different directions instead of simply bringing me in to the record. i don't like that, and feel that of any of their records this should be the one that pulls you in the most but it ends up doing the opposite for me. you have the quiet reflection of sometimes and the sudden jarring slam of hail, hail (which taken by itself is awesome, i can admit), but then you go into the two jack driven songs back to back, then a neil young homage, a self-reflective meditation piece, another jarring rock track, bluesy rock, a short punk number, a quirky stone song, poetry reading in atmosphere, and a lullaby. what the fuck.
i feel that no code is a mess of a record, and the sum of its parts is significantly greater than the whole.
I'd agree. More than almost any other album in the catalog I have issues with the flow of No Code, in a way that diminishes my overall experience of the album
No code and yield feel like a double album to me in a way. Their songs seem more closely tied and the two compliment each other more than any other two records in pjs library.
You can listen to no code and immediately stick on yield and they just fit. That’s just benefit of time and distance perhaps tainted by height of my fandom. I don’t know.
The moline show where they played no code in full and went from around the bend straight into given to fly, is a lovely moment.
They’re only a year and a half apart, as well, so that helps a lot. Once an artist gets to two year gaps, with some exceptions, the albums always feel like isolated events rather than additions to a narrative.
In just 6 years this one band went from ten to no code.
If you look at that journey it’s quite a feat of artistic development in a really short amount of time and under immense scrutiny and endless touring and pr pressures
You could almost say that high pressure situation is better for creativity if you look at the back end and compare the fruits of comfortable (aka lazy) rockstar lives
Really? I think No Code and yield are pretty separate from each other.
No Code is a very interesting album to me with a lot of things going on, and I love how Pearl Jam kind of stretched their wings in a unique way and you never know what you're gonna get...I find it very underrated its one of my favorite ones
Yield is like....its good but its so one-note and average. Its on the GOOD side of average but it never transcends that and even the good songs are weakened by being amongst other tracks that just don't stand out from one another. it is a good solid album, but arguably Pearl Jam's most BORING good album. Its fine and pleasant and nothing more. I mean, I ENJOY it but I find it hard to praise it too strongly.
