Dance of the Clairvoyants

[E.H. Ruddock]

I think the lyrics are generally pretty terrible TBH. They seem to fall apart both structurally and poetically as the song progresses. Not a huge deal though, song is good anyway

I don’t think they are Ed’s best or most convincing in every section, but they are infinitely better than recent output. ... This is as good as Ed has been since Riot Act or Binaural.

Sure, but I think we both know this isn’t saying much.

tallest midget

I don't know whether to reference chud or daft twat in this post

[doug rr]

I think the lyrics are generally pretty terrible TBH. They seem to fall apart both structurally and poetically as the song progresses. Not a huge deal though, song is good anyway

I don’t think they are Ed’s best or most convincing in every section, but they are infinitely better than recent output. ... This is as good as Ed has been since Riot Act or Binaural.

Sure, but I think we both know this isn’t saying much.

tallest midget

I don't know whether to reference chud or daft twat in this post

reach down and pick one

[scrub12]

The more I listen the more Im sure that Eddie is going to kill this song's chance of success. His voice doesnt fit, and the lyrics are jarringly Eddie (which means stupid faux philsophical and way too earnest). I do enjoy it - but the two other people I showed it too who aren't diehard Pearl Jam fans both didn't. One, who's a casual Pearl Jam fan felt it was too electronic. The other, who isn't a big Pearl Jam fan but has heard a lot of their songs through me and is in general a music buff felt like it was generic new wave and selling out (that they should have gone noisier and darker instead)

You say Ed is going to kill the songs chance of success but doesn’t seem like your friends find him to be the problem. I think his voice fits just fine.

[E.H. Ruddock]

The more I listen the more Im sure that Eddie is going to kill this song's chance of success. His voice doesnt fit, and the lyrics are jarringly Eddie (which means stupid faux philsophical and way too earnest). I do enjoy it - but the two other people I showed it too who aren't diehard Pearl Jam fans both didn't. One, who's a casual Pearl Jam fan felt it was too electronic. The other, who isn't a big Pearl Jam fan but has heard a lot of their songs through me and is in general a music buff felt like it was generic new wave and selling out (that they should have gone noisier and darker instead)

Of course someone who refers to themselves as a "music buff" would think trying a different direction would be selling out.

[oneway23]

People who hammer on about this song being too 80’s or synth pop are really over blowing that sentiment. It’s almost as if they haven’t listened to any other music in recent years, or rather, they were 80’s music fans who legit stopped listening to anything but pearl jam come 1993.

Some of the folks endlessly rhapsodizing over this one are the very same people who railed against the band for years with whines of "cash grab" and relevance-chasing, and, yet, here's a tune (albeit a good one) that is very much in a similar mold to the recent output of many of their contemporaries (Beck, Sleater Kinney, Jack White) who are making very overt efforts to cling to some semblance of the notion of the "modern" audience. You're right, in the sense that this honestly isn't a much different sound than a multitude of bands who have come out in the past fifteen years.

Again, good song, in that manages to distill, and yet expands on, a lot of great qualities about the band (while also integrating some newer threads), but, I'd argue that there are a lot of posters here, inside of the Pearl Jam bubble, whose reactions to this song make it sound as if they are the ones who haven't heard anything new in the past decade and a half.

I'm pretty sure we're simply thrilled right now by the fact that our little band has seemingly broken free of its creative malaise, and that's fantastic. Likely the most unified I've seen this place since the un-mastered Avacado leak , maybe?

[Strat]

People who hammer on about this song being too 80’s or synth pop are really over blowing that sentiment. It’s almost as if they haven’t listened to any other music in recent years, or rather, they were 80’s music fans who legit stopped listening to anything but pearl jam come 1993.

If anything, I feel like it's quite the opposite. Some of the folks endlessly rhapsodizing over this one are the very same people who railed against the band for years with whines of "cash grab" and relevance-chasing, and, yet, here's a tune (albeit a good one) that is very much in a similar mold to the recent output of many of their contemporaries (Beck, Sleater Kinney, Jack White) who are making very overt efforts to cling to some semblance of the notion of the "modern" audience. This honestly isn't a much different sound than a multitude of bands who have come out in the past fifteen years.

Again, good song, in that manages to distill, and yet expands on, a lot of great qualities about the band (while also integrating some newer threads), but, there are a lot of posters here, inside of the Pearl Jam bubble, whose reactions to this song make it sound as if they are the ones who haven't heard anything new in the past decade and a half.

I think you just proved my point? Their artists you mentioned have been utilizing sounds like this in recent years, so to think this is only some retro call back to the 80’s is to completely ignore that those “sounds” have been prevalent in many modern recordings over the past 20 years.

[ghost]

kinda getting Fascination Street vibes from the second half of the song

[oneway23]

People who hammer on about this song being too 80’s or synth pop are really over blowing that sentiment. It’s almost as if they haven’t listened to any other music in recent years, or rather, they were 80’s music fans who legit stopped listening to anything but pearl jam come 1993.

If anything, I feel like it's quite the opposite. Some of the folks endlessly rhapsodizing over this one are the very same people who railed against the band for years with whines of "cash grab" and relevance-chasing, and, yet, here's a tune (albeit a good one) that is very much in a similar mold to the recent output of many of their contemporaries (Beck, Sleater Kinney, Jack White) who are making very overt efforts to cling to some semblance of the notion of the "modern" audience. This honestly isn't a much different sound than a multitude of bands who have come out in the past fifteen years.

Again, good song, in that manages to distill, and yet expands on, a lot of great qualities about the band (while also integrating some newer threads), but, there are a lot of posters here, inside of the Pearl Jam bubble, whose reactions to this song make it sound as if they are the ones who haven't heard anything new in the past decade and a half.

I think you just proved my point? Their artists you mentioned have been utilizing sounds like this in recent years, so to think this is only some retro call back to the 80’s is to completely ignore that those “sounds” have been prevalent in many modern recordings over the past 20 years.

Yes. I'm "working" while hanging out here. Realized, in my haste, that, I misinterpreted, and rejiggered my post to reflect that.

Again, happy they've shed the creative restraints. Rah, rah, and the like

[Thurman Murman]

Listened to this another 3-4 times on the way to work this morning....this is my favorite thing the band has done in a long, long time!

[Thejambi]

Listened to this another 3-4 times on the way to work this morning....this is my favorite thing the band has done in a long, long time!

It’s quite refreshing.

[Strat]

People who hammer on about this song being too 80’s or synth pop are really over blowing that sentiment. It’s almost as if they haven’t listened to any other music in recent years, or rather, they were 80’s music fans who legit stopped listening to anything but pearl jam come 1993.

If anything, I feel like it's quite the opposite. Some of the folks endlessly rhapsodizing over this one are the very same people who railed against the band for years with whines of "cash grab" and relevance-chasing, and, yet, here's a tune (albeit a good one) that is very much in a similar mold to the recent output of many of their contemporaries (Beck, Sleater Kinney, Jack White) who are making very overt efforts to cling to some semblance of the notion of the "modern" audience. This honestly isn't a much different sound than a multitude of bands who have come out in the past fifteen years.

Again, good song, in that manages to distill, and yet expands on, a lot of great qualities about the band (while also integrating some newer threads), but, there are a lot of posters here, inside of the Pearl Jam bubble, whose reactions to this song make it sound as if they are the ones who haven't heard anything new in the past decade and a half.

I think you just proved my point? Their artists you mentioned have been utilizing sounds like this in recent years, so to think this is only some retro call back to the 80’s is to completely ignore that those “sounds” have been prevalent in many modern recordings over the past 20 years.

Yes. I'm "working" while hanging out here. Realized, in my haste, that, I misinterpreted, and rejiggered my post to reflect that.

Again, happy they've shed the creative restraints. Rah, rah, and the like

This is my everyday posting. I ever have any clue what’s going on!

[EJ]

Will this song be a real sonic outlier on this album surrounded by a lot of latter day PJ-malaise or did they actually achieve something with this album, and this song is a solid representation of what's to come?

[oneway23]

This is my everyday posting. I ever have any clue what’s going on!

I'm telling you, Strat. I was on here (before, I suppose, posts counts got reset? Can't recall) waxing philosophical about the Avacado leak, I shake my weary head, look around, and fourteen years have gone by; What the hell happened?? Working home for almost two decades now!

Been a long, long time since I sat in that muddy dirt pit for two nights on Randall's Island in a manual-push wheelchair, lemmie tell ya.
My current iteration would be at home taking a nap in lieu of the shows!

Alright, MAYBE not for two shows as great as they were. I know, '96, incredible, yadda yadda. Sorry, folks. ...It just was

[Jorge]

One thing I do enjoy about this song is the gimcrackery of it. That synth sound is so corny but I like that they committed to it

[stip]

Will this song be a real sonic outlier on this album surrounded by a lot of latter day PJ-malaise or did they actually achieve something with this album, and this song is a solid representation of what's to come?

Stone apparently described it as a bit left field on the album, but I'm hoping the artistic process that produced it carries through. If it did we'll have a great record

[Leatherhead]

The more I listen the more Im sure that Eddie is going to kill this song's chance of success. His voice doesnt fit, and the lyrics are jarringly Eddie (which means stupid faux philsophical and way too earnest). I do enjoy it - but the two other people I showed it too who aren't diehard Pearl Jam fans both didn't. One, who's a casual Pearl Jam fan felt it was too electronic. The other, who isn't a big Pearl Jam fan but has heard a lot of their songs through me and is in general a music buff felt like it was generic new wave and selling out (that they should have gone noisier and darker instead)

Ed's the best part. You have the most boring tastes.

[oneway23]

Will this song be a real sonic outlier on this album surrounded by a lot of latter day PJ-malaise or did they actually achieve something with this album, and this song is a solid representation of what's to come?

Stone apparently described it as a bit left field on the album, but I'm hoping the artistic process that produced it carries through. If it did we'll have a great record

This. The artistic process, for Pearl Jam, is almost equally important to me these days as the songs that come from it.

[evenslow]

Will this song be a real sonic outlier on this album surrounded by a lot of latter day PJ-malaise or did they actually achieve something with this album, and this song is a solid representation of what's to come?

Stone apparently described it as a bit left field on the album, but I'm hoping the artistic process that produced it carries through. If it did we'll have a great record

yeah i'm hoping it's akin to no code in which i'm open or who you are or whatever would be considered the left flank but the rest of the album followed through on a similar commitment to a more open-ended, exploratory songwriting process.

[evenslow]

like, the process stone enunciates about DOTC is the ideal, even if the rest of the songs don't necessarily sound like that.

[mikejasond]

The more I listen the more Im sure that Eddie is going to kill this song's chance of success. His voice doesnt fit, and the lyrics are jarringly Eddie (which means stupid faux philsophical and way too earnest). I do enjoy it - but the two other people I showed it too who aren't diehard Pearl Jam fans both didn't. One, who's a casual Pearl Jam fan felt it was too electronic. The other, who isn't a big Pearl Jam fan but has heard a lot of their songs through me and is in general a music buff felt like it was generic new wave and selling out (that they should have gone noisier and darker instead)

Of course someone who refers to themselves as a "music buff" would think trying a different direction would be selling out.

Not trying a different direction, just trying this specific direction of all things. And he never referred to himself as that, I did, since he listens to a ton of music much more than me and much more eclectic.

And while I agree they didn't single out Ed as the problem, I really think that subconsciously Eddie is what makes it so jarring rather than being really good new wave.