Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural

[bodysnatcher]

I somehow just stumbled across stip's twitter account through that AwfulPJFans account, and his two posts about Sleight of Hand and Of The Girl have me filled with so much rage right now

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[VinylGuy]

They played Grievance at the show here in BA.....Forgot how much i love it live.

[stip]

I somehow just stumbled across stip's twitter account through that AwfulPJFans account, and his two posts about Sleight of Hand and Of The Girl have me filled with so much rage right now

We had the exact same experience at approximately the exact same moment.

Go on...

[stip]

Giving this a full listen for the first time in forever


Breakerfall is a blast.

I think I'd like God's Dice if it came later in the album in the mankind, get right, big wave, LTRP, Supersonic spot. It's more fun then I give it credit for, but it can't do the heavy lifting required of a second track

Evacuation hits a bit harder than I remembered.


Eddie is the problem on Light Years. Well Light Years has a few problems - it's too intellectual a song -the verses are a little too off kilter to create the mood it needs to. But Eddie just has so much god damned vibratto in his voice. It doesn't sound good, and it's distracting. And the performance is a bit too one dimensional - there needs to be more movement in it. Amongst the Waves has the same problem. If God's Dice and Evacuation went up a bit, this one probably went down. I do really love what Mike (I assume) is playing in the outro

[stip]

NAIS is a beast of a song. Not something to listen to on repeat, but it hits the harder for it. The acoustic guitar is so lonely, and Jeff and Mike are all stars on this one. I think this has my favorite non-Eddie lyrics. The song doesn't ask Eddie to do much more than drone, but it's so much more effective here than in SoH - you do feel for how lost this guy is

[stip]

The bridge is so good

[stip]

Thin Air has grown on me over the year as I've learned to forgive the lyrics. It's a pretty song. I wish Eddie was a little less one dimensional in it (awfully low energy for an undying profession of love), but it does make the bit where he goes high at the end pop a bit more

[stip]

do not like the bridge

[stip]

Insignificance and NAIS have had an interesting history with me. Both songs just bleed atmosphere and are musical triumphs (although I've always though Insignifcance is pretty weak live). But as NAIS has only grown in my estimation over the years Insignificance has declined. Excellent music and lyrics. It's just Eddie's performance is so muted, and it gets lost here in a way it doesn't in the starker NAIS.

[stip]

the transition out of the bridge is just aces, though

[stip]

Love the the way of the girl feels warm and hazy and cold and distant at the same time. But I just don't care about anything Eddie is doing in this song, and I think the song goes on a little too long. I wish they gave this one some serious lyrical attention.


Grievance is another one that has gone down for me a bit over the year, although the energy is welcome here (and with Rival) after a string of low energy performances. I just wish it was a little more tightly wound. It'll always suffer next to that Letterman performance, which remains the definitive version (I had the same issue with satan's bed)

[stip]

God I love the middle finger swagger of Rival. This is such is a hard hitting song that just exudes self-confidence. I wish they went after something like Infallible with the same conviction.

This is such an underrated gem (if not underrated here, than elsewhere)

[stip]

how will the man who made chemicals difficult shed blood is such a great lyric

[stip]

Sleight of Hand continues to do nothing for me. I don't feel any sympathy for this guy. I don't enjoy the music. Thematically this is very similar to Elderly Woman, but that song exudes so much humanity, and the subject has some moments of self-reflection, and comes at a point where it may be too late to do much about it (but they still try). This guy just wallows. Get a hobby.

This song has also brought every concert I've ever seen it at to a screeching halt.




I like the idea of putting a random uke song on an album as a statement. But I liked it more when it was bugs. This just comes across as immature. Eddie is capable of great depth, so this shallowness is always frustrating (as it also is on I'm Open or Present Tense).

[stip]

the uke just ends up giving this an overbearing smugness it can't absorb.

[stip]

Eddie's low key vocal choices work so well on Parting Ways, which is a beautiful song. You can feel the drift, and him gradually giving up and let go, without every losing the tinge of regret and the sense that this all could be avoided if you just tried a little hard. A lot of complicated stuff happening in a fairly simple song.

[stip]

He totally nails the humanity here that is missing in a bunch of the other tracks on this album.


Not everything works for me on Binaural, but a lot of it does, and I can find things I like about most of the things that don't. I have a lot of respect for the album, and while I am happy it is just a detour in the catalog, I'm glad it exists.

[Juvenal]

Stip, as always, great job. We'll have you a Gods' Dice-loving convert yet

I drunkenly wrote up a few paragraphs on Breakerfall the other day but, alas, it's too cringy to post.

[stip]

I thought of you as I kind of enjoyed myself. I'm close to upgrading it to a 3.