No Code: Official Album Thread

[stip]

the original thread is archived here

[VinylGuy]

Lets start again:
Is No Code their best album? Could be...i feel that between this one and Vs, both of them captures the different things i like about this band.
Im Open just came out in pj radio, and its such a beautiful song...

[nah]

the first 3 albums are classics and really stand on their own. they are all individually incredible works. almost perfect albums. i feel they can't be included while ranking their catalog. with that said, i feel yield is better.

[bodysnatcher]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

[VinylGuy]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

in the pj fan base? No Code...everyone hated it..i remember at first i didnt buy it because my die hard pj friends were telling it was fucking crap.

[bodysnatcher]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

in the pj fan base? No Code...everyone hated it..i remember at first i didnt buy it because my die hard pj friends were telling it was fucking crap.

No I mean, reactionary in the bands' eyes (specifically, Ed's frame of mind)

[warehouse]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

probably no code

[EJ]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

in the pj fan base? No Code...everyone hated it..i remember at first i didnt buy it because my die hard pj friends were telling it was fucking crap.

No I mean, reactionary in the bands' eyes (specifically, Ed's frame of mind)

Vitalogy. The only concession Ed made was allowing Betterman to be included on it.

[bodysnatcher]

I don't know which was more of a reactionary album: Vitalogy or No Code

in the pj fan base? No Code...everyone hated it..i remember at first i didnt buy it because my die hard pj friends were telling it was fucking crap.

No I mean, reactionary in the bands' eyes (specifically, Ed's frame of mind)

Vitalogy. The only concession Ed made was allowing Betterman to be included on it.

I just love that Vitalogy and No Code are back to back. It's the perfect example of the scope of Pearl Jam, to me.

Vitalogy was a reaction to what Ten and Vs created..... No Code was a reaction to what Vitalogy created... For me, No Code makes the most sense in the chronology of the band

[liebzz]

I could go on for hours about the genius of this album from top to bottom, as every single time I hear it I notice something new about it...and I was on line at midnight getting my copy in August 1996 at Media Play.

Most recently, I noticed, in decoding the many codes in this album, isn't so much in my head about it being a reaction to Vitalogy, as each song is a reaction to the songs before it. The way that Sometimes pulls you in a comforts you only to be blasted away (I literally jumped out of my seat the first time I heard the album...say 12:20am after the noted waiting on line) by Hail, Hail; or the sonic primacy of Lukin - maybe the hardest charging 0:56 in Pearl Jam's catalog follows the genius meandering to finish Present Tense. Even check out the moods in these songs one after another and you'll find a play on words followed by a contemplative moment followed by two-way sarcasm. There's so much to take from this album it's nearly incomprehensible to me, and something new comes with every listen. Vedder once said that the closest they every came to a concept album was the self-titled, but I wholly disagree. Finding all the codes in this surface random collection of songs has been rewarding for nearly 17 years and counting.

[Angus]

An RM confession: as strange as it may seem, I quite often think about Frank when thinking about/listening to No Code.

[epilogue]

No Code was a solitary experience for me. All of my friends who were big Pearl Jam fans pretty much turned their backs on No Code. None of them liked it when it first came out, but I thought it was great. Such an interesting departure, such promise. Even in it's uneven moments, I loved listening to No Code.

But I listened to it alone. I didn't have anyone to discuss it with.

[bodysnatcher]

I remember skipping school to go get this album as soon as the store opened. They were playing "Sometimes" on the store stereo as I purchased my cd, and I sat there thinking, "This is the new album. Woah, this sounds so different........I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE AND LISTEN TO IT ON MY OWN......but wait, this is so....weird....how is this song gonna end? GODDAMMIT GET OUT OF HERE AND LISTEN IN YOUR CAR."

[Sigerson]

I love No Code. It's the album I listen to whenever I'm feeling low and it always manages to cheer me up.

[EJ]

I hated No Code when it came out. I was close to throwing in the towel for PJ. The only song that sounded remotely like anything I wanted from the band was Red Mosquito.

I pretty much stopped following them shortly thereafter - didn't bother even trying to get tickets to see them at Randall's Island, which was pretty much in my backyard at the time. I think I was so turned off by the band (mostly Ed) that I wasn't even aware that Yield was coming out when it did. And, then I heard Given To Fly on the radio, and I was blown away. And, my fandom came roaring back.

It took me a few years - probably until around the time when Binaural came out that I really started to appreciate No Code. And, since then, its become my third favorite album of theirs. I still think there's some clumsiness to it, but its also got some of my current favorite songs: Hail, Hail, Who You Are, In My Tree, Off He Goes, Red Mosquito.

What's also interesting to consider is what the album could have been had they held off on the Merkinball EP and added some other substitutions - adding Long Road, I Got Shit, Black, Red, Yellow, and maybe getting rid of some of the oddballs: Mankind, I'm Open. It would've been a vastly different record that probably would have had much more mainstream success.

[VinylGuy]

first pj record where i felt eddie´s voice really changed...at first it was like where the fuck is ed in the mix?

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

I loved it the first time I heard it - I couldn't believe Pearl Jam made an album that good. I must have played it two dozen times that first week. The poor reaction to it says a lot about how stupid and ignorant Pearl Jam's fanbase was circa 1996.

[darth_vedder]

I could go on for hours about the genius of this album from top to bottom, as every single time I hear it I notice something new about it...and I was on line at midnight getting my copy in August 1996 at Media Play.

Most recently, I noticed, in decoding the many codes in this album, isn't so much in my head about it being a reaction to Vitalogy, as each song is a reaction to the songs before it. The way that Sometimes pulls you in a comforts you only to be blasted away (I literally jumped out of my seat the first time I heard the album...say 12:20am after the noted waiting on line) by Hail, Hail; or the sonic primacy of Lukin - maybe the hardest charging 0:56 in Pearl Jam's catalog follows the genius meandering to finish Present Tense. Even check out the moods in these songs one after another and you'll find a play on words followed by a contemplative moment followed by two-way sarcasm. There's so much to take from this album it's nearly incomprehensible to me, and something new comes with every listen. Vedder once said that the closest they every came to a concept album was the self-titled, but I wholly disagree. Finding all the codes in this surface random collection of songs has been rewarding for nearly 17 years and counting.

[nah]

I loved it the first time I heard it - I couldn't believe Pearl Jam made an album that good. I must have played it two dozen times that first week. The poor reaction to it says a lot about how stupid and ignorant Pearl Jam's fanbase was circa 1996.

i think hearing sometimes as an opener versus, once, go and last exit would give anyone pause. we were spoonfed some intense rock and roll only to get a mellow vedder in act 4. i wouldn't say people were ignorant, they just liked what they heard before.

[bodysnatcher]

first pj record where i felt eddie´s voice really changed...at first it was like where the fuck is ed in the mix?

Thought the exact same. Then it really hit home when they played Hail Hail on Letterman, and Ed was so laid back and not that Vitalogy-era Ed. So subdued. I liked it, but was all "WTF?"