Pearl Jam (self titled): Official Album Thread

[stip]

wasted reprise is easily my favorite of the album interstitial songs.

[stip]

the army reserve story is pretty moving and I like the verses, but I have always felt like the chorus belonged to a different song. I wish this was on Binaural. Another case of S/T’s production undermining what is a pretty atmospheric song - or should be.

[Rob]

I like unemployable, don't find the lyrics condescending. Love the "if he can't sleep, how will he ever dream" line. The vocals aren't his best, though.

[Ms Harmless]

unemployable is right down there at the bottom of their studio tracks. I like almost nothing about it. The shiny sound of Eddie’s voice, the pop affectations of the chorus (so much worse here than infallible or ltrp), the surprisingly condescending lyrics. none of it works for me, and the music doesn’t grab me at all.

I kind of like the outro a bit

I agree with your last sentence

in a divided world I thank god unemployable is here to bring people together

haha!

[stip]

i love that they wrote a song like Come Back, and quite enjoy it, but this is maybe the song that S/T’s production does the most dirty. It strips the warmth from a series of very engaging performances. you get the sadness, but it is too abrasive to be as lonely as it should be. this song should leave a cozy pocket for you to slide up into, but it never does

intellectually the choices all make sense. the singer is trapped and desperate and hopeless. but the song’s heart gets sacrificed in the name of its head, which does not play to their strengths

still a good song. but could have been great

[stip]

I like unemployable, don't find the lyrics condescending. Love the "if he can't sleep, how will he ever dream" line. The vocals aren't his best, though.

that is a good lyric, actually

for me at least, the song is trying so hard to channel springsteen but never really gets inside the character. it is too much of a ny times profile on working class poverty

[stip]

what was the last great mike song that was great because of him? it isnt inside job. i actually like the music (more than i remembered. i love my new headphones !), though the song goes on a bit too long and the catharsis isn’t powerful enough to justify the length. and the lyrics (while clearly personal) are too obvious, and this is not a winning vocal melody (though eddie is game)

[digster]

I hear that it critique for the first verse of Unemployable, but I like the second verse, and the song as a whole is strong enough to make up for that shortcoming.

I've never been a big Severed Hand fan, but besides that this is a good record up through Big Wave. It's still the weakest PJ record to that point, but it's redeemed itself somewhat in my eyes, mainly due to the rise in my estimation of Marker, Army Reserve and Come Back. It's been able to turn a record where half of the songs were thuds into one where there's only two or three major stumbling blocks. Gone is probably the worst, both for the insipidness of the song itself and it's place on the record; it seems positioned to be the major PJ epic of the back half and it really strikes out.

But overall I'm happy the record's there, and I have a much more positive view of it than I would have years ago.

[stip]

I do get a small charge when it picks up at 4:30. i love a good build. but the payoff underwhelms (unthought known had the same problem)

[stip]

Mike has written so many drive you to your knees emotional solos and this is what he put into his opus?

i do like the twinkling at the end

[stip]

I hear that it critique for the first verse of Unemployable, but I like the second verse, and the song as a whole is strong enough to make up for that shortcoming.

I've never been a big Severed Hand fan, but besides that this is a good record up through Big Wave. It's still the weakest PJ record to that point, but it's redeemed itself somewhat in my eyes, mainly due to the rise in my estimation of Marker, Army Reserve and Come Back. It's been able to turn a record where half of the songs were thuds into one where there's only two or three major stumbling blocks. Gone is probably the worst, both for the insipidness of the song itself and it's place on the record; it seems positioned to be the major PJ epic of the back half and it really strikes out.

But overall I'm happy the record's there, and I have a much more positive view of it than I would have years ago.

I have had the opposite experience, sadly. I adore the first 3 songs and parachutes, and really like come back (marker has dipped a lot for me). other than unemployable every other song is fine (but just fine). It is like yield for me in that regard - 4 all timers and a bunch of songs that are fine. Yield’s fine songs are probably a bit finer, but they were also listened to much much more so, and so ST feels fresher

I did really enjoy the spotify mix

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Rob]

Is the Spotify mix just the one they have on there (Not the BOB 2017 )? Or do I have to look for it?

Severed Hand, Marker, Parachutes, Army & Come Back are 5 really good songs, imo.

[McParadigm]

Is the Spotify mix just the one they have on there (Not the BOB 2017 )?

Yup. And before somebody jumps in, it’s really just a much better mastering of the original mix. It isn’t flattened and harshed to death. The difference is mostly revealed with headphones, but you can hear a lot more of the intricacies and dynamics of the instrumentation.

We mostly call it the Spotify “mix” because who the fuck cares about that terminological difference really

[Rob]

Is the Spotify mix just the one they have on there (Not the BOB 2017 )?

Yup. And before somebody jumps in, it’s really just a much better mastering of the original mix. It isn’t flattened and harshed to death. The difference is mostly revealed with headphones, but you can hear a lot more of the intricacies and dynamics of the instrumentation.

We mostly call it the Spotify “mix” because who the fuck cares about that terminological difference really

Thanks. I've been using Apple music for years, but started the free month of Spotify last week to see if I liked it better. So far so good.

[RockPusher]

I like unemployable, don't find the lyrics condescending. Love the "if he can't sleep, how will he ever dream" line. The vocals aren't his best, though.

that is a good lyric, actually

for me at least, the song is trying so hard to channel springsteen but never really gets inside the character. it is too much of a ny times profile on working class poverty

Funny considering how effortless the Springsteen channeling seems now on 7:00 and especially River Cross in my opinion.

[RockPusher]

Come Back is my favorite track on this album. One of two easily discernible waltzes in their catalog (other is All or None). I love how it builds to a simmer and then crackles into the final portion.

[PHATJ]

unemployable is right down there at the bottom of their studio tracks. I like almost nothing about it. The shiny sound of Eddie’s voice, the pop affectations of the chorus (so much worse here than infallible or ltrp), the surprisingly condescending lyrics. none of it works for me, and the music doesn’t grab me at all.

I kind of like the outro a bit

I agree with your last sentence

in a divided world I thank god unemployable is here to bring people together

haha!

Worse than LTRP or Infallible!?! Insanity, I say! Unemployable is one of my top songs from Avocado.

[Ms Harmless]

unemployable is right down there at the bottom of their studio tracks. I like almost nothing about it. The shiny sound of Eddie’s voice, the pop affectations of the chorus (so much worse here than infallible or ltrp), the surprisingly condescending lyrics. none of it works for me, and the music doesn’t grab me at all.

I kind of like the outro a bit

I agree with your last sentence

in a divided world I thank god unemployable is here to bring people together

haha!

Worse than LTRP or Infallible!?! Insanity, I say! Unemployable is one of my top songs from Avocado.

same, it's one of the very few I actively seek out still

[PHATJ]

pearl jam’s dreary acoustic numbers (all or none, thumbing my way, dead man) usually dont work for me. gone fares a little bit better, mostly because the chorus is really catchy and Eddie hadnt really done this kind of clean soaring chorus since Yield- and I do prefer this to In Hiding

yeah, gone is a bit of a pearl jam guilty pleasure. the ‘if nothing is everything’ sequence makes me smile

I like Gone too. I don’t love it, but I’ve never really understood the hate for either. It’s probably a 3.5 star song for me. I rarely seek it out, but I absolutely do while driving the city at night. And in that scenario it’s very good.