Backspacer: Official Album Thread

[Jaeti]

gsmf is everything i wanted breakerfall to me. its not close to my favorite opener because there are so many great ones, but it is definitely a solid 4 star song. i like stone’s backing vocals in the chorus, matt’s energy throughout, and the main guitar line is a lot of fun. I like how bright it feels despite its grunge affectations. the intro/outro parts are great. everyone plays this one hard.

eddie’s vocals have a bit too much s/t stylings to them on the first 4 songs. it is fine because the songs move you through themselves so quickly, but it is a slightly awkward fit

Okay, I'll sign up again and run through Backspacer, too.

I like GSMF. I'm now looking back at my song rankings from a couple months ago and see that I 3-starred it. As rankings tend to be snapshots, I was probably a bit hard on it that day. It's probably 3.5 for me. Despite that, there's really nothing about it I'm moved to praise specifically.

[Jaeti]

got some is so great musically, but eddie lets this one down a bit. both the lyrics (among his few efforts I just think generally fail) and a vocal performance that sounds reedy and thin next to the music.

but its still a very fun song, one I alway like more than I remembered. I consistently underrate this one

I've always wanted to like Got Some more than I do, because it is doing new stuff musically. I basically just endorse your opinion here. I should maybe go listen to some live versions of it and see how it lands. Haven't gone back to this tour in a long, long time.

Edit: I fucked up and overlooked your "consistently underrate" conclusion. So, I rescind the endorsement and declare us at odds.

[Jaeti]

god I love so much about the fixer. the lyrics, the melody, the optimism in the playing (a breath of fresh air after the three prior albums), the slightly off kilter pop sensibilities in the music.

it isnt perfect. again, too much S/T in the vocals, and moments are slightly more processed than they should be. but wonderful all the same

If we were nearly S/T twins, here we may be step brothers. I was disappointed by The Fixer when it came out, didn't like what it seemed to portend for the rest of the album, and it hasn't grown on me at all over time.

A good bridge, but one that I almost never am in the mood to find my way to crossing.

[stip]

trag can fill in for you here

[PHATJ]

GSMF is one of my bottom 5-10 PJ songs. I loathe it.

[Jaeti]

again, the S/T range in eddie’s vocals arent the right choice for this song, but I love everything else about it. I think this was one of eddie’s most accomplished vocal melodies to date (always reminded me of a dire straits song), the writing is clever and out of eddie’s usually wheelhouse, and the music is filthy in all the right ways.


could have been maybe 50 seconds longer

I like Johnny Guitar a lot. Four stars, but maybe in a category all by itself among other four-star songs. To earn 4+ stars from me, I need my Pearl Jam songs to be heavier musically and/or lyrically. But something about this just works.

Agree that I'd love to hear the outro extend a good while longer.

[Jaeti]

I have cooled on just breathe a little bit. Eddie’s playing is lovely, and ‘I’m a lucky man to count on both hands the one I love’ is my favorite lyric of this type since ‘i wish i was the verb to trust and never let you down’. the problem is how over the top the chorus is - both in how busy it is and weirdly, how loud it is. The song needs it to be a bit more gentle

still pretty good, though

Just Breathe has fallen off quite a bit for me over the years. It's pretty, but I think I wanted to like it more for its weirdness in a Pearl Jam context than it really deserves. Also probably hoped its prettiness would help get my then-girlfriend into PJ a bit.

[Jaeti]

I love the rainy may showers feel of the music in the verses of amongst the waves, and eddie’s lyrics and melody are really good. the writing (and stone) dont get the credit they deserve

problem is the chorus is a bit flat and doesnt give the song the lift it needs - neither musically, vocally, or lyrically. And Mike’s solo belongs in a different song.

i think it is partly a victim of past success. When they aim in this direction expectations are super high

I have the sense that many around here lump Amongst the Waves and Unthought Known together as songs that fail to reach the heights they aim for. Over time, I've come to agree on that point about ATW. Maybe the biggest casualty of the "tight" approach to Backspacer.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Jaeti]

unthought known is also a mixed bag. I love the build of the first half of the song as the instruments gradually join in and the tension rises. the way it culminates with the ‘gems and rhinestones/feel the path...’ is great. but then it stops. we have two thirds of the song left to go and there isnt anything new or better (and mike’s solo is a little lame).

there is also a bit too much of new agey ed in the first part of the song, but there are a bunch of nice lyrical moments. gems and rhinestones, the moon lyrics, dream the dreams...

just not quite enough. it aimed to be a classic, and the bones are there. but the flesh isnt

Unthought Known, for me, gets there. Always has and still does. However, after getting there, I don't like how it resolves.

I think it peaks several times: "gems and rhinestones," the bridge, and "dream the dreams." But, even more than ATW, this needed space and time to crest once more. Granting the differences between No Code and Backspacer, I've always wished this song had a "2009 version" of the Present Tense outro, or something approximating it, whatever that would have meant at the time.

[Jaeti]

supersonic may be their dumbest song, but when I dont pay close attention, it actually is pretty catchy. And the bluesy bridge is good. just doesn’t belong here


it is kind of like mankind. a song I can like when I let my guard down. unlike similar songs like U and leatherman, which I just actively dislike

As I said recently in some other thread, no matter how much I don't like a Pearl Jam song as a Pearl Jam song, it's still Pearl Jam. In that sense, if I have Backspacer on and am slow to skip this one and it plays, I find moments to enjoy.

That said, 1.5 stars.

[Jaeti]

speed of sound is sloppy mess but Ive always found it engaging. I wonder how a tighter version would have worked on lightning bolt.

the word that always comes to mind when i hear speed of sound is cacophony, but in a good way. I do like this song - more than the demo. it always reminded me a bit of a spiritual follow up to off he goes (though I like this much better)

I too like the final version much more than the demo. This might be the one song on Backspacer that I like a good bit and think it basically does everything it's doing the right way. It is what it is, which is a maxed-out 3.5 star song.

[Jaeti]

the main riff in force of nature is schlock, but I dont care. the song is bad for its first 20 seconds, okay for the next 25, and amazing for the rest. if this was recorded during gigaton they would have gone back and fixed the beginning (see also - lightning bolt)

Ick, that intro. Discussion of this one is fresh from the "Ultimate" thread, and while I didn't like this song for that specific exercise, it does get 4 stars from me. Second verse through the end is wonderful.

[Jaeti]

the end isnt an everyday song. but it is a moving performance when you come back to it after a hiatus

It's moving. I respond to it emotionally. Apparently I gave it 3.5 stars, but if I wanted to get extra tedious I'd dock it a quarter-point.

[Jaeti]

yeah I am pretty comfortable ranking backspacer number 5. no higher. no lower

For me, it's solidly 11th in the catalog.

[Jaeti]

I am not making excuses for the album, but I do think backspacer’s reputation is hurt at least a little by people treating it as a ‘standard’ pearl jam album, rather than the palate cleanser it is. the catalog doesnt need 11 backspacers, but it absolutely needs one

I appreciate and respect this take on it, and found myself thinking about it in this light yesterday based on something else you said in some thread (probably re: FoN/Ultimate). I would love to be swayed by the spirit of it, but, in the end, even making various allowances for this or that, the songs just let me down.

[digster]

I am not making excuses for the album, but I do think backspacer’s reputation is hurt at least a little by people treating it as a ‘standard’ pearl jam album, rather than the palate cleanser it is. the catalog doesnt need 11 backspacers, but it absolutely needs one

I appreciate and respect this take on it, and found myself thinking about it in this light yesterday based on something else you said in some thread (probably re: FoN/Ultimate). I would love to be swayed by the spirit of it, but, in the end, even making various allowances for this or that, the songs just let me down.

Yep, that's it exactly for me. I like the idea of it, especially after the run from Binaural to S/T. They seemed to go in with a specific intent to create some tight, more melodic songs derived from new wave and some other influences they hadn't covered as much. I think that sounds fine; the two problems are that the album doesn't even really try to follow that at all, but more importantly, IMO the songs just aren't up to par in the way they need to be.

[VinylGuy]

I really really like Gonna See My Friend. Its PJ meets The Who meets Social Distortion. Jeff and Matt are sooo fucking great. Ed too.
This song would benefit so much from a Gigaton production, it needs more room, there is actually cool things here that are buried like the background vocals in the chorus.

Ed needs some restraint here for sure.

[VinylGuy]

Yeahhhh Got Some is fuuucking amazing.
This 1-2 punch is great, the band is ON FIRE here. Matt's drums jesus christ....and please Stone and Mike rule this one. Mike's little patterns are so fucking good.

What a monster of a song.

[VinylGuy]

I get why people hated The Fixer. It wasnt something i liked until i saw it live. I think the studio version is good, the groove is there and the song is very tight.

I dont quite like how processed Ed's voice seem to be. Again, the production of this album might not be as horrible as LB, but it does hurts the songs. And the mix too.