Backspacer: Official Album Thread

[VinylGuy]

Johnny Guitar is another solid track. I love the playfulness, the guitars, and specially Jeff's work. Matt is good as always.

I hate hate hate the fade out. Ed's vocals go from good to please calm down.

[VinylGuy]

i have never been a fan of Just Breathe. I can see Brendan finally doing what he wanted to do with Better Man. I do appreciate more what the band is doing here. But shit, those strings...cmon brendan. Horrible arrangement. Horrible.

Im so glad he is out.

[VinylGuy]

i get why Amongst The Waves is so divisive. Wasnt a fan at first. I wanted something much more aggressive or dynamic. I do love the groove. The bass lines are great.
Wish this guitars had more teeth, but thats a choice they made for the whole album i guess....But feels like this one is missing something for sure.

Still, i like this song more these days. Ed's vocals are good, the solo is cool, the bridge is good. Its another solid one from this album.

[VinylGuy]

UK.

Jesus i kinda hated this song back in the day. I tried to like it but this studio version lacks of everything thats good live. Still, its one of those i never need to go back to, really.

The keyboards are cool, the piano too. Ed's voice too. Matt's awesome. Still, there is something missing. The guitars need so much punch here. Fuck you Brendan you put yourself upfront in the mix. I dont wanna hear your piano, give me those awesome guitars in the back.

Matt is indeed great, but the production here is really awful. Thin.

Brendan really fucked this one.

[VinylGuy]

Supersonic is a fun B side. Its one of their laziest songs, back in the day this one would be a compilation track.

Yeah, the bridge is cool but ....and brendan, where are the guitars?

[Ms Harmless]

I've always enjoyed* how the song runs out of steam at the lyric "nothing left"

*hated

[VinylGuy]

Im a big big fan of Speed Of Sound. And this version. I dont care for Ed's demo really, i want the full band and i love what they do here.

Ed's vocals are so good. His best track on the album? Maybe. also the background vocals. Matt is awesome...another great album from him.

And the lyrics goddamn.

A whisper in the dark
Is that you or just my thoughts
I'm wide awake and reaching out
It's gone so quiet now
Could it be I'm farther out?
Movin' faster than the speed of sound


This gets me every time.

[VinylGuy]

FoN wasnt one of my favs back in the day. It grew up a lot...Ed's voice is great.
The guitars of course, need more crunchy but, again, thats a choice they made for this album.

The Edge is a guest star here? I love it. I wish they played this one more live, because it would benefit from the live setting. The production is not doing this song any favors...it should be super emotive and uplifting and, while it gets there, it suffers a lot.

The bridge is fucking great...Eddie Vedder, ladies and gentleman.

Yeah, such a solid song.

[VinylGuy]

Ok, The End is a good song. It just bothers me that the band is not featured. And i hate hate those strings. Another awful Brendan arrangement i presume. I hate them really. Bring the band back fucker.

Ed's delivery is very good. He really is living that character.

Even if i know this one is good, i don't have the need to hear it often. Not sure why.

[VinylGuy]

Of course Backspacer is always going to be so divisive. Its PJ's attempt to Pop and sometimes they get there and sometimes they dont.
When they dont, its mostly because of weird production choices. The guitars mostly suffer from them.

Its still a really solid album, and so different from ST and Riot Act, again its like they are a different band. Really strong effort in that regard...i just wish some of the songs sound different.

I would say i dont really care for UK, Just Breathe, Supersonic and The End. But live they are better. And i wish they could have done a different approach to the sonic elements of this one.

[stip]

FoN wasnt one of my favs back in the day. It grew up a lot...Ed's voice is great.
The guitars of course, need more crunchy but, again, thats a choice they made for this album.

The Edge is a guest star here? I love it. I wish they played this one more live, because it would benefit from the live setting. The production is not doing this song any favors...it should be super emotive and uplifting and, while it gets there, it suffers a lot.

The bridge is fucking great...Eddie Vedder, ladies and gentleman.

Yeah, such a solid song.

[Tj]

I will always adore this album. 2 very different record No Code and Backspacer are my favorites to listen to right now.

[Anders]

It does have some clear highlights.

[Monkey_Driven]

There are 4-5 songs I genuinely love. And then 3-4 that are terrible, bottom 10 percent of their catalog bad. It's jarring to listen to the whole album.

[stip]

There are 4-5 songs I genuinely love. And then 3-4 that are terrible, bottom 10 percent of their catalog bad. It's jarring to listen to the whole album.

which are on which half?

[epilogue]

There are 4-5 songs I genuinely love. And then 3-4 that are terrible, bottom 10 percent of their catalog bad. It's jarring to listen to the whole album.

I can get on board with this.

[epilogue]

It does have some clear highlights.

It has some highlights but I don't know how clear they are. But then I suppose "clear" doesn't mean "universal." So you're probably right.

[Monkey_Driven]

There are 4-5 songs I genuinely love. And then 3-4 that are terrible, bottom 10 percent of their catalog bad. It's jarring to listen to the whole album.

which are on which half?

Love:
The Fixer
Johnny Guitar
Speed of Sound
Force of Nature
Just Breathe (depends on the day)

Bottom Tier PJ:
Unthought Known
Amongst the Waves
Supersonic
Gonna See My Friend

[VinylGuy]

Great songs
Got some
The Fixer
Speed Of Sound

Good Songs
Gonna See My Friend
Johnny Guitar
Amongst The Waves
Force Of Nature
The End

Dont care
UK
Supersonic
Just Breathe

[Anders]

This is how Backspacer was voted for by RM in the S/T, BS and LB tournament:
1. Johnny Guitar 336
2. Got Some 387
3. Force Of Nature 455
4. Gonna See My Friend 505
5. Unthought Known 509
6. The Fixer 511
7. Speed Of Sound 517
8. Amongst The Waves 542
9. Just Breathe 545
10. The End 580
11. Supersonic 673

This is how Backspacer was voted for by RM in the BS and LB tournament:
1. The Fixer 99
2. Force of Nature 102
3. Johnny Guitar 110
4. Got Some 111
5. Just Breathe 125
6. Amongst the Waves 128
7. Speed of Sound 150
8. The End 156
9. Unthought Known 174
10. Gonna See My Friend 176
11. Supersonic 194

Some surprising differences, but also some clear trends. Johnny Guitar did best overall, Supersonic was worst on both lists.