No Code: Official Album Thread

[epilogue]

I wish Pearl Jam would have made an album full of songs like Around The Bend. It's a sound they explore not often enough. Imagine an album full of Around The Bends, Parachutes, Buckle Ups and Strangest Tribes.

Yes, please. Writing duties delegated to a one S. Gossard, preferably.

Make me a playlist!

[VinylGuy]

The albums sounds sooo fucking good.

[VinylGuy]

Around The Bend is such a warm song. Its not one i need compelled to listen to, but its a very cool surprise when i listen to this one.

[epilogue]

Around The Bend is such a warm song. Its not one i need compelled to listen to

Team TVG

[Thurman Murman]

I wish Pearl Jam would have made an album full of songs like Around The Bend. It's a sound they explore not often enough. Imagine an album full of Around The Bends, Parachutes, Buckle Ups and Strangest Tribes.

Yes, please. Writing duties delegated to a one S. Gossard, preferably.

Make me a playlist!

Yeah make that playlist!

I'm not sure i need an album full of these songs...especially if i'm waiting 4-6 years between albums. But id sure as shit take a solid mix to listen to when the mood hits.

[PHATJ]

I wish Pearl Jam would have made an album full of songs like Around The Bend. It's a sound they explore not often enough. Imagine an album full of Around The Bends, Parachutes, Buckle Ups and Strangest Tribes.

Yes, please. Writing duties delegated to a one S. Gossard, preferably.

Make me a playlist!

Yeah make that playlist!

I'm not sure i need an album full of these songs...especially if i'm waiting 4-6 years between albums. But id sure as shit take a solid mix to listen to when the mood hits.

Yeah, I wouldn’t choose that as an album path either. Benaroya Hall scratches that itch when I need it.

[evenslow]

Due to a confluence of events out of my control (I don't know what this means but felt I should start the sentence this way), I'm now willing to say No Code is the best Pearl Jam album.

I have been a Vitalogy/Yield man for 20 years but I think it's time to acknowledge other greatness. There is nothing like No Code. The balls on these guys for even suggesting doing something like it let alone following through in 1996. Sheesh!!

[stip]

it takes a lot of balls indeed to follow up the Ten - Vitalogy run with something so comparitvely disappointing. I didnt think they had it in them!

[VinylGuy]

Jesus Stip..No Code is a masterpiece.

[liebzz]

I can’t see No Code as a disappointment and loved it from the beginning. I mean if you take the absolute top of this album - to me Hail Hail, In My Tree, Smile, Red Mosquito, Present Tense, and Off He Goes - there is no better Pearl Jam than this. Who You Are, Sometimes, and Around the Bend are all excellent in their own way. Lukin and Mankind are sort of the lighter side of Pearl Jam. Habit is an unapologetic rocker that could nearly have been on Vitalogy. I’m Open is the closest thing to a throwaway on her le and even that had merit. This is a great album - for years my favorite, and probably still in my top 25 all time favorite records.

[evenslow]

it takes a lot of balls indeed to follow up the Ten - Vitalogy run with something so comparitvely disappointing. I didnt think they had it in them!

My house for the time it would take to copy/paste a million of these:

[evenslow]

If you're not careful, stip, I will head immediately to the rank the albums thread and sign it in blood. The choice is yours.

[PHATJ]

No Code is not a top 5 PJ album.

[stip]

I can’t see No Code as a disappointment and loved it from the beginning. I mean if you take the absolute top of this album - to me Hail Hail, In My Tree, Smile, Red Mosquito, Present Tense, and Off He Goes - there is no better Pearl Jam than this. Who You Are, Sometimes, and Around the Bend are all excellent in their own way. Lukin and Mankind are sort of the lighter side of Pearl Jam. Habit is an unapologetic rocker that could nearly have been on Vitalogy. I’m Open is the closest thing to a throwaway on her le and even that had merit. This is a great album - for years my favorite, and probably still in my top 25 all time favorite records.

that's such an underwhelming (to me, anyway) collection of top songs. Some interesting detours there I would enjoy more if there were two-three five star songs to anchor the album. The first 3 records were full of them, and Yield, while uneven for me, does have an absolutely first rate core block of songs. No Code had the first Pearl Jam songs I felt like I had to shrug my shoulders and apologize for. And unfortunately almost all of them have gone down for me over the years (In My Tree, Red Mosquito, and Present Tense in particular) - with no song really rising to replace them (though I do like Who You Are and Around the Bend a lot more now than I used to)


It's really Eddie who lets me down (and the first time he ever did). Too many of these performances rank towards the bottom of his work for me, and the directionlessness of much of this album isn't appealing. For all their flaws, Binaural and Riot Act had a strong and consistent point of view.

[stip]

No Code is probably the pearl jam record I most wish I could come back to with fresh ears, though

[VinylGuy]

I can’t see No Code as a disappointment and loved it from the beginning. I mean if you take the absolute top of this album - to me Hail Hail, In My Tree, Smile, Red Mosquito, Present Tense, and Off He Goes - there is no better Pearl Jam than this. Who You Are, Sometimes, and Around the Bend are all excellent in their own way. Lukin and Mankind are sort of the lighter side of Pearl Jam. Habit is an unapologetic rocker that could nearly have been on Vitalogy. I’m Open is the closest thing to a throwaway on her le and even that had merit. This is a great album - for years my favorite, and probably still in my top 25 all time favorite records.

that's such an underwhelming (to me, anyway) collection of top songs. Some interesting detours there I would enjoy more if there were two-three five star songs to anchor the album. The first 3 records were full of them, and Yield, while uneven for me, does have an absolutely first rate core block of songs. No Code had the first Pearl Jam songs I felt like I had to shrug my shoulders and apologize for. And unfortunately almost all of them have gone down for me over the years (In My Tree, Red Mosquito, and Present Tense in particular) - with no song really rising to replace them (though I do like Who You Are and Around the Bend a lot more now than I used to)


It's really Eddie who lets me down (and the first time he ever did). Too many of these performances rank towards the bottom of his work for me, and the directionlessness of much of this album isn't appealing. For all their flaws, Binaural and Riot Act had a strong and consistent point of view.

I was about to write how much i love Ed´s performance and lyrics in this one. And how much i love how it sounds...the mix is perfect. But at the same time i think he was really learning how to sing in this one.

[Thurman Murman]

I can’t see No Code as a disappointment and loved it from the beginning. I mean if you take the absolute top of this album - to me Hail Hail, In My Tree, Smile, Red Mosquito, Present Tense, and Off He Goes - there is no better Pearl Jam than this. Who You Are, Sometimes, and Around the Bend are all excellent in their own way. Lukin and Mankind are sort of the lighter side of Pearl Jam. Habit is an unapologetic rocker that could nearly have been on Vitalogy. I’m Open is the closest thing to a throwaway on her le and even that had merit. This is a great album - for years my favorite, and probably still in my top 25 all time favorite records.

that's such an underwhelming (to me, anyway) collection of top songs. Some interesting detours there I would enjoy more if there were two-three five star songs to anchor the album. The first 3 records were full of them, and Yield, while uneven for me, does have an absolutely first rate core block of songs. No Code had the first Pearl Jam songs I felt like I had to shrug my shoulders and apologize for. And unfortunately almost all of them have gone down for me over the years (In My Tree, Red Mosquito, and Present Tense in particular) - with no song really rising to replace them (though I do like Who You Are and Around the Bend a lot more now than I used to)


It's really Eddie who lets me down (and the first time he ever did). Too many of these performances rank towards the bottom of his work for me, and the directionlessness of much of this album isn't appealing. For all their flaws, Binaural and Riot Act had a strong and consistent point of view.

Team liebzz on this one...No Code is most certainly a top 5 Pearl Jam album for me.

[digster]

No Code, in some ways, remains PJ's most exciting record to me, because it's the one that's never solidified. By now, I pretty much know which records I enjoy the most; Vitalogy, Yield and Binaural float at the top, with everything else from Riot Act before a step below that, and LB and Backspacer at the bottom. Except for No Code. There've been times when I would place it below every pre-S/T record, and there have been times where it's been my favorite record the band ever made. I still enjoy returning to those older records, but I feel like I'm still engaged with No Code in a way I'm not with the others, even if I tend to find some of their other records to be stronger overall.

[epilogue]

Sometimes - Off He Goes is absolutely perfection and totally unfuckwithable. To me, it's their best opening run. On any album. Were it an EP on it's own, it would be my all-time favorite Pearl Jam release.

Habit really kills that for me. And sinks the album a full letter grade. If the following six were as strong as the opening six, it wouldn't matter. Unfortunately "I'm Open" and to a lesser extent "Lukin" keep it from gaining back the ground it lost.

It's a wonderful record. One that I love with all my heart, despite it's flaws. But it'll never top their catalog. Totally respect those that have it there, though. I get why one would.

[liebzz]

I’ve gone back and forth with it from # 1 to # 3 depending on my mood. There’s something about the fact that the album keeps you off your toes in its sequencing. I would agree that the front half is more consistent, but I love all the different things going on in the second half. Red Mosquito is one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, as is Present Tense (is there another Pearl Jam song that builds into a crescendo of sound than this?). The best songs are all allowed space the breathe on this album (also Vitalogy).

This also is a time and place album for me. I can remember precisely when I first heard it and the whole album has a familiarity to it I just can’t seem to place. Sort of like shoes that fit so perfectly you barely notice they are there.