17. All or None vs. Quick Escape

[stip]

Vote

[stip]

This will be an interesting matchup. Riot Act and, to a lesser extent, S/T are Mike's last great albums, and his performance on All or None elevates what is otherwise a plodding, uninteresting, ponderous end to an album that REALLY starts to drag in its final third.


Quick Escape is an album highlight on a record full of them. They don't have anything else in their catalog that sounds like this - Pearl Jam covering Rage Against the Machine covering When the Levee Breaks. Great performances all around, and Mike's high point on the album. It's not close to my favorite on Gigaton, but it's still a great song. Excited to vote for it.

[stip]

In case no one has listened for a while...

[stip]

I don't remember the last time they sounded this huge. Maybe DTE?

[liebzz]

Love both these songs, but I will passionately defend Quick Escape so I am going with that one.

[epilogue]

Love both these songs, but I will passionately defend Quick Escape so I am going with that one.

Plus one

[epilogue]

This is the first time ever in one of these that I've voted against All or None this early.

Crazy.

[ABNorman]

All or None is probably one of about 3 songs on Riot Act I like, so this was actually quite a tough vote, but went for QE in the end.

[tragabigzanda]

Quick Escape is hugely overrated and All Or None is hugely underrated.

[PHATJ]

Both great songs that I love. But for me QE is the best song PJ has released since... a long damn time ago. Easy vote for Quick Escape.

[tragabigzanda]

Both great songs that I love. But for me QE is the best song PJ has released since... a long damn time ago. Easy vote for Quick Escape.

The new song factor at work!

[PHATJ]

Both great songs that I love. But for me QE is the best song PJ has released since... a long damn time ago. Easy vote for Quick Escape.

The new song factor at work!

Not at all. I haven’t listened to any PJ in probably six months. But QE is the PJ that I adore.

[mkay0]

Brutal choice here. QE absolutely rips, but All or None is special for me.

Bennaroya AoN is like a top 100 live PJ moment in my book.

Voted All or None

[Leatherhead]

Daaaaaaaaaaaang. I don't know.

[wease]

This one is damn tough. I truly can’t decide on which to vote for. I like them both that much.

[LetMeSleep]

I enjoy both songs. All Or None seems devastatingly beautiful and takes this round.

[digster]

This is maybe the toughest matchup this round. One odd thing about my love for the band is that, by and large, Mike's solos don't really do much for me, and never have. Even on records, often I see them as a facet of biding time or maintaining momentum or supporting what the band is doing. I rarely have that 'wow' moment that I do with someone like Neil Young and his solos, for example. But there's a few exceptions, and the main one is All or None; it's certainly the most emotional reaction I've had to a Mike solo. The song itself is great, and Ed's choice to go higher in the last verse is the best illustration of why his vocal choices in Riot Act were so good and have aged so well.

Quick Escape, though, is great. I often actually gravitate towards Stone's solos and parts, and his off-kilter solo halfway through this in the kind of guitar playing that tends to attract me more than the shredding that concludes it. The way the song tumbles out of its bridge into that solo is one of my favorite moments from the band in a long time. I'd give it to All or None, but both of these songs deserve to go further.

[podunk]

All or None is a great mood piece - I like all the individual elements, but it still seems a bit underdeveloped - like they wrote two thirds of a song and then just decided to put a (very good) solo on it instead of finishing it properly.

As Stip said, Quick Escape is as huge as Pearl Jam has sounded on record for years. Very successful melding of classic and modern Pearl Jam- musically, this song would work on Ten. Great showpiece for Jeff at the end. I’ve always wanted them to capture on record the vibe of some of the great live Porch jams that we’ve gotten over the last 10 or so years, and I think the outro to QE does this. Plus, this song was directly responsible for Trump being voted out of office.

Quick Escape.

[VinylGuy]

Quick Escape is a fucking masterpiece...Led Zep, Rage, NIN, and PJ circa 93 all blended into this fucking amazing jam...Everyone is on fire there.

I love All Or None, but QE is the winner

[Jaeti]

I don't remember the last time they sounded this huge. Maybe DTE?

Quite possibly.

My 2.5-year-old loves when the guitars and drums kick in at the start of this, and every time I put on "the drum song" for him I'm blown away by, yeah, the hugeness. 5-star song.