Let's Actually Listen to the Album: Pearl Jam

[harmless]

Army Reserve

This song could have been epic if Ed delivered it with less...ummm...i dunno, harshness? I think vocally it is one of my leats favorite performances of his which sucks cause the lyrics are excellent and the music is pretty cool. But that delivery...ugh... especially the chorus which is like nails on a chalk board.

while i do agree that Eds vocals could have been better, i still love that song, one of my favorites on the album

The verses are some of my favorite vocals on the album. The choruses really do feel very pretend, though.

The delivery of the line "Looks like lightning / in my child's eye" doesn't help.

[Habitman]

Army Reserve

This song could have been epic if Ed delivered it with less...ummm...i dunno, harshness? I think vocally it is one of my leats favorite performances of his which sucks cause the lyrics are excellent and the music is pretty cool. But that delivery...ugh... especially the chorus which is like nails on a chalk board.

while i do agree that Eds vocals could have been better, i still love that song, one of my favorites on the album

I can understand the love for the song. The lyrics alone make it pretty unique. The line "she tells herself and everyone else - father is risking his life for our freedom" is special.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

Army Reserve

This song could have been epic if Ed delivered it with less...ummm...i dunno, harshness? I think vocally it is one of my leats favorite performances of his which sucks cause the lyrics are excellent and the music is pretty cool. But that delivery...ugh... especially the chorus which is like nails on a chalk board.

while i do agree that Eds vocals could have been better, i still love that song, one of my favorites on the album

I can understand the love for the song. The lyrics alone make it pretty unique. The line "she tells herself and everyone else - father is risking his life for our freedom" is special.

yep, sometimes that one will catch me just right and give me goose bumps

[Thejambi]

Army Reserve

This song could have been epic if Ed delivered it with less...ummm...i dunno, harshness? I think vocally it is one of my leats favorite performances of his which sucks cause the lyrics are excellent and the music is pretty cool. But that delivery...ugh... especially the chorus which is like nails on a chalk board.

while i do agree that Eds vocals could have been better, i still love that song, one of my favorites on the album

The verses are some of my favorite vocals on the album. The choruses really do feel very pretend, though.

The delivery of the line "Looks like lightning / in my child's eye" doesn't help.

It's like, do you even see the dog bro?

[stupidmop]

Eds vocal choices on army reserve and inside job are flat out bizarre. Just....why?
I agree that it hurts army reserve a lot. He's aaaalmost doing it on CC but he stops short.

[Habitman]

Eds vocal choices on army reserve and inside job are flat out bizarre. Just....why?
I agree that it hurts army reserve a lot. He's aaaalmost doing it on CC but he stops short.

I can understand Inside Job to a degree. The over enunciating to highlight the phrase... I understand the intention.

The Army Reserve chorus delivery is so bad - in a forced/strained way....well... maybe that was the intention... to match the harsh fear the women in the story is suffering with his vocal delivery. I dunno... bizarre is right.

I wonder if BOB was the producer, he would have steered him away from that decision.

[Thejambi]

Eds vocal choices on army reserve and inside job are flat out bizarre. Just....why?
I agree that it hurts army reserve a lot. He's aaaalmost doing it on CC but he stops short.

Yeah he was definitely looking for new styles and tricks.

[harmless]

I feel like Ed's decision to scream in S/T (and Backspacer to some extent) was nothing more than "Let's be LOUD! We used to be an alternative band, right? Let's prove to people we still ROCK OUT! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR."

[Mine]

As far as s/t is concerned the production/mastering accentuates that a lot. It's not a particularly wise stylistic choice on Ed's part to begin with and that heavy dynamic compression makes it sound even worst, it really amplifies all the abrasiveness of it. The problem may even be in the mix because it sounds as if the least pleasing part of Ed's voice is the loudest. B'OB seems to favour those frequencies less.

[harmless]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

[Mine]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

It seems like sometimes they actually write songs with such ease and spontaneity that they don't even realise what they are. S/T sounds like they thought they wrote a punk mixed with hard rock album while most of it wasn't even up-tempo. It should have been mastered and performed as those songs were, not like they thought or wanted them to be.

[Habitman]

Invariably I get to critical about albums when I take time to listen to them.

So in an effort to discuss the positives:

1 - MITS's music is soooo f'n good
2 - LW is an excellent opener with more depth than most of their openers
3 - Severed Hand's jam is a great highlight for me
4 - WWS has excellent verses (still hate the chorus)
5 - I really like the placement of LW repise - it nicely breaks up GONE and AR
6 - Big Wave is not groundbreaking but it is one of the few songs on the album that is excentuated by the production

Solid Album...

[harmless]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

It seems like sometimes they actually write songs with such ease and spontaneity that they don't even realise what they are. S/T sounds like they thought they wrote a punk mixed with hard rock album while most of it wasn't even up-tempo. It should have been mastered and performed as those songs were, not like they thought or wanted them to be.

Totally. It's like they marketed and packaged something that didn't represent the actual songs. But I'm pretty damn sure they thought it did. As far as Lightning Bolt goes, so far I'm feeling like although the artwork is unusual set against some of the songs, the disparity actually works. But that might just be me, and we'll decide when all the songs are out.

[stupidmop]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

Yeah it sounds like he's screaming from his throat but with his mouth closed or something.

[stip]

Army Reserve

This song could have been epic if Ed delivered it with less...ummm...i dunno, harshness? I think vocally it is one of my leats favorite performances of his which sucks cause the lyrics are excellent and the music is pretty cool. But that delivery...ugh... especially the chorus which is like nails on a chalk board.

while i do agree that Eds vocals could have been better, i still love that song, one of my favorites on the album

The verses are some of my favorite vocals on the album. The choruses really do feel very pretend, though.

agreed. the chorus derails that song a bit for me.

[stip]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

Yeah it sounds like he's screaming from his throat but with his mouth closed or something.

that felt unbelievably refreshing after riot act, but once we no longer had to worry that Ed had lost his intensity it then started to date and drag a bit

[Habitman]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

Yeah it sounds like he's screaming from his throat but with his mouth closed or something.

that felt unbelievably refreshing after riot act, but once we no longer had to worry that Ed had lost his intensity it then started to date and drag a bit

The screaming works in the last verse of MITS.

[harmless]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

Yeah it sounds like he's screaming from his throat but with his mouth closed or something.

I agree.
that felt unbelievably refreshing after riot act, but once we no longer had to worry that Ed had lost his intensity it then started to date and drag a bit

The screaming works in the last verse of MITS.

[McParadigm]

Yeah, I agree: LOUDNESS is like the whole manifesto for S/T. The reason I think that S/T generally fails is that Ed's voice, the mastering, they're all relatively "decorative" ways of being "loud" or "heavy". If you want to be a fundamentally loud band, write more (and much better) hard rock songs.

Also Ed was faking loudness because those screams were plain fake. I guess it's some trick to not fuck his voice up but I'm not sure. I remember thinking it was deliberate rather than an inability on his part to scream for real...like he would on that live performance of LORM on VH1. I remember it because that performance didn't surprise me particularly but a lot of people were surprised he pulled that of.

Yeah it sounds like he's screaming from his throat but with his mouth closed or something.

I agree.
that felt unbelievably refreshing after riot act, but once we no longer had to worry that Ed had lost his intensity it then started to date and drag a bit

The screaming works in the last verse of MITS.

The phlegmy quality in that section is great. "A sickness comin' over me" sounds outstanding. He seems to run out of steam a bit near the end of it, though.

[Juvenal]

"Looks like lightning in my child's eye" is a great line.