Let's Actually Listen to the Album: Pearl Jam

[EJ]

I have no problem with Ed's vocals in either the versus or chorus of Army Reserve. I actually like it quite a bit. Its unique - didn't seem forced to me at all.

Its also the third best song on the album. So, there's that.

[Birds in Hell]

I like Army Reserve a lot, all of it.

[VinylGuy]

Army Reserve rules.

Tha groove.

[Juvenal]

One of the best songs on the album.

[Habitman]

One of the best songs on the album.

I listened to it again just now. It really is a cool song. Chorus aside - I can dig it.

[chewm]

Listening to it, I know it one of the most disliked albums, but I really enjoy it, it has some of my all time favorites and there's no song I dislike, Its one of my favorite albums actually.
Listening to Life Wasted at the moment, great opening track, Love the bridge a lot.

[chewm]

I love the vocals in Army Reserve

[LetMeSleep]

I love the vocals in Army Reserve

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I have no problem with Ed's vocals in either the versus or chorus of Army Reserve. I actually like it quite a bit. Its unique - didn't seem forced to me at all.

Its also the third best song on the album. So, there's that.

the only song in S/T that i thought had forced or faked vocals was Life Wasted, i heard one of the early versions of it somewhere along the way and it sounded like a fake scream, but the rest sound pretty natural to me

[Mike]

Everything in Army Reserve is really good until the chorus. It feels like the song is braking in the chorus with Eddie awkardly singing on top of it. Everything is smooth until it hits the chorus. The song should be elevated in the chorus but for me it feels like the opposite.

[harmless]

I wonder if the change from 4/4 in the verses to 6/8 in the choruses actually added to that feeling of the song "falling apart". This is the only song in the catalogue that has such an extreme time signature change in the chorus, and I'm not sure it works. I wonder whether, if they'd kept it simple and stuck to the verse timing, that chorus might've flew. Ed would've needed to reign back the vocal a bit but not much.

[Habitman]

I feel I should like Comeback more than I do. It is a good song but I feel the intention (dramatic, haunting with a sweeping/soaring ending) is too big. The meat and potatoes of the song do not allow it to reach the heights the band (ed) wanted it to reach.

[Mine]

I wonder if the change from 4/4 in the verses to 6/8 in the choruses actually added to that feeling of the song "falling apart". This is the only song in the catalogue that has such an extreme time signature change in the chorus, and I'm not sure it works. I wonder whether, if they'd kept it simple and stuck to the verse timing, that chorus might've flew. Ed would've needed to reign back the vocal a bit but not much.

This is my main counterargument when people crave uncommon time signatures etc. The thing is this things don't make a song better by default an may not even made them more interesting. When Jeff says "but it has an odd time signature" about Yellow Moon it doesn't make me particularly exited about it because he makes it sound, at least i perceived it this way, as if there's this odd time signature just for the sake of it instead of saying anything else that in context may make it sound may i say appropriate.
It's not that I'm bothered with this it's just that I'm not sure how skilled are they with this stuff. This things are easier to come up with that pull off.

[Mine]

I feel I should like Comeback more than I do. It is a good song but I feel the intention (dramatic, haunting with a sweeping/soaring ending) is too big. The meat and potatoes of the song do not allow it to reach the heights the band (ed) wanted it to reach.

Could have been a really good song but good taste wasn't an influence on that arrangement.

[Juvenal]

Re: the "lightning in my child's eye" bit, what do you guys see it as? It always puts an image in my head of a tear-filled eye with electric light shining off it.

[harmless]

I wonder if the change from 4/4 in the verses to 6/8 in the choruses actually added to that feeling of the song "falling apart". This is the only song in the catalogue that has such an extreme time signature change in the chorus, and I'm not sure it works. I wonder whether, if they'd kept it simple and stuck to the verse timing, that chorus might've flew. Ed would've needed to reign back the vocal a bit but not much.

This is my main counterargument when people crave uncommon time signatures etc. The thing is this things don't make a song better by default an may not even made them more interesting. When Jeff says "but it has an odd time signature" about Yellow Moon it doesn't make me particularly exited about it because he makes it sound, at least i perceived it this way, as if there's this odd time signature just for the sake of it instead of saying anything else that in context may make it sound may i say appropriate.
It's not that I'm bothered with this it's just that I'm not sure how skilled are they with this stuff. This things are easier to come up with that pull off.

Most of the stuff PJ have done with odd time signatures I've loved to death. Just not this. That's because the move from 4/4 to 6/8 is a very extreme transition. They've transitioned between signatures before but they're usually all across 4-beats-in-a-bar timings. We're talking about going from "You Are" into "Lowlight" and I think here it doesn't work; but the vast majority of PJ songs in this vein I really enjoy. As long as the time signatures have a relationship that make sense together, it'll be fine. And he said that it had an odd time signature, not an abrupt change from one signature to another. If that time signature is consistent throughout the song, like something like "You Are", it's even more likely to work.

[harmless]

I feel I should like Comeback more than I do. It is a good song but I feel the intention (dramatic, haunting with a sweeping/soaring ending) is too big. The meat and potatoes of the song do not allow it to reach the heights the band (ed) wanted it to reach.

Could have been a really good song but good taste wasn't an influence on that arrangement.

My issue has always been that it had a totally bland and obvious chord structure, played throughout the song. It's monotonous. Ed's screaming doesn't help this song either; there's a good chance that if he'd crooned this song beautifully, as he does "Sirens", it would've been transformed. The Sirens music is arguably fairly bland, but the performance, as well as the texture created by the twelve-string and the reverby electric guitar, lifts it up a couple of notches.

[Lament]

Ed's screaming doesn't help this song either;

I think there's actually a beautiful song buried in Come Back, but Pearl Jam just kind of bludgeon everything that could be special right out of it, led by Ed's vocals. I would love to hear this covered by a band with different sensibilities; I think it could be amazing.

[harmless]

Ed's screaming doesn't help this song either;

I think there's actually a beautiful song buried in Come Back, but Pearl Jam just kind of bludgeon everything that could be special right out of it, led by Ed's vocals. I would love to hear this covered by a band with different sensibilities; I think it could be amazing.

The Mynabirds.

[Lament]

Ed's screaming doesn't help this song either;

I think there's actually a beautiful song buried in Come Back, but Pearl Jam just kind of bludgeon everything that could be special right out of it, led by Ed's vocals. I would love to hear this covered by a band with different sensibilities; I think it could be amazing.

The Mynabirds.

I was thinking Lykke Li, but that works too.