Hello - I'm new here, and wanted to share something with you

[bodysnatcher]

Kevin Davis's post was better than the Antiquiet release. Yield always felt to be more of a 'modern rock' record with a much more restrained vocal approach and shinier production. However, they did stuff on there that moved them forward:

Faithful uses a palindromic song structure and Ed sings in a much higher register than normal;
No Way was a different feel - more laid back, funky and the breakdown is literally a breakdown;
Given to Fly built on the tom heavy drum patterns from No Code but in a way that was less overbearing and in sync with the music.
Wishlist is brutally simplistic but effective and to the point. The vocals don't ever strain.
DTE feels like a 12 bar blues on a cocktail of LSD and speed and is a return to the riff rock of Vs in a different way
In Hiding - the chorus is vocally very different from the strains and screams that Ed would have inserted in previous records

Everyone talks about Riot Act having restrained vocals but I think this record was where Eddie was through with screaming. But unlike Riot Act this wasn't at the expense of good melodies and hooks. Jeff's bass playing is also much more restrained with fewer ornamentals and a lot of root notes apart from ATY where he turns his bass into a tuba. This is also the record where Mike McCready returns to the band after limited contributions to the previous two albums and results are great.

very well said

Agreed. I remember watching some interviews on MTV when Yield came out, and Jeff saying that Ed really developed and learned how to sing on this record

[Fuzzcharger]

I really love Yield, guys.

Look what we've started. These overnight additions to the thread are a lot to take in first thing in the morning. I don't know what to believe anymore.

[doone]

All this conversation about Yield is making me hot under the collar, I'm going to have to listen to it on my way home.

[digster]

This is nothing i haven't said before, but I wouldn't be willing to call any record a step backwards yet. The two that would obviously come up for discussion here are the last two records, but in many ways both of them are logical thematic responses to the previous record and, in the case of backspacer, exploring new ideas.

There aren't many new ideas, per se, on S/T, but S/T is a record that is hard to understand without seeing it in the context of Riot Act, a sonic response to the subdued crisis of faith you find on that record (which was, in turn, presaged by Binaural). Quite a few bands were going through the same process. R.E.M.'s around the sun and Bruce Springsteen's Devil's and Dust were both muted responses to what all three of these bands would have seen as the catastrophe of the early 90s, and in a lot of ways each record reflects the confusion and powerless of artists you would normally look to for a big bold defiant response to the world around them. And, not surprisingly, all three of these artists followed up those albums with equally politicized roaring and aggressive records dealing with all of the same themes but in a much more invigorated, confrontational way. The music is paralleling the themes. To have expected Riot Act to be followed by anything other than S/T is to misunderstand the way in which PJ records almost always develop out of the one before it. S/T had to be next, and I'm not sure that record could have done what it had to do if it was anything other than a loud, bold, aggressive album. (this is bracketing whether or not the songs could have been better but I don't think this thread was about the 'quality' of the music as much as it was the direction).

I think that overall that's probably true. I'd say the only time PJ could be accused of regressing in their sound was with S/T; it was practically a stated aim (I mean, that was one of the only times the band itself, rather than over-eager publicists, fed the 'we're gonna rock again like the old days' fire). Even Backspacer has some things that are by definition new for PJ; I think it's fair to say that people may criticize those movements because they feel that a) PJ doesn't pull those new things off well at all, and b) though they may be 'new' tropes to PJ, they're hackneyed and overused tropes in general. I was just saying I don't really feel like Yield/Binaural/Riot Act is a retreat from forward momentum in the way the orginal poster was saying.

[Norah]

For everything about Backspacer that is moving forward from previous albums, it's also moving backwards. Amongst The Waves and Unthought Known are anthemic Pearl Jam by numbers.

Is anthemic an actual word?

[evenslow]

a) yes, "anthemic" is an adjective. a real one.

b) some really cool talk in this thread that i can get behind. i think it's due to two things:
-- the antiquiet tweet focused us and got us thinking about possibilities instead of yesterday's news. it then subsequently got many to be negative about something other than backspacer for once. it was a cleansing. thank you antiquiet.
-- the arrival of fresh-faced and auspicious "samiad" made us all look upon the music (and one another) with new, more forgiving eyes.

[stip]

Even Backspacer has some things that are by definition new for PJ; I think it's fair to say that people may criticize those movements because they feel that a) PJ doesn't pull those new things off well at all, and b) though they may be 'new' tropes to PJ, they're hackneyed and overused tropes in general.

that's fair

[stip]

For everything about Backspacer that is moving forward from previous albums, it's also moving backwards. Amongst The Waves and Unthought Known are anthemic Pearl Jam by numbers.

Is anthemic an actual word?

any more than any of the anthems on any of their records? Amongst the waves has a fairly generic chorus but I can't think of another PJ song that has verses like that (and I think the verses are really good--some of my favorite moments on that album). And while UK is an anthem, the lighter sound to it, the little piano touches, etc. these are new twists on a standard song for them--hardly no more or less original than something like In Hiding.


I wouldn't make the argument that everything on Backspacer is pathbreaking. I would never say that about any pearl jam record. They explore new nuances in familiar spaces, and have on every album.

[bodysnatcher]

Cigarette Song Part I > Amongst the Craves > Cigarette Song Part II

[Rat]

I was listening to Backspacer today and the Fixer is really good on record, hard to duplicate live. It is the most futureistic song in their catalog, that thing is 10 years before it's time, this tune was probably written by George Jetson and sent through a worm hole to Ed. Plus the vocal thing ed does in the chorus is impossible, just try it yourself, only a machine can do that and he did it with a mike. The Fixer, great tune.

[Rat]

double post

[Norah]

Get the fuck out of here.

[Norah]

Sorry, that was rude. But still!

[Rat]

I knew that would get a luke warm response lol

[Rat]

Fuck, how do you not double post around here???? I dont know how to

[Norah]

You don't have to double click the submit button.

[Rat]

Got it. Thx

[Norah]

Are you...old?

[Rat]

Yeah I'm wise beyond my years though. I'm probably your age. I've read your stuff for years, it's funny to be talking to you now. You are a funny guy for sure. Glad to meet you

[Norah]

I was just saying because old people usually double click when they should single click.