What is Each Album's Major Flaw?: Yield

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

Yield is a good album, but not a great one. For most bands, this would be a high water mark, but for PJ it was a step backwards, their first. Whereas the previous three albums had, in some regards, topped each other (or at least spoke to one another), this was the first album where PJ seemed to be out of new ideas. In some ways it’s the more logical follow-up to Ten. But given that it was sandwiched between two of the group’s more experimental, boundary-pushing albums, it’s a head scratcher.

The production is pretty big and commercial. Not to the extremes of Ten, but a tasteful variation on that style. Lots of echo, big choruses, and songs that went down easy on the first listen. It’s a much more satisfying blueprint of the kind of records they make today. The two big rockers (Brain of J, DTE) were lesser versions of the type of thing the band did so easily on Vitalogy. The two chest-beating anthems (Faithfull, In Hiding) were lesser versions of the Ten era. The two quasi-experimental numbers (Pilate, Push Me, Pull Me) harkened to the weirder moments of No Code/Vitalogy, but should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Wishlist was a meandering track that collapsed under the weight of Vedder’s worst lyrics to date. Low Light was pleasant but forgettable. All Those Yesterdays and MFC are the two songs that sounded somewhat fresh but they weren’t centerpiece material. Which leaves us with the album’s fatal flaw: Given to Fly.

When your leadoff single is a blatant Zeppelin ripoff, folks, you’ve run out of ideas. I know people like this song, and it’s an okay live number (and better be because they play it at basically every show), but it’s the sound of a band that’s run out of creative gas. And ultimately that’s the fatal flaw of the album. There’s really nothing new here. It’s the sound of a band retreating. After three albums that doggedly pushed in new directions, even when that meant alienating fans, PJ blinked.

I disagree with most of this except the production.

I think the idea of Yield being an amalgamation of all their previous work has merit, but disagree that is somehow a muted version. There isn’t much new here, instead it’s a record where they perfectly executed all the ideas that the first four albums conveyed. As I often note, it is the most Pearl Jam album. To see an album where they tried to do that again, but with a touch less success would be the self-titled album, which I love, but is the same idea less perfectly executed.

I think Lightning Bolt probably feels like that a bit more to me than Yield

[stip]

I think No Way, Wishlist, Pilate, Push Me, The Color Red, and Hummus were arguably all new territory for them

I think there are elements of No Way in some of the earlier, funkier songs. Dirty Frank, Blood. Wishlist, for all its simplicity, felt newer to me at the time.

[Jaeti]

I also have an irrational hatred of red dot.

It is rational.

[Jaeti]

I also have an irrational hatred of red dot.

It is rational.

Ha, thought I'd successfully gone to the "latest unread" post, but instead I commented on a comment from 2014.

[stip]

It's as true now as ever!

[epilogue]

I have no issue with Red Dot.

They could have left it off the album, sure. But it's short and whatever. I have zero issue with it and zero attachment to it.

[liebzz]

Red Dot is a transitional piece on the album, if memory serves without looking, from Do the Evolution, which is balls to the wall, to MFC, which is a different animal. Without it, that transition would be very disjointed.

[stip]

i get that logic, but most of the songs on Yield give themselves extended introductory sequences to facilitate thise transitions. That fairly long engine rev at the start of MFC serves as that moment. you dont need red dot

[Jaeti]

Also, DTE fades out. So it does some of the necessary transition work in that regard. Don't need Red Dot.

[digster]

Red Dot is a transitional piece on the album, if memory serves without looking, from Do the Evolution, which is balls to the wall, to MFC, which is a different animal. Without it, that transition would be very disjointed.

Yes, Red Dot serves to artificially create a Side A (which ends with DTE) and a Side B (which opens with MFC) on an audio listening format which doesn't have sides. Yield feels like a record in two parts, and it's because Red Dot is there.

[liebzz]

Where else do you get to hear what sounds like crickets in the Pearl Jam catalogue. Case closed.

[bodysnatcher]

Red Dot rules, you goobers

[mikejasond]

Yield is a good album, but not a great one. For most bands, this would be a high water mark, but for PJ it was a step backwards, their first. Whereas the previous three albums had, in some regards, topped each other (or at least spoke to one another), this was the first album where PJ seemed to be out of new ideas. In some ways it’s the more logical follow-up to Ten. But given that it was sandwiched between two of the group’s more experimental, boundary-pushing albums, it’s a head scratcher.

The production is pretty big and commercial. Not to the extremes of Ten, but a tasteful variation on that style. Lots of echo, big choruses, and songs that went down easy on the first listen. It’s a much more satisfying blueprint of the kind of records they make today. The two big rockers (Brain of J, DTE) were lesser versions of the type of thing the band did so easily on Vitalogy. The two chest-beating anthems (Faithfull, In Hiding) were lesser versions of the Ten era. The two quasi-experimental numbers (Pilate, Push Me, Pull Me) harkened to the weirder moments of No Code/Vitalogy, but should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Wishlist was a meandering track that collapsed under the weight of Vedder’s worst lyrics to date. Low Light was pleasant but forgettable. All Those Yesterdays and MFC are the two songs that sounded somewhat fresh but they weren’t centerpiece material. Which leaves us with the album’s fatal flaw: Given to Fly.

When your leadoff single is a blatant Zeppelin ripoff, folks, you’ve run out of ideas. I know people like this song, and it’s an okay live number (and better be because they play it at basically every show), but it’s the sound of a band that’s run out of creative gas. And ultimately that’s the fatal flaw of the album. There’s really nothing new here. It’s the sound of a band retreating. After three albums that doggedly pushed in new directions, even when that meant alienating fans, PJ blinked.

I disagree with most of this except the production.

I agree with almost all of this except for Given to Fly being bad. It's the standout track of the album by a big amount to me. I like Yield but it always feels like a B to me, there's nothing that special about it and its not nearly as interesting as the previous four albums.

[liebzz]

Yield is a good album, but not a great one. For most bands, this would be a high water mark, but for PJ it was a step backwards, their first. Whereas the previous three albums had, in some regards, topped each other (or at least spoke to one another), this was the first album where PJ seemed to be out of new ideas. In some ways it’s the more logical follow-up to Ten. But given that it was sandwiched between two of the group’s more experimental, boundary-pushing albums, it’s a head scratcher.

The production is pretty big and commercial. Not to the extremes of Ten, but a tasteful variation on that style. Lots of echo, big choruses, and songs that went down easy on the first listen. It’s a much more satisfying blueprint of the kind of records they make today. The two big rockers (Brain of J, DTE) were lesser versions of the type of thing the band did so easily on Vitalogy. The two chest-beating anthems (Faithfull, In Hiding) were lesser versions of the Ten era. The two quasi-experimental numbers (Pilate, Push Me, Pull Me) harkened to the weirder moments of No Code/Vitalogy, but should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Wishlist was a meandering track that collapsed under the weight of Vedder’s worst lyrics to date. Low Light was pleasant but forgettable. All Those Yesterdays and MFC are the two songs that sounded somewhat fresh but they weren’t centerpiece material. Which leaves us with the album’s fatal flaw: Given to Fly.

When your leadoff single is a blatant Zeppelin ripoff, folks, you’ve run out of ideas. I know people like this song, and it’s an okay live number (and better be because they play it at basically every show), but it’s the sound of a band that’s run out of creative gas. And ultimately that’s the fatal flaw of the album. There’s really nothing new here. It’s the sound of a band retreating. After three albums that doggedly pushed in new directions, even when that meant alienating fans, PJ blinked.

I disagree with most of this except the production.

I agree with almost all of this except for Given to Fly being bad. It's the standout track of the album by a big amount to me. I like Yield but it always feels like a B to me, there's nothing that special about it and its not nearly as interesting as the previous four albums.

Damn. This feels like the erosion of democracy or something…I keep getting that same momentary pause I got when Trump would undoubtedly lie about something and I momentarily wondered whether I should take his words at face value and maybe what I see is wrong, and then I would quickly come to my senses and realize NO! This is all wrong!

Yield, even with the vast expansion in the number and quality of albums I have heard over the past few years, contemporary and at least historical insofar as classic rock music is concerned, easily remains in my top 25 favorite albums I have ever heard. It’s a perfectly executed sum of their parts and hits a theme that resonates with me - the idea of questioning or thinking about the first premises of the way we organize our society. It’s a phenomenal piece of work.

[stip]

Yield is a good album, but not a great one. For most bands, this would be a high water mark, but for PJ it was a step backwards, their first. Whereas the previous three albums had, in some regards, topped each other (or at least spoke to one another), this was the first album where PJ seemed to be out of new ideas. In some ways it’s the more logical follow-up to Ten. But given that it was sandwiched between two of the group’s more experimental, boundary-pushing albums, it’s a head scratcher.

The production is pretty big and commercial. Not to the extremes of Ten, but a tasteful variation on that style. Lots of echo, big choruses, and songs that went down easy on the first listen. It’s a much more satisfying blueprint of the kind of records they make today. The two big rockers (Brain of J, DTE) were lesser versions of the type of thing the band did so easily on Vitalogy. The two chest-beating anthems (Faithfull, In Hiding) were lesser versions of the Ten era. The two quasi-experimental numbers (Pilate, Push Me, Pull Me) harkened to the weirder moments of No Code/Vitalogy, but should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Wishlist was a meandering track that collapsed under the weight of Vedder’s worst lyrics to date. Low Light was pleasant but forgettable. All Those Yesterdays and MFC are the two songs that sounded somewhat fresh but they weren’t centerpiece material. Which leaves us with the album’s fatal flaw: Given to Fly.

When your leadoff single is a blatant Zeppelin ripoff, folks, you’ve run out of ideas. I know people like this song, and it’s an okay live number (and better be because they play it at basically every show), but it’s the sound of a band that’s run out of creative gas. And ultimately that’s the fatal flaw of the album. There’s really nothing new here. It’s the sound of a band retreating. After three albums that doggedly pushed in new directions, even when that meant alienating fans, PJ blinked.

I disagree with most of this except the production.

I agree with almost all of this except for Given to Fly being bad. It's the standout track of the album by a big amount to me. I like Yield but it always feels like a B to me, there's nothing that special about it and its not nearly as interesting as the previous four albums.

Damn. This feels like the erosion of democracy or something…I keep getting that same momentary pause I got when Trump would undoubtedly lie about something and I momentarily wondered whether I should take his words at face value and maybe what I see is wrong, and then I would quickly come to my senses and realize NO! This is all wrong!

Yield, even with the vast expansion in the number and quality of albums I have heard over the past few years, contemporary and at least historical insofar as classic rock music is concerned, easily remains in my top 25 favorite albums I have ever heard. It’s a perfectly executed sum of their parts and hits a theme that resonates with me - the idea of questioning or thinking about the first premises of the way we organize our society. It’s a phenomenal piece of work.

I am with Pryto and Mikejasond that Yield felt like Pearl Jam's first album that was revisiting old ideas as much as adding new ones (there are certainly new ones). A commercial reaction to No Code, or an attempt to reproduce Ten from a looser band. It can still be a great record and be those things, but it's one of the reasons why it may not be in someone's upper echelons.

[Leatherhead]

Yield sounds nothing like Ten.

[dad]

you guys are funny. Yield is flawless.

FLAWLESS.

[bodysnatcher]

Seriously, wtf is going on in here.

[RockPusher]

Yield sounds nothing like Ten.

Agreed. Also, the amount of "I'm too cool for Ten" on this forum blows me away sometimes.