JH wrote:Knowing now that Pendulum was originally going to be on Backspacer, does anyone think this artwork wasn't originally intended for The Fixer?
In one of the interviews around Backspacer, Tom Tomorrow mentioned that the CD he got from PJ that inspired his artwork actually had another track on it that didn't make the final release.
Sorry if someone else has mentioned it in the previous 1400 pages about Lightning Bolt.
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
He seems to give some pretty well-thought out justifications for his assessments. I think there's more to what he's saying then just "I wish they made music that was more like the music I liked from them."
JH wrote:Knowing now that Pendulum was originally going to be on Backspacer, does anyone think this artwork wasn't originally intended for The Fixer?
In one of the interviews around Backspacer, Tom Tomorrow mentioned that the CD he got from PJ that inspired his artwork actually had another track on it that didn't make the final release.
Sorry if someone else has mentioned it in the previous 1400 pages about Lightning Bolt.
Hmm, that seems to fit/make sense, and P-E-N-D-U-L-U-M fits perfectly in T-H-E-F-I-X-E-R.
harmless wrote:Wow, that Stereogum review will be the best one we read of this album, surely.
Right after “Swallowed Whole” closes out the album’s peak, the band goes into “Let the Records Play,” another in the lineage of Backspacer track “Johnny Guitar”: a more workmanlike rock title promises a more workmanlike rock song. In this case, “Let the Records Play” is exactly like it sounds: a borderline cheesy bar-band blues-rock that’s saved only by a decently catchy chorus.
Great review, but who in their right mind actually thinks this??
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
I find the review to be ultimately positive. The reviewer doesn't resonate with what the album is, but fairly acknowledges its strengths.
You're right. It's a fairly positive review from a "middle era" PJ fan. To me, that says alot about the strength of the album, kind of like a Ten-era fan hearing Riot Act and going, "alright, not bad, pretty good even". It's just the nature of art, I guess.
I just find it really funny when people shit on Lightning Bolt for being "PJ Lite" on a level worse than Backspacer.
It's weird that he calls "Sleeping With Myself" a "downtempo ballad".
Definitely weird.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
I think a lot of PJ "reviewers", fans and otherwise, are very good and articulate when talking about something they love and why, but not so good at giving justification for disliking something. Vocabulary just goes out the window. In reviewing, the one thing I've learned is that it's actually harder to negatively criticise something convincingly. Thoroughly praising a book is fairly easy.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
He seems to give some pretty well-thought out justifications for his assessments. I think there's more to what he's saying then just "I wish they made music that was more like the music I liked from them."
As well thought and articlulate the writer is as you say, I disagree. He makes his points pretty eloquently, but it's still "I wish they were searching like they're used to, but they're still pretty good." That's a major theme of the write up, and he makes alot of good supporting analysis to back that up.
A certain version of Pearl Jam ended with Riot Act. Since their third record, 1994′s Vitalogy, the band had continuously eschewed their mainstream success in favor of leaning more deliberately alternative, messing with their sound, and, speaking objectively about my favorites albums of theirs, simply making music that sounded uglier. I’m in a certain (but vocal) pseudo-minority of the fanbase that finds Yield, the middle of this process, to be a hidden masterpiece. I’m in a considerably smaller part of the fanbase that loves Riot Act. Sure, that album is all dulled burnt orange hues and wearied midnight wanderings, but even as many fans bemoaned the grayscale of Vedder’s delivery on it (pretty rightfully, though I’d argue it works for many of those songs) ironically it felt like the last moment Pearl Jam really gave us something. Each successive record has felt like some attempt at course correction, or a facsimile of what Pearl Jam imagined people expected them to be. Even when that approach works — as it does on most of Lightning Bolt — it still feels somehow removed from the band we’ve known and loved. They sounded best when they were striving and not always succeeding, their art-rock detours always more interesting than their middle-age rewrites of “Spin the Black Circle.”
The problem with this argument (and this may also be its strength) is that you can make this statement about basically every record since vitalogy. it is really a question of where you feel like drawing the line-if you're attracted to the records he mentions then you'll feel this way. If you're not then you'll basically invert what he's saying. I wonder how much of this is semi-unique to pearl jam, or if, say, REM fans have the same arguments.
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
He seems to give some pretty well-thought out justifications for his assessments. I think there's more to what he's saying then just "I wish they made music that was more like the music I liked from them."
As well thought and articlulate the writer is as you say, I disagree. He makes his points pretty eloquently, but it's still "I wish they were searching like they're used to, but they're still pretty good." That's a major theme of the write up, and he makes alot of good supporting analysis to back that up.
Which makes it a good review, whether or not you agree with it.
Last edited by harmless on Tue October 08, 2013 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Guys, Vitalogy, No Code, Yield, Binaural, and Riot Act are all pretty different records. This idea that there's some "Middle-Period Pearl Jam Fan" who is longing for them to return to the "sound" from this era is silly. They covered a decent bit of ground in these years, and the reason so many of us are attached to these is records isn't because they sound a certain way, it's because THEY'RE REALLY FUCKING GOOD. SOMETIMES EVEN GREAT. I don't know why it's so easy to dismiss the idea that people like these albums because they're of a higher quality than other albums.
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
He seems to give some pretty well-thought out justifications for his assessments. I think there's more to what he's saying then just "I wish they made music that was more like the music I liked from them."
As well thought and articlulate the writer is as you say, I disagree. He makes his points pretty eloquently, but it's still "I wish they were searching like they're used to, but they're still pretty good." That's a major theme of the write up, and he makes alot of good supporting analysis to back that up.
Which makes it a good review, whether or not you disagree with it.
Tuolumne wrote:I dunno, that Stereogum review is alot like RM, where there's some people that go, "I wish they were making the style from Binaural/Riot Act", which sounds alot like in the No Code era most of us heard from ex-fans "I wish they made music like Ten". It's just the nature of a band changing and not meeting you where you're at in a particular moment. Sure there's some songs that miss or could have been executed or included differently, but it's very reminiscent of that No Code era. I consider many members of this board to be "middle era" PJ fans, just like there are devotees (to this day) of "early" PJ. We're currently in "late era" PJ. It's just the changing nature of any band that goes this long. Over the several years I've been reading this and other boards, I've not been convinced it's anything otherwise.
He seems to give some pretty well-thought out justifications for his assessments. I think there's more to what he's saying then just "I wish they made music that was more like the music I liked from them."
As well thought and articlulate the writer is as you say, I disagree. He makes his points pretty eloquently, but it's still "I wish they were searching like they're used to, but they're still pretty good." That's a major theme of the write up, and he makes alot of good supporting analysis to back that up.
Which makes it a good review, whether or not you agree with it.
Oh for sure. I don't agree but it's well-written and argued.
stip wrote:I wanted to punch you in your god's dice loving balls for not loving lightning bolt.
harmless wrote:Wow, that Stereogum review will be the best one we read of this album, surely.
The last four paragraphs almost perfectly describe my opinions of what Pearl Jam has become over the last 10 years and why. Not that I hold it against them at all, it's bound to happen. I haven't lost any respect or enjoyment out of them, either, it's just that these guys are close to becoming a version of themselves that is more about the past then about the future. It probably already has happened. This album makes me think twice about that statement, but I think over time, it will become clear that we probably started looking back once the '03/'04 tours were over, maybe sometime during the '06 tour.
A certain version of Pearl Jam ended with Riot Act. Since their third record, 1994′s Vitalogy, the band had continuously eschewed their mainstream success in favor of leaning more deliberately alternative, messing with their sound, and, speaking objectively about my favorites albums of theirs, simply making music that sounded uglier. I’m in a certain (but vocal) pseudo-minority of the fanbase that finds Yield, the middle of this process, to be a hidden masterpiece. I’m in a considerably smaller part of the fanbase that loves Riot Act. Sure, that album is all dulled burnt orange hues and wearied midnight wanderings, but even as many fans bemoaned the grayscale of Vedder’s delivery on it (pretty rightfully, though I’d argue it works for many of those songs) ironically it felt like the last moment Pearl Jam really gave us something. Each successive record has felt like some attempt at course correction, or a facsimile of what Pearl Jam imagined people expected them to be. Even when that approach works — as it does on most of Lightning Bolt — it still feels somehow removed from the band we’ve known and loved. They sounded best when they were striving and not always succeeding, their art-rock detours always more interesting than their middle-age rewrites of “Spin the Black Circle.”
The problem with this argument (and this may also be its strength) is that you can make this statement about basically every record since vitalogy. it is really a question of where you feel like drawing the line-if you're attracted to the records he mentions then you'll feel this way. If you're not then you'll basically invert what he's saying. I wonder how much of this is semi-unique to pearl jam, or if, say, REM fans have the same arguments.
FWIW, I agree that it will entirely depend on how you view those middle records. In its own right, and disregarding the "wrong" kind of context, Lightning Bolt is a pretty successful album.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
I just have no fucking clue why this record ends with Future Days. My god.
Yellow Moon should end the record.
Actually, yellow Moon should be the last track, but that music we all love from Pendulum should creep back in after a minute of silence to finish us all off.
stip wrote:The problem with this argument (and this may also be its strength) is that you can make this statement about basically every record since vitalogy. it is really a question of where you feel like drawing the line-if you're attracted to the records he mentions then you'll feel this way. If you're not then you'll basically invert what he's saying. I wonder how much of this is semi-unique to pearl jam, or if, say, REM fans have the same arguments.
Yield definitely marks the beginning of the process that Binaural failed to complete...the collecting of what they wanted to keep from the old sound and the development of something longer lasting. Riot Act is the smouldering ashes of that intention....after that, it definitely sounds more and more like "a facsimile of what Pearl Jam imagined people expected them to be."
So, no, the work from 1996-2000 sounds like a continued ambition towards evolution, Riot Act sounds like directionless and anxiety-prone leg twitching, and after that it was the big shrug.
harmless wrote:Wow, that Stereogum review will be the best one we read of this album, surely.
The last four paragraphs almost perfectly describe my opinions of what Pearl Jam has become over the last 10 years and why. Not that I hold it against them at all, it's bound to happen. I haven't lost any respect or enjoyment out of them, either, it's just that these guys are close to becoming a version of themselves that is more about the past then about the future. It probably already has happened. This album makes me think twice about that statement, but I think over time, it will become clear that we probably started looking back once the '03/'04 tours were over, maybe sometime during the '06 tour.
I look back at the absolutely incredible gig that was Reading Festival 2006 with a little sadness and nostalgia. I still follow Pearl Jam and hopefully always will, but I do think it was something of the end of an era. For my life it was about to be the start of a new one, so that's OK.
Last edited by harmless on Tue October 08, 2013 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
