BurtReynolds wrote:Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.
Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.
The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.
Yet it all sounds like Pearl Jam (except maybe LTRP)
You could make the same argument for Vitalogy or No Code
stip wrote: This seems like a really weird thing to speculate about an artist you admit to not knowing.
true believers usually don't see their mythology as mythology. I was wondering if this was the case. I have only heard scattered songs here and there, but for someone credited for always following his muse no matter where it leads, they all sounded of a piece to me. But maybe I just get fed the introductory material.
We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam. I know I could subject REM or Tom Waits or Mark Lanegan or another one of my sacred cows to the kind of nitpicky micro criticisms (and the macro ones) that we do here (myself included), but we don't. We tend to focus on what we love and ignore what we don't. And so the way someone like Neil Young gets used here could reflect an idealized Neil Young more than the reality.
But maybe not. that's why I asked.
The main and larger point is that Neil doesn't really give a shit about anything or anybody regardless of the music he makes. It's just the way he rolls. That mentality gives you a lot of freedom. Ed seems locked by many different things.
He can't be free with what's locked inside of him.
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.
stip wrote:We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam.
If it makes you feel any better I got chased out of the Pearl Jam thread in the Other Bands section of the Manics site for being too negative/critical of them.
BurtReynolds wrote:Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.
Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.
The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.
I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.
Any of those are representative.
Last edited by BurtReynolds on Tue October 15, 2013 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
stip wrote:We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam.
If it makes you feel any better I got chased out of the Pearl Jam thread in the Other Bands section of the Manics site for being too negative/critical of them.
STOP BEING SUCH A DICK!
Some dudes were talking about how great Backspacer was. That was when I was like "eh, fuck it. I'll just hang out over at RM."
stip wrote:pearl jam can't really operate that way because it's 5 guys, and 5 songwriters to boot. If nothing else they need to figure out a way to navigate each other
I agree with this. We're getting such inconsistent records (stylistically and in terms of quality) because there are 4 guys (5, on a good day - Matt) all writing their own songs, then bringing them to the studio for Ed and BoB to play around with. So all the songs are sounding like 5 different voices. That used to be their strength; I'm not sure it is anymore.
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.
BurtReynolds wrote:Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.
Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.
The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.
Yet it all sounds like Pearl Jam (except maybe LTRP)
You could make the same argument for Vitalogy or No Code
Yes, it does. Ed is too unqiue a vocalist for Pearl Jam to make an album that doesn't sound like Pearl Jam. Maybe if we have Stone on vocals for an entire album...
stip wrote:We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam.
If it makes you feel any better I got chased out of the Pearl Jam thread in the Other Bands section of the Manics site for being too negative/critical of them.
STOP BEING SUCH A DICK!
Some dudes were talking about how great Backspacer was. That was when I was like "eh, fuck it. I'll just hang out over at RM."
cutuphalfdead wrote:so glad i don't see signatures
I really can't find my favorite one on this album, as always, each one has a different perception. But I assume Infallible always gets me, but I can't decide
Wanna discuss Pearl Jam songs, interpretations, albums and construct a database of all their artwork?
BurtReynolds wrote:Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.
Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.
The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.
I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.
Any of those are representative.
So these songs are unified (and thus "representative of the album") because of an inherent flaw: the choruses?
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.
stip wrote:pearl jam can't really operate that way because it's 5 guys, and 5 songwriters to boot. If nothing else they need to figure out a way to navigate each other
I agree with this. We're getting such inconsistent records (stylistically and in terms of quality) because there are 4 guys (5, on a good day - Matt) all writing their own songs, then bringing them to the studio for Ed and BoB to play around with. So all the songs are sounding like 5 different voices. That used to be their strength; I'm not sure it is anymore.
That struck me when I listened to the album, some of these songs are such messes, they're not just exploring genres over the album, they're turning songs into chimeras
cutuphalfdead wrote:so glad i don't see signatures
Thejambi wrote:Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?
If they both sounded like shit, I'd prefer the challenging sounding shit.
I was under the impression they think No Code, Binaural and Riot Act sound like shit. So yes, that would be wonderful.
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.
