Running

[Birds in Hell]

I think part of the problem is that there are a lot of people here who don't like modern Pearl Jam, and who view this as a place to vent about why, because they see this as a forum *about* Pearl Jam. On the other hand, there are a lot of people here, myself included, who see this as a forum for *fans of* Pearl Jam.

I think this an interesting way of framing it.

I definitely fall into the former camp. Not so much the seeing it as a place to vent about the band, but seeing RM as a forum 'about' Pearl Jam in a very general sense, more than a place for actual fans of the band to hang out.

We've hashed this out endlessly over the years, but it always surprises me to see people expecting love for the band to be the default position and criticism as a kind of deviation.

The board extends beyond this particular forum too. There are regular posters who never venture into the parts that concern Pearl Jam and probably haven't listened to the band in years.

[BurtReynolds]

The real Pearl Jam was the friends we made along the way.

[Birds in Hell]

In fact, I think it’s a reference to cum.

[LetMeSleep]

Anything happen over the past 30 pages?

I played this to my 12yo son. “Bad. This is really crap. He swears a lot. Can we not listen to this”.

We’re back listening to Mogwai.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[RockPusher]

Anything happen over the past 30 pages?

I played this to my 12yo son. “Bad. This is really crap. He swears a lot. Can we not listen to this”.

We’re back listening to Mogwai.

Ever been to a Mogwai show? You'll be happily zoning out to the beautiful music, then they break you with the wall of sound and you are dead (then they probably do the pretty music again, but you don't know because you're dead)

[Thejambi]

Legit my favorite part of the song is "let the fucking water running"

It makes me so happy

Same.

[Thejambi]

Anything happen over the past 30 pages?

I played this to my 12yo son. “Bad. This is really crap. He swears a lot. Can we not listen to this”.

We’re back listening to Mogwai.

My 5yo - "that was JUICY"

My 8yo - "Play it again. I love those drum fills"

Then we switched to a song about raining tacos

[LetMeSleep]

Anything happen over the past 30 pages?

I played this to my 12yo son. “Bad. This is really crap. He swears a lot. Can we not listen to this”.

We’re back listening to Mogwai.

Ever been to a Mogwai show? You'll be happily zoning out to the beautiful music, then they break you with the wall of sound and you are dead (then they probably do the pretty music again, but you don't know because you're dead)

Seen them many times. What a band.

[stip]

Super happy for Watt invigorating Ed the past couple of years.

Really wish theyd just hand the raw tracks over to Josh Evans though!

he is doing a mix!

really?

yeah, its cd 2 of the deluxe packaging

Not really. Unless I've missed it, there's no version with a second CD.

There's a version with Evans's Atmos mix on a second disc, which is a Blu-Ray and won't be playable on a regular CD player.

I wouldn't think Evans could work any miracles, as I expect the album mixes are pretty reflective of how Wotman's raw tracks sounded at the recording stage.

I listen to so many tiny math rock bands with 200 followers and their studio production is 9000 trillion times better than any of Pj's last few records, don't get it. No character, texture, warmth or anything in them, all sounds like it was made in a macbook...oh wait.

Hey, it costs a lot of money and a few Grammy award winners to make records that sound this bad!

It's flippant but there's some truth in it. It's a sound geared towards commercial success - it's meant be overwhelming and immediately appealing, like the first bite out of a donut. It's not designed to sound good to someone who's listening critically on a great system, it's for people blasting 'modern rock' in their car or soundtracking football highlights.

No band is going to chase that sound unless they're playing in that commercial space, which is really only a tiny fraction of bands. It's definitely an apparent irony that your average local rock band will probably make better sounding records than those being churned out of expensive LA studios by professional award-winning producers and engineers, but they're not ultimately trying to achieve the same things.

Anyway, the last Mudhoney album sounds great and I'd prefer Pearl Jam records to sound much closer to this:

Okay. I don't care for that song, but it did sound pretty great. Point taken.

And yeah, you're right about the blu-ray. Crap.

[stip]

We've hashed this out endlessly over the years, but it always surprises me to see people expecting love for the band to be the default position and criticism as a kind of deviation.

So many years of this and you still miss the point that is being made, BiH.

There is a reason that when this boils up it's very rarely (if ever?) targeted at you, and you are arguably the most consistently critical poster. Why do you suppose that is?

[stip]

I've been listening to this on and off all day. I'm not prepared to go above 3 stars just yet, but this song is a blast.

[Thejambi]

Super happy for Watt invigorating Ed the past couple of years.

Really wish theyd just hand the raw tracks over to Josh Evans though!

he is doing a mix!

really?

yeah, its cd 2 of the deluxe packaging

Not really. Unless I've missed it, there's no version with a second CD.

There's a version with Evans's Atmos mix on a second disc, which is a Blu-Ray and won't be playable on a regular CD player.

I wouldn't think Evans could work any miracles, as I expect the album mixes are pretty reflective of how Wotman's raw tracks sounded at the recording stage.

I listen to so many tiny math rock bands with 200 followers and their studio production is 9000 trillion times better than any of Pj's last few records, don't get it. No character, texture, warmth or anything in them, all sounds like it was made in a macbook...oh wait.

Hey, it costs a lot of money and a few Grammy award winners to make records that sound this bad!

It's flippant but there's some truth in it. It's a sound geared towards commercial success - it's meant be overwhelming and immediately appealing, like the first bite out of a donut. It's not designed to sound good to someone who's listening critically on a great system, it's for people blasting 'modern rock' in their car or soundtracking football highlights.

No band is going to chase that sound unless they're playing in that commercial space, which is really only a tiny fraction of bands. It's definitely an apparent irony that your average local rock band will probably make better sounding records than those being churned out of expensive LA studios by professional award-winning producers and engineers, but they're not ultimately trying to achieve the same things.

Anyway, the last Mudhoney album sounds great and I'd prefer Pearl Jam records to sound much closer to this:

Okay. I don't care for that song, but it did sound pretty great. Point taken.

And yeah, you're right about the blu-ray. Crap.

This track sounds fantastic.

[VinylGuy]

Yeah it’s really fun

[Ms Harmless]

the intro riff and verses of "Running" share the same chords as the "We're In This Together Now" by NIN chorus

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[96583UP]

wow 64 pages already

so i just put this on

got 20 seconds in and wanted to turn it off but felt obligated to listen to this to the end

this is spritzy, word salad, and oddly enough has the same bridge as dark matter

this is garbage and i will never listen to this again

and the laser at the end is not helping

fuck eddie vedder

(it does make dark matter sound better though by comparison)

[VinylGuy]

if this happened to you in six weeks it can totally bounce back Trag. Dont worry, go outside,have some fresh air, jerk off maybe with Ice spice. Not outside though.

It will pass, like that hot priest told the girl from Flebag.

Meanwhile, i cant wait for the album! and possibly going to see them in England or Barcelona.

[96583UP]

i will still enjoy the live show

bc they will know to play 75% from the first 5 albums

that's all i need

[Ms Harmless]

Trag, I understand the mourning for the Pearl Jam you grew up with; I've done it over and over, since S/T; now I'm at the stage where I'll aggressively defend my right to enjoy stuff more than I expected to; I'm on the other side of a lot of pain, some of what I think you're feeling now, and I've decided that it's OK that PJ aren't that band anymore, they still write cool songs at times; the new Elbow album is a million times better than Dark Matter is going to be