Binaural: Official Album Thread

[Heathen]

You dislike it in many ways?

[injuddstree]

There is more going on in this album than any of their other albums.

I'd argue that a few of their other albums have better individual songs, but this is right up there in terms of a complete album.

I think it's fantastic that Binaural is now virtually enjoyed by most Pearl Jam fans 10+ years on from its release. Albums since have been widely enjoyed at the time of release but didn't leave a long term impression (namely Avocado and Backspacer).

I listen to an album like Lightning Bolt or Backspacer, and then follow it up with Binaural, and just shake my head.

[stip]

There is more going on in this album than any of their other albums.

I'd argue that a few of their other albums have better individual songs, but this is right up there in terms of a complete album.

I think it's fantastic that Binaural is now virtually enjoyed by most Pearl Jam fans 10+ years on from its release. Albums since have been widely enjoyed at the time of release but didn't leave a long term impression (namely Avocado and Backspacer).

I listen to an album like Lightning Bolt or Backspacer, and then follow it up with Binaural, and just shake my head.

i do too, but probably for different reasons.

For the people who really love this record, do you get the emotional distance/coldness that others find offputting, and think it enhances the experience, or are you just not hearing it?

[Heathen]

There is more going on in this album than any of their other albums.

I'd argue that a few of their other albums have better individual songs, but this is right up there in terms of a complete album.

I think it's fantastic that Binaural is now virtually enjoyed by most Pearl Jam fans 10+ years on from its release. Albums since have been widely enjoyed at the time of release but didn't leave a long term impression (namely Avocado and Backspacer).

I listen to an album like Lightning Bolt or Backspacer, and then follow it up with Binaural, and just shake my head.

i do too, but probably for different reasons.

For the people who really love this record, do you get the emotional distance/coldness that others find offputting, and think it enhances the experience, or are you just not hearing it?

I think I maybe see which aspects of the music you call cold or emotionally distant but I don't see them as cold or emotionally distant at all.

[injuddstree]

I actually find Binaural a pretty "warm" record. After discussing the album with other fans I know I'm in a minority.

[Sarah.]

I'm listening to this now because this thread has been hovering around for a while, but it had been so long since I'd played the album through I couldn't really say a lot.

At the moment all I can think of is 'holy fuck I love this album'. Light Years started up and I just had an eargasm.

[stupidmop]

It depends on the song. But generally I've always thought there was a kinda defeated melancholy vibe. Like depressed without your bitter hands cradling the broken glass of what was everything. I think lightyears is pretty emotional, its a kind of quiet slightly bitter sadness but its there.

[stip]

there is, and I understand the appeal a record like this would have. For me pearl jam has always been at its best making the large, grand gesture. They could do it without sounding stupid. That's their gift. And so a record like this plays against that principle strength.

Granted there are songs here where it works, but that's probably the single biggest thing holding me back on this album. That and the weak beginning.

[stupidmop]

I dunno I still think of insignificance, grievance, light years and nothing as it seems as pretty big songs.

It depends what youre talking about when you say big gesture songs though, ten, rvm, corduroy, gtf?

[Heathen]

I THINK YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S COLD AND EMOTIONALLY DISTANT, STIP

[stip]

I THINK YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S COLD AND EMOTIONALLY DISTANT, STIP

in the spirit of this thread can you please repost that in a smaller, browner, fainter font, and without the caps?

[Heathen]

I THINK YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S COLD AND EMOTIONALLY DISTANT, STIP

in the spirit of this thread can you please repost that in a smaller, browner, fainter font, and without the caps?

I could make a plodding version of it.

[stupidmop]

We could bold it, turn it into txt speech, add a drop shadow and some embossing and put it in the backspacer thread instead.

[stip]

I dunno I still think of insignificance, grievance, light years and nothing as it seems as pretty big songs.

It depends what youre talking about when you say big gesture songs though, ten, rvm, corduroy, gtf?

yup. And except for light years I think those other songs are very good. But even there insignificance's vocals sound like they're recorded behind a brick wall. NAIS is a great mood piece, but I don't like it as a general asthetic for the record, especially on songs where it fits less.

And I've said this before, I think Light years is a potentially great song that has its emotional core diminished by some alienating musical choices and unnecessary distance between the singer and the audience.

You can make the argument this is by design (I don't remember, but I suspect I made this point in the LY entry in the binaural guided tour thread). The person is dead and so there is this immeasurable gulf between them. So it's a defensible choice. Just not one i like. Binaural is full of defensible choices I just personally don't care as much for.

[stip]

I THINK YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S COLD AND EMOTIONALLY DISTANT, STIP

in the spirit of this thread can you please repost that in a smaller, browner, fainter font, and without the caps?

I could make a plodding version of it.

just don't lose the feel of two people posting in a room

[stupidmop]

I dunno I still think of insignificance, grievance, light years and nothing as it seems as pretty big songs.

It depends what youre talking about when you say big gesture songs though, ten, rvm, corduroy, gtf?

yup. And except for light years I think those other songs are very good. But even there insignificance's vocals sound like they're recorded behind a brick wall. NAIS is a great mood piece, but I don't like it as a general asthetic for the record, especially on songs where it fits less.

And I've said this before, I think Light years is a potentially great song that has its emotional core diminished by some alienating musical choices and unnecessary distance between the singer and the audience.

You can make the argument this is by design (I don't remember, but I suspect I made this point in the LY entry in the binaural guided tour thread). The person is dead and so there is this immeasurable gulf between them. So it's a defensible choice. Just not one i like. Binaural is full of defensible choices I just personally don't care as much for.

I love the music on lightyears, its dark and off kilter because the narrator is angry/sad/confused all at once. More 'normal' music would have just made it a plainer song imo. It also undercuts any potential cheese, I imagine any song including 'your light made us stars' on a post s/t album would have been a cheesefest. Lots of keyboard, lots and lots of keyboard.

I'll admit that it took me a while to not be annoyed by the buried vocals on insignificance, but I think they work with the song. One could argue he sounds insignificant against the music. The end, ' please forgive us for our in sig ni fi cance' , he's pleading against the music.

And you laugh at the music in the room thing, but when you listen to this album, riot act too, it feeeeels like you're in the song and its fucking amazing. BoB could never.

[Heathen]

I THINK YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S COLD AND EMOTIONALLY DISTANT, STIP

in the spirit of this thread can you please repost that in a smaller, browner, fainter font, and without the caps?

I could make a plodding version of it.

just don't lose the feel of two people posting in a room

Steve Albini will be producing

[Thejambi]

Ed's never shown up to any of my birthday parties.

[digster]

I dunno I still think of insignificance, grievance, light years and nothing as it seems as pretty big songs.

It depends what youre talking about when you say big gesture songs though, ten, rvm, corduroy, gtf?

yup. And except for light years I think those other songs are very good. But even there insignificance's vocals sound like they're recorded behind a brick wall. NAIS is a great mood piece, but I don't like it as a general asthetic for the record, especially on songs where it fits less.

And I've said this before, I think Light years is a potentially great song that has its emotional core diminished by some alienating musical choices and unnecessary distance between the singer and the audience.

You can make the argument this is by design (I don't remember, but I suspect I made this point in the LY entry in the binaural guided tour thread). The person is dead and so there is this immeasurable gulf between them. So it's a defensible choice. Just not one i like. Binaural is full of defensible choices I just personally don't care as much for.

I have to be honest that I think Insignificance is the biggest gesture they've ever put into song. NAIS and Sleight of Hand also sound appropriately vast. I also never got emotionally distant from this record; it has some of their most heartbreaking songs.

I think there is an attempt for more 'three-dimensionality' in the lyrics, as Ed put it in PJ20, but it's largely successful and doesn't skimp on emotional impact in the least.

[stip]

They still sound like songs that are recorded from very far away. I feel like I am watching binaural, rather than experiencing it, and that's unusual for a pearl jam record.