VinylGuy wrote:Better Man is the only old compositon i could find being closer to what he is trying here yes.
Agree with that.
around the bend? its not bright and cheerful but its in the ballpark
mileage will vary on ALL of these - whether you like them immediately, they grow on you, or they never click. I and others are just pushing back on the idea that its new. this has been in the DNA for a long while
Sounds way closer to Off He Goes or Sometimes, almost as if the mindset was being as close as Neil Young as possible, something No Codes does it perfectly.
Also, in ATB there are different moments for the band to shine, im not sure if thats the case with Something Special, although im pleasantly surprised with how present Jeff seems to be on the song.
This seems like an Earthlings song...and not a particularly good one. I'm still very much looking forward to this album but if they put the first three singles on an EP I'm pretty certain I'd never listen to it.
Homeboyd wrote:This seems like an Earthlings song...and not a particularly good one. I'm still very much looking forward to this album but if they put the first three singles on an EP I'm pretty certain I'd never listen to it.
it was actually written on those sessions with Josh K, so you are not wrong.
Eddie has always written what he knows, and this is where he's at in life now.
Is this song schmaltzy? Of course. But I'd be a whole lot more put off about it if he was trying to feign being dark and brooding. This won't be my favourite song on DM, but honestly, good on the guy for making a cool life for himself.
They're just songs, and there's probably a lesson to be learned in not taking this stuff half as seriously as we do around here.
I just wanted to put it out there that Arcade Fire’s Unconditional Love I (Lookout Kid) actually did a good job of hitting this middle aged dad in the feels, so who knows how this song will work once I listen to it.
guitar_davey wrote:Eddie has always written what he knows, and this is where he's at in life now.
Is this song schmaltzy? Of course. But I'd be a whole lot more put off about it if he was trying to feign being dark and brooding. This won't be my favourite song on DM, but honestly, good on the guy for making a cool life for himself.
They're just songs, and there's probably a lesson to be learned in not taking this stuff half as seriously as we do around here.
I couldn't take My Father's Son seriously at all, even if it was dark and brooding
guitar_davey wrote:Eddie has always written what he knows, and this is where he's at in life now.
Is this song schmaltzy? Of course. But I'd be a whole lot more put off about it if he was trying to feign being dark and brooding. This won't be my favourite song on DM, but honestly, good on the guy for making a cool life for himself.
They're just songs, and there's probably a lesson to be learned in not taking this stuff half as seriously as we do around here.
I couldn't take My Father's Son seriously at all, even if it was dark and brooding
Yeah, considering the subject matter and the seeming thematic link to Ed's daddy issues, this one never felt like it was legitimately cathartic for him, which makes it feel kind of hollow.
guitar_davey wrote:Eddie has always written what he knows, and this is where he's at in life now.
Is this song schmaltzy? Of course. But I'd be a whole lot more put off about it if he was trying to feign being dark and brooding. This won't be my favourite song on DM, but honestly, good on the guy for making a cool life for himself.
They're just songs, and there's probably a lesson to be learned in not taking this stuff half as seriously as we do around here.
I couldn't take My Father's Son seriously at all, even if it was dark and brooding
Yeah, considering the subject matter and the seeming thematic link to Ed's daddy issues, this one never felt like it was legitimately cathartic for him, which makes it feel kind of hollow.
My wife and daughters (7 and 10) who don't like PJ really liked the new clip...so maybe that's the point. There's just too much naked schmaltz for me. I was listening to Man of the Hour earlier and it's such a vastly better execution of Ed's sentimentality.
guitar_davey wrote:Eddie has always written what he knows, and this is where he's at in life now.
Is this song schmaltzy? Of course. But I'd be a whole lot more put off about it if he was trying to feign being dark and brooding. This won't be my favourite song on DM, but honestly, good on the guy for making a cool life for himself.
They're just songs, and there's probably a lesson to be learned in not taking this stuff half as seriously as we do around here.
I couldn't take My Father's Son seriously at all, even if it was dark and brooding
Yeah, considering the subject matter and the seeming thematic link to Ed's daddy issues, this one never felt like it was legitimately cathartic for him, which makes it feel kind of hollow.
I liked it enough, and i kinda love when Ed tells a story from a perspective of a character like in Footsteps or Army Reserve.
liebzz wrote:I just wanted to put it out there that Arcade Fire’s Unconditional Love I (Lookout Kid) actually did a good job of hitting this middle aged dad in the feels, so who knows how this song will work once I listen to it.
oneway23 wrote:Listening again, Peal Jam really targeting the quinceañera and bar mitzvah set with this one
Yeah, this is their entry into the great pantheon of graduation photo montage songs, alongside “Forever Young” and “I Hope You Dance.” Songs like this are extremely easy while at the same time impossible to criticize — the father, the human, and the sentimental fool in me all hope that this song speaks life and truth into the hearts of Ed’s daughters, and if it does that then I won’t pretend that a fan’s views on artistic integrity should influence its right to exist. But personally I have no use for it, think some of the lyrics feel clunky and self-congratulatory, and am right there with whoever said that having kids of your own not only doesn’t endear me to this but might actually make it feel more patronizing. And man alive, does it ever sound bad.
This is where I am right now. Well, mostly. I only listened once on crappy phone speakers (no headphones) and there was nothing super exciting in what I heard that makes me desperate to redigest a twenty second clip. But I'm going to withhold judgement until I get the full song.
Thus far Dark Matter was MUCH better for me than the initial clip (4 star song)
Running was probably not as good as the initial clip (3 or 3.5 depending on how it slots into the album. Fun for what it is but a definite ceiling)
I LIKE schmaltzy ed, for the most part. I think the Haves is a weak song and the low point on Earthlings (it's a shuffle skip but I can just let it wash past me on an album listen). But I love Future Days. I love Sirens. I love Last Kiss. I like Just Breath. I love Parachutes and The Fixer which are somewhere on this continuum.
Having said that, those songs all have either moments of darkness to juxtapose against their happiness, or speak to a history of struggle that justifies celebrating the peace and comfort of now. And it's not clear that this song will. And maybe it won't need it - it could coast by on melody, good will, charm, etc. But I don't think any of the reviewers have highlighted this as a standout.
On the other hand, many of the reviewers were pearl jam die hards, and I don't know that they/we are necessarily the target audience for a song like this. This seems either sentimental dads or, more likely, women who want to fantasize about being married to sentimental dads.
I'm sure the single choices were made long before early reviews, but it remains kind of surprising that none of the initial singles were flagged as highlights in the reviews we've gotten.
Songs from parents to children are tough sells, precisely because they only ever seem to exist as these overly idealized, borderline objectifying odes. Other types of relationships -- even parent-child relationships, shown from the viewpoint of the child -- seem to artistically see much wider representation relative to differing levels of emotional complexity and nuance. The world is full of fawning love songs to significant others; it is also full of bitter breakup songs, songs of hurt, betrayal, confusion, and everything in between, and we understand that all of those feelings are plot points on a spectrum.
I love my kids fiercely, and relate to the desire to speak words of encouragement over their lives, and can totally appreciate that using a publicly released song to work through the various challenges in our relationship(s) would probably become a conversation topic with a therapist later on in life. I also know that those moments where you feel nothing but gushing affection for them are completely real. So I get why things are the way they are. But still, tough sell.
In some ways it's really beautiful that Eddie has had such devastatingly brutal things to say about his own parents in his music, yet is at a place of expressing the opposite of that when he speaks of his own children -- there's something transformative and fulfilling about that, and I'm glad that's the space he's in, as a husband/father if not as an artist.
yes, yes, and thrice yes
maybe this is the best argument we have for justifying it as a Pearl Jam-branded song
just bringing this back because I remembered "don't call me daughter" as a nice counter-balance to the unabashed love of Ed's daughters
