Upper Hand

[Strat]

I actually love the vocal mix on this one. Probably a plugin but a cool room reverb or something on his vocals during the verses sounds really unique to me

[Monkey_Driven]

This is perfect. No notes.

[E.H. Ruddock]

With that intro i can see this being a show opener

[VinylGuy]

I love how the outro appears and im so glad they did it, and they didnt finished before. It totally give the song another life, and its also a great fucking buildup.

Thats Mike in the final solo right? glorious.

[Gigalogy84]

Awesome intro and then gets killed by total change up in tempo and turns into nothing as it seems 2, which isnt necesarily a compliment. Not great thus far.

I don’t get the Nothing As It Seems comparisons at all. I think Upper Hand is much better than that song. More anthemic and an uplifting feel. Nothing As It Seems is a slog and much darker.

[stip]

atmospheric slow burn with some big solos. its not where id go first but i can see it be part of an influence equation

upper hand is like x and y and NAIS

eddie’s performance is really smooth in this

[digster]

Hardcore fans are pretty great at describing these things for you. Someone on here, before I heard it, described it as something like "Cold Confession meets Yellow Ledbetter meets Marker in the Sand"....which, yeah, that pretty much nails it.

[Rob]

Reminds me of Yellow Ledbetter plus NAIS. I knew Setting Sun was my favorite but this and WFS were neck & neck for #2. I think this one takes it. Very powerful stuff.

[Kevin Davis]

This one is my favorite so far

[stip]

there is a poll on the pearl jam board. This and Stevie are neck and neck for the 1 spot. I think Setting Sun is third, but a ways back

[Kevin Davis]

I'm struggling to put into words how much I like this one -- my initial read on DM was that it was probably more consistent but less ambitious in its high points than Gigaton, but this is one of those songs that gives me pause about that conclusion. I'm hanging on every word, every chord change, every turn of phrase, every shift in mood -- it's a universe of music in five minutes.

[Buby]

This is better than Stevie.

[Strat]

I'm struggling to put into words how much I like this one -- my initial read on DM was that it was probably more consistent but less ambitious in its high points than Gigaton, but this is one of those songs that gives me pause about that conclusion. I'm hanging on every word, every chord change, every turn of phrase, every shift in mood -- it's a universe of music in five minutes.

[oneway23]

This is better than Stevie.

The fact that we can even have this conversation about a few songs on the record feels like a minor miracle

[digster]

This is better than Stevie.

Upper Hand and Wreckage have definitely been the ones I'm going back to again and again. I'm sure other songs will show more of themselves over time, but those feel like the big ones for me so far.

[stip]

This is better than Stevie.

The fact that we can even have this conversation about a few songs on the record feels like a minor miracle

And, equally significant, these are two fairly different songs - different corners of their sonic universe. A lot of the reviews said there's something for everyone on this album, and that seems like

[Monkey_Driven]

This is better than Stevie.

Upper Hand and Wreckage have definitely been the ones I'm going back to again and again. I'm sure other songs will show more of themselves over time, but those feel like the big ones for me so far.

Yeah, they're my two favorites so far

[stip]

okay, this one jumped up a lot today. problem is everything is so good. its not top 4 (yet?)and everything else is just a jumbled mess

[Jaeti]

okay, this one jumped up a lot today. problem is everything is so good. its not top 4 (yet?)and everything else is just a jumbled mess

Ditto.

[VinylGuy]

I actually love the vocal mix on this one. Probably a plugin but a cool room reverb or something on his vocals during the verses sounds really unique to me

yeah, agree

Also, Ed´s performance is great