stip wrote:Given Backspacer a listen - first pearl jam I've heard since Dark Matter. I wondered if Dark Matter would change how I think about it. Still a great album, but it certainly feels a bit more sedate. You can feel the livewire energy in the Dark Matter performances is missing. It would have really helped blow up a few of these songs, which I've always really liked (or loved) but feel like they are editing themselves
they were, they wanted to cut out a lot of what they did in ST right? a more direct and pop album. Its been a while since i listened to it and after DM i dont really want to, specially because i really dont like what Brendan did with the production and mix.
I truly believe part of this is due to keeping the integrity of demo ideas and essentially polishing turds that had the potential to be diamonds if they could have just been fucked with a bit.
yeah, im not sure really what happened, specially with the mix. But i do think, specially because the band talked about it, that his presence looms over LB a bit more, telling the band were to cut o what to do. Thats more his album i guess. And sounds awful.
Backspacer at least have the songs, and its different from the previous ones.
divorced from all the weird events surrounding it, the uncanny valley feeling of my favourite band changing (again), the marketing decisions, the disappointment of such a "slight" sound when I wanted emotional and sonic heaviness, and definitely now that this band has restored my faith that they're still capable of that... Backspacer is just a consistently solid group of bright, fun, tightly played and produced pop songs, with a wit, and an appropriate emotional range
Ms Harmless wrote:I've pretty much fully come around on this album
divorced from all the weird events surrounding it, the uncanny valley feeling of my favourite band changing (again), the marketing decisions, the disappointment of such a "slight" sound when I wanted emotional and sonic heaviness, and definitely now that this band has restored my faith that they're still capable of that... Backspacer is just a consistently solid group of bright, fun, tightly played and produced pop songs, with a wit, and an appropriate emotional range
Ms Harmless wrote:I've pretty much fully come around on this album
divorced from all the weird events surrounding it, the uncanny valley feeling of my favourite band changing (again), the marketing decisions, the disappointment of such a "slight" sound when I wanted emotional and sonic heaviness, and definitely now that this band has restored my faith that they're still capable of that... Backspacer is just a consistently solid group of bright, fun, tightly played and produced pop songs, with a wit, and an appropriate emotional range
stip wrote:I love this record. A breezy low key delight
It's taken some time, but I've grown to really appreciate it. There are 2-4 absolute stinkers, but it has a somewhat coherent vision that explores some new sounds.
It is certainly a catalog record for me - it is enhanced considered in the whole arc of the catalog. A moment that doesn't need to embody what pearl jam is. But that's probably true of all the records to a greater/lesser degree
I don't think there's a bad song on the album, it's just uncanny valley Pearl Jam - Gigaton and Dark Matter helped restore them a bit so this DOES feel better, knowing that they didn't become this forever. It does know what it wants to be and I respect it for that. It is fun and short.
I have been listening through the discography with my girlfriend. It's her first time, but she is usually pretty insightful and helps me think about what each album is actually about. When we listened to the songs, she was struck by the lyrical difference between this and previous albums, so she curiously looked up when Eddie married his wife and saw that it was shortly after this. I know that he was with her beforehand but I don't know. She theorizes this album is a picture of a man who, while slightly afraid to be, is cautiously daring to be happy and to hope for the first time after years of not allowing himself to do so. It is one of the first albums with straight up love songs on it. And he's like omg guys I have discovered love and happiness it CAN happen. Amongst the Waves hits this theme quite hard. And Unthought Known seems full of wonder and love. I know it was written for nature, but still an emotional space can influence everything. It's like even EDDIE is surprised how he's feeling. It's the most optimistic Pearl Jam album ever, I believe, and it's like he can scarcely believe it. Like he's a little worried to even dare to feel this way lest it be taken away, but he's still in that euphoria at the same time. (Maybe The End is that sobering thought and preoccupation with leaving it behind that eventually leads to Sirens?)
It's funny because then you get to songs like Supersonic and we were discussing how it's kind of like the other members of Pearl Jam were like "Eddie that's great but you know we're a rock band" and so Eddie had to write these forced by-the-book rockers that clearly have no feeling in them cause what he really wanted to do was just sing to the heavens about love lol. And that's probably why songs like Unthought Known, Just Breathe, Amongst the Waves, are highlights of this album and despite the poppy sheen feel the most inspired.
I dunno, it's been very interesting going through all these, I didn't realize some of the album themes. I thought Self/Titled was just a collection of fun rockers, I didn't realize its pre-occupation with war, and its slightly more mature take on earlier album themes, not so much cynically wallowing because the world is evil, but trying to actually question and find how do we live when surrounded by the horrible things we cannot change? How do we find some form of peace and go on with all that surrounds us? Like he has grown up from despairing, has had both his idealism and misery sobered, but is just trying to figure out how to balance it and questioning how to survive in that world. Then Backspacer comes and it's like for the first time he's found some form of happiness and optimism through love.
It makes sense I guess. He was about to get married. Obama was president after years of Bush. There was reason to think things were looking up. So I dunno. This might just be the happiest snapshot of Eddie we ever get.
