What is Each Album's Major Flaw?: Yield

[epilogue]

Look, if I'm being totally honest... and I goddamn ADORE Yield, y'all, that's not the point... but if I'm being totally honest, I agree with PryTo more than I disagree. Again, the record is fantastic. But they aren't totally wrong in their analysis. Especially that first paragraph.

[digster]

I think Yield contains a lot of new avenues for Pearl Jam, they just don't seem to have the same need to foreground those aspects of the songs as on earlier albums (I love Vitalogy, but the band is being arty and experimental and hits you over the head with how arty and experimental they're being).

[rick malone]

If No Code was the "soul searching" album, Yield was the "lazyboy" album. A more confident band than we had heard before just not as exciting.

[bodysnatcher]

Someone turn on the chud signal

[bart]

They were tossing off great bridges right and left on this album.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[rick malone]

No Way lyrics make more sense if you imagine they are coming from God.

[Let's all laugh at Rangers]

Red Dot. Swap it with the secret track and you're sorted.

[Norah]

Red Dot rules, you goobers

[WtOB?]

Yield sounds nothing like Ten.

Agreed. Also, the amount of "I'm too cool for Ten" on this forum blows me away sometimes.

there used to be much more of that, but that's before they released crapspacer and lightning crap.

[lvc]

The reason Yield is called Yield is because it's the record where Eddie let the rest of the band be in a band they wanted to be in. He let go of the reins and wasn't forcing a Vitalogy or No Code to happen so he could work through his personal issues. Those are great records, but they are ultimately the records he wanted to make and the band had to get on board. Yield is (perhaps for the first time ever, or at least the first time since Vs [and Ten was too much of an incubation to count]) the alchemy of the band as a whole, each member being fully themselves in balanced proportion. Mike wants to bring in a Zeppelin-drenched song? Ok. Jeff wants to bring in a couple of odd-meter numbers one of which is about walking his dog? Done. Stone has this riff he really loves? Get it on there. Jack Irons is Jack Irons? Dot that redness. Eddie wants to let everyone know he read Ishmael? Do that evolution, baby.

So, if you think Yield is flawless, you think Pearl Jam is at its best when Eddie Vedder isn't the dominant force. If you think Yield has issues (especially if you think those issues are Pilate or Red Dot), then you think Pearl Jam can only be weird if it's Eddie Vedder-brand weirdness and you probably think Seven O'Clock is a good song.

Personally, I think Yield is flawless because this record is the reason Pearl Jam didn't collapse like all the other bands of their era. Every part of it was necessary in the chess match that was building Pearl Jam for the long haul.

[stip]

Yield is a good album with plenty of strengths but it is mid tier for me. and its not the weirdness. I think its an album kind of at war with itself in ways that make it interesting, but I also think it is consistently reaching for an anthemic greatness that it is also a little reluctant to acheive and so (for me) once you move past the elite tracks it feels not by the numbers, but not entirely fully formed either

bit probably for me the biggest issue is this is not one of my favorite periods for ed, vocally. too much vibrato, and he sounds just a little
pinched in places

[VinylGuy]

The reason Yield is called Yield is because it's the record where Eddie let the rest of the band be in a band they wanted to be in. He let go of the reins and wasn't forcing a Vitalogy or No Code to happen so he could work through his personal issues. Those are great records, but they are ultimately the records he wanted to make and the band had to get on board. Yield is (perhaps for the first time ever, or at least the first time since Vs [and Ten was too much of an incubation to count]) the alchemy of the band as a whole, each member being fully themselves in balanced proportion. Mike wants to bring in a Zeppelin-drenched song? Ok. Jeff wants to bring in a couple of odd-meter numbers one of which is about walking his dog? Done. Stone has this riff he really loves? Get it on there. Jack Irons is Jack Irons? Dot that redness. Eddie wants to let everyone know he read Ishmael? Do that evolution, baby.

So, if you think Yield is flawless, you think Pearl Jam is at its best when Eddie Vedder isn't the dominant force. If you think Yield has issues (especially if you think those issues are Pilate or Red Dot), then you think Pearl Jam can only be weird if it's Eddie Vedder-brand weirdness and you probably think Seven O'Clock is a good song.

Personally, I think Yield is flawless because this record is the reason Pearl Jam didn't collapse like all the other bands of their era. Every part of it was necessary in the chess match that was building Pearl Jam for the long haul.

while i agree with this post, i dont think PJ had made a flawless album and if thats the case, for me that one would be Vs probably.

But yeah, this was the band working together again after a while (SVT documents this very well). Vs and DM also feel close to this.

[Chris_H_2]

yield is the point of inflection of this band's career, and it's probably the best representation of their career sound amalgamated into one album. while i vacillate between this and vitalogy as my favorites, i still think this is their most-consistent, and indeed best, album. it's damn near perfect.

[McParadigm]

The sequencing on side B is off. They should have lost In Hiding and included Happy When I'm Crying.

2017 trag is correct.

Yield is a damn fine album, in that it is mostly better than the sum of its parts. It gets by on vibes, and is a beautiful and fitting conclusion to the band and journey that kicked off on Vs.

There’s also some stuff on here that I probably wouldn’t care much about, if it wasn’t this band and if I hadn’t first been introduced to it at that particular time in my life.

[Chris_H_2]

the original sequencing of this album was supposed to be:

MFC
Push Me, Pull Me
Do the Evolution
Faithful
Brain of J.
Low Light
Wishlist
Given to Fly
In Hiding
No Way
Red Dot
All Those Yesterdays

[digster]

My favorite PJ album is always a moving target, but this (along with No Code and Gigaton) is the one I've returned to the most frequently (to listen in its entirety) in the last five years or so.

[wease]

the original sequencing of this album was supposed to be:

MFC
Push Me, Pull Me
Do the Evolution
Faithful
Brain of J.
Low Light
Wishlist
Given to Fly
In Hiding
No Way
Red Dot
All Those Yesterdays

No Pilate? Fail

[epilogue]

the original sequencing of this album was supposed to be:

MFC
Push Me, Pull Me
Do the Evolution
Faithful
Brain of J.
Low Light
Wishlist
Given to Fly
In Hiding
No Way
Red Dot
All Those Yesterdays

Is this true?

I've never heard/seen that before. It's really interesting if it is true. Yield, for all of it's flaws, is an album I can't imagine resequencing. Unlike some of their other stuff, Yield feels like it has to be the way it is.

[Chris_H_2]

the original sequencing of this album was supposed to be:

MFC
Push Me, Pull Me
Do the Evolution
Faithful
Brain of J.
Low Light
Wishlist
Given to Fly
In Hiding
No Way
Red Dot
All Those Yesterdays

Is this true?

I've never heard/seen that before. It's really interesting if it is true. Yield, for all of it's flaws, is an album I can't imagine resequencing. Unlike some of their other stuff, Yield feels like it has to be the way it is.

this came up last year, and someone posted either an interview or a picture of the originally intended tracklist. i remember immediately making a spotify playlist of it, and now it's the only way i listen to the album.