Binaural: Official Album Thread

[stip]

i did like it a lot more on that atmos mix, though

[taffer]

i like the guitar sound of sleight of hand, i'd love the entire album would've sounded like this, guitarwise in terms of heaviness

[stip]

it sounds like shards of glass (in a good way)

[Farmer John]

I have seen sleight of hand live twice, nearly twenty years apart. Both times it was like opening an airlock

Sounds exhilarating

[stip]

it sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

less so in pittsburgh.

[epilogue]

Some songs aren't great live arena rock songs. That's ok. It doesn't diminish the greatness of the song.

[Farmer John]

I've seen it live twice and I'm not sure about everyone else in the building, but this was my personal experience:

[epilogue]

I've also seen it twice and it was immaculate both times. There was no obvious let down among the crowd that I could feel or perceive.

[B]

According to live footsteps, I've seen it once live. I don't remember when, and I can't seem to find it on the website. I will assume it was an absolute snooze fest.

[stip]

Some songs aren't great live arena rock songs. That's ok. It doesn't diminish the greatness of the song.

Don’t disagree. Some songs are meant to be heard in some settings but not others.

[stip]

And for some songs, the right setting is nowhere

Spoiler: show

I just wanted to lock that in before someone made that joke about lightning bolt specifically

[Kevin Davis]

it sucked all the oxygen out of the room

Probably from everyone drawing breath in awe at the same time

[Teeeeeekay]

Chicago 2000
St. Louis 2003

Killer live track.

[Knabetnuom]

Once an album is released it becomes the definitive version for better or worse for me even if there are later revisions. I can appreciate someone re-tracking an album, especially the well-done transformation of Binaural into a double record earlier in this topic but it'll never feel right to me.

Like when they reissued TEN, after purchasing it I wondered why I bought it as I'm fond of the original production on the record even if it wasn't what the band had originally hoped for. I actually really enjoy it, that production sound adds to the complete feel of the record, makes it all of one piece, a colossal opening statement.

Anyway, years later we get Binaural, their dark masterpiece.

I'm someone who enjoys this opening run of songs, each one memorable, heavy and unique to what came before. It's like the band was saying we can rock out with Matt but it's going to be a bit darker, and a bit weirder than previous outings.

These songs grab your attention (even if you don't like them or the chorus of evacuation has you running for the mute button) but they're a definite statement of intent.

Each of the tunes gets progressively stranger as if easing the listener away from what they think of Pearl Jam into something new, relative to the band.

Breakerfall is the closest to the PJ that's come before, catchy riff, pounding drums, good tempo and interesting transitions with different parts keeping the listener invested in what they're hearing. That outro run, of I don't know, bass or bass and guitar (?) is a great moment and the power of simplicity.

In Stip's breakdown of the song he notes the distance in the lyrics and its effect on him, we're not meant (per his interpretation) to empathize with the woman in the song but are watching from a bit of a distance. The lyrics work for me, I don't have to have an empathic connection to appreciate the song. I hope I remembered the gist of Stip's review, no offense intended if I misrepresented the above.

I think what sets Gods Dice apart is the timing, there's something not quite straightforward with the song, the way the rhythm works and the lyrics get shouted over top; whatever it is appeals to me so when they hit the quiet part, it's even more impactful for the odd rhythm leading into it. Like the vocal and the music are deliberately mismatched. I think that goes a long way towards explaining the lack of love for the track but is part of its quirky charm and is the first step away from what a listener may have thought of, as a typical Pearl Jam hard rock song.

Evacuation could be their weirdest rocker, even stranger than Push Me Pull Me or Happy When I'm Crying simply because of the angular nature of the chorus. Definitely their most angular in sound, it's not an easy one to digest, though the music in the verses has a pretty straightforward groove.

Unlike other songs that flow, even the above ones with their unique natures, Evacuation's chorus is meant to get stuck, stuck in your ears, stuck in your mind. E-VAC...u-Ayy!-SHIN...it's not pretty but I like it. It's the song that launched a 1,000 piss breaks but it's fun to listen to once you get used to that chorus. I understand why so many don't though, and I like the song but it's not my favorite.

If RVM is a forward-motion escape from a bad situation, Evacuation is the panic button, it's chaos distilled in under three minutes. I'm not going to quote them but I think the lyrics are quite optimistic, the music may be saying, panic, chaos, flee, but Eddie's words, obscured perhaps by an abrasive chorus are quite hopeful, the character in Sleight of Hand needs to hear them, needs this siren wake-up call.

An accepted theory is No Code (some would say Vitalogy) was the album to weed out the casual fan, yet NC's third track is one of the softest, most pleasant and easy to listen to tunes they ever did, Binaural's third track is like being defenestrated, getting up all bloody and asking for more.

With the opening trio escorting (or throwing the listener through a window) the listener away from earlier PJ, now the album can proceed into even more interesting territory.

Light Years took the longest for me to appreciate because of the seeming flatness of the music, drums that made me think of Not For You and frankly not always wanting to listen to a song about death and distance from loved ones who've passed. But I certainly appreciate it now and what I thought of as somewhat dull music (before the solo anyway) is actually quite effective and soothing in its way.

PJ songs can rage quite a bit but this one feels like its trying to console. The bridge/solo part elevates this song to a weird anthem which given how it starts and the subject matter seems difficult to have achieved but they did it. Sure, Puzzles & Games is catchier but LY has depth and comfort if one is willing to find it.

Nothing As It Seems is one of those Jeff songs I love while Mike's playing sounds like he was influenced by a lot of classic rock yet plays something uniquely his own. There's so much to this song. From the opening guitar wail, like a lonely wolf howl in the night to its languid pace I think this song has all of the different atmospheric vibes running through the album in one song. It's heavy, dark, emotional and builds to that intense moment and crests, gently carrying the listener out on night tide.

And suddenly, a love song about a puddle! No, a pond. No, love reflected in one, I think. Or...well...I don't know what the lyrics mean but I get the feel of the song and appreciate its borderline country style.

At first, Thin Air was too interesting, too mellow for my taste, was one of the lesser songs.

Now it's a wonderfully sweet tune. This and Soon Forget are the closest the record comes to something like 'joy' or 'happiness', amidst the angular songs, a slightly askew, countryesque tune from the Master Gossard.

By the time we get to the outro, it feels anthemic and then it ends with a nice bit of twang. Sunshine through the clouds before the darker storms arrive.


It's out of place with the rest of the songs on here.

Out of place? Yes. But that's what makes it the perfect fit.

Perhaps the obvious centerpiece of the record is Insignificance. What to say about this epic antiwar song? The riff dances across the strings in a slightly more complex manner than RVM yet just the right amount of involvement. The lyrics are powerful. It's more complicated musically (relative to PJ's other songs).

Of The Girl reminds me of WMA in that they both are built around a unique groove but while the former is all tribal multi-rhythmic rage that simmers, boils and simmers again, OTG has a calm, dreamy feel. I can't think of too many other songs that have this unique groove, it's one I enjoy. As with all of the less rockin' songs on this record there's a wonderful open space to the music, a sparseness that is inviting.

Grievance. "for every tool they lend us, a loss of independence." Jeez. More true in '25 than '00, sad to say! Musically just so much to enjoy, the way the different parts work together, the song having different movements, an epic just over three minutes. The outro chords crunching through that progression while the guitar plays a simple lead in tandem, while Eddie rails against those in power make this one of the most powerful songs that they've written, containing much of the simplicity I enjoy in their music and yet all fit together in a way that's more involved and complex than something like Go yet just as powerful. This is a band advancing forward.


Rival, took a while to grow on me. The harshness of the guitars made it off-putting in a way that I eventually acclimated to and now consider one of their finest songs though the lyrics bring me down. Musically it reminds me a bit of TC from Vitalogy. Mid-paced, a bit weird and a crunchy, devastating heaviness. Like Deep was the template for this type of tune by them and this is the band taking that style even further.

And that piano work, so simple and so perfect. You know, now that I listen to it as I pen this, the lead into the bridge/solo reminds me of I Am Mine, if that's a sea-jaunty, this one is from a sunken vessel, home for barnacles. And that outro, perfection, it does so much with so little.

Sleight of Hand the other tune that feels like it could be the center of the record, its dark heart, even more than Insig. The music to me is both gentle and soothing yet dark. Lyrically this is one of their most emotionally devastating songs. The figure in the song isn't on the cusp of despair but fully ensnared. I feel even if he received an invitation to the party on earth he wouldn't even know what to do with it.


Black may be the banner for broken hearts but Sleight of Hand is for broken souls.

Soon Forget is a fun little song, in the midst of all the heaviness, just Eddie, a Uke and "benjamins." It was shocking hearing him say "benjamins", I think he and the band still had cultivated this sense of mystique, this idea of Eddie sitting isolated on some distant island, a guitar at his side and some obscure weather-beaten book in hand. I've always liked it, a nice change of pace, but then, I've often enjoyed when they do things different from what's expected, something a bit off-center and strange.

---A uke's gentle tones emerging from the bleak monolith of Binaural, a necessary moment of hope from the dark.

Parting Ways, the first several times I heard this the song it reminded me of Long Road but after some time became its own tune, aside from that, I instantly loved this song and much of this album, I remember the first listen with headphones, in the dark, just sinking into the heavy

Writer's Block just a fitting hidden track, it sounds like someone typing up a report in a morgue one-hundred stories tall, after hours, just a grim endnote to the record.

I wouldn't want another Binaural and I understand why at the time this album may have been disliked, or how some live songs were viewed as the energy of the concert driving into a "brick wall" etc. but as part of their album continuity it is a welcome change-of-pace and another example of this band not doing the obvious or expected action.

Going from the wide-open, high energy and overall positive feeling of Yield into the darkness between the stars wasn't maybe a crowd pleaser but looking back, it was a creative and interesting choice.

And it sounds great, the drums BOOM (especially the intro to Grievance wow) the guitars are crisp, the bass thick, one of their best, clearest sounding records.

Man, what a friggin' great album.

I pretty much instantly liked it overall, and even though I went through a phase where I was tired of it after too many listens and seeing a bit too much of it in concert in 2000 after some time & space it has settled in and is I think, one of their best records, and like I said at the outset... their dark masterpiece.

[Buby]

Black may be the banner for broken hearts but Sleight of Hand is for broken souls.

[stip]

Black may be the banner for broken hearts but Sleight of Hand is for broken souls.

excellent review - loved reading it. and great description of SoH

[Fastrichie]

So quick question on the Binaural Preview Disc. This was a 4 song sampler:
Break her fall
Insignificance
Light years
Nothing as it seems.

Is this version of nothing as it seems different than any others we have or is it the same as the NAIS single version?
Thanks!

[B]

So quick question on the Binaural Preview Disc. This was a 4 song sampler:
Break her fall
Insignificance
Light years
Nothing as it seems.

Is this version of nothing as it seems different than any others we have or is it the same as the NAIS single version?
Thanks!

Oh boy, you just got Stip very excited.

[Fastrichie]

So quick question on the Binaural Preview Disc. This was a 4 song sampler:
Break her fall
Insignificance
Light years
Nothing as it seems.

Is this version of nothing as it seems different than any others we have or is it the same as the NAIS single version?
Thanks!

Oh boy, you just got Stip very excited.

Ha! So I see the pinned list of PJ songs on here and he has 4 versions listed. I also searched the forum and see that the preview disc version and single version could be the same. So I figured I’d ask!
I know we have the other 3 songs on the preview disc but not NAIS specifically!

[Happy Trees]

So quick question on the Binaural Preview Disc. This was a 4 song sampler:
Break her fall
Insignificance
Light years
Nothing as it seems.

Is this version of nothing as it seems different than any others we have or is it the same as the NAIS single version?
Thanks!

They used the Tchad Blake mix on the album, so there were no alternates.