RANK THE ALBUMS

[PJfighter]

1. Vs.
2. Yield
3. Ten
4. Vitalogy
5. Riot Act
6. Binaural
7. No Code
8. Backspacer
9.Pearl Jam

[Tj]

vitalogy
backspacer
yield
ten
no code
pearl jam
vs
binaurel
riot act

[Gods' Die]

I don't want to be a dick......

But some of you guys are wrong.

[not4u]

Yield
No Code
Binaurel
vs
vitalogy
ten
riot act
s/t
backspacer

[Brainof23]

Yield
Vitalogy
Binaural
Ten
Versus
Backspacer
S/T
Riot Act
No Code

[Fuzzcharger]

I don't think I've ever seen No Code ranked dead last before.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I don't think I've ever seen No Code ranked dead last before.

Especially with yield at the top, though different, those 2 go together so well

[Brainof23]

I just looked through the thread and one other person had No Code last. So two of us. The reason NC finishes last for me is because it lacks a song in my top 10, 15, and 20. I am not even sure what my favorite song is on NC. Probably Present Tense or Hail, Hail.

[Fuzzcharger]

I just looked through the thread and one other person had No Code last. So two of us. The reason NC finishes last for me is because it lacks a song in my top 10, 15, and 20. I am not even sure what my favorite song is on NC. Probably Present Tense or Hail, Hail.

If that other person was Darth_Vedder I think he was just trolling but fair enough. It's nice to have a bit of variety in opinions.

[Fuzzcharger]

I don't think I've ever seen No Code ranked dead last before.

Especially with yield at the top, though different, those 2 go together so well

Do they ever!

[liebzz]

The interesting thing about these rankings is if we started over without looking at the prior list, I imagine that even by now we would see some fluctuation in people's lists. I am sure mine wouldn't be exactly the same.

[stip]

mine would be

[vedder316]

This might have changed since I did this on the old board. Feel like hitting all the ranking threads since there wont be a new album until 2015:

1. Ten
2. Vs
3. Vitalogy
4. Yield
5. Backspacer
6. Binaural
7. No Code
8. Riot Act
9. Pearl Jam

[PHATJ]

I posted this in the Rank the Pearl Jam Catalog thread a while back, but I suppose it should be in his thread instead.


Top Tier:

1. Vitalogy - I still feel that Vitalogy is Pearl Jam's best album. Start to finish it gives the listener a really strong and unique experience. The song writing is probably Eddie at his peak. The guitar tones are my favorite of any PJ album. The rockers rock. The ballads ballad. The "fillers" (although not very valuable in and of themselves) make the listening experience of the album as a whole make sense and they provide the perfect transitions when needed. Combine the music along with the album artwork, and you have PJ's most artistically complete project.

2. Ten - Song for song this ranked #1 for me. For the longest time I did rank this my favorite PJ album. One of the major reasons that I have Vitalogy ranked ahead on Ten is because Ten is clearly not the artistic piece that Vitalogy is, and I value that. When comparing the best songs on each of the albums Vitalogy has seven songs in my top 50 and Ten has four. Also, Ten has clearly not aged quite as well as Vitalogy. All that being said, Ten is still a monster of an album and one of the best debut albums of all time. I still love it but just not as much as Vitalogy.

3. Yield - Yield has also been my #1 in the past. With six songs in my top 50 and all but two in my top 90, it clearly has a special place in my heart. Yield is an album that I can put on and never feel the need to skip a song. When I introduce a friend to the band and they have mostly only heard the early PJ hits, Yield is usually where I start. DTE is my favorite rocker the band has ever written. Jack Irons is my favorite PJ drummer and I love his playing on Yield.

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Mid Tier:

4. No Code - This album jumps up for me after putting together these rankings. I always knew that I LOVED many individual songs from this collection, I just regularly devalued that some because of a few stinker songs near the end of No Code. I have reevaluated my stance. The biggest change in my thought process is that my love for the good much out weighs the negative of the bad. Again, Jack's drumming also makes a big impact. Hearing No Code after the Vitalogy release was such a major change up for PJ, one that probably needed to happen to keep the band creative and moving forward. The album art and packaging adds to the experience.

5. Vs. - In my song rankings, this came in at #2. Vs. is a hard one for me to judge as a complete work. The reason it did so well song for song is that there are no songs in the mix that I don't really like individually. The hard part is that Vs. has become more about individual songs for me than an "album". I don't ever put on Vs. to listen from start to finish. I'll do a song or two here, then a song or two there, but never feel the need for much more. Artwork and packaging is cool but again it doesn't add much to the whole. It has however moved up one spot from where I had it placed in my last album rankings based on the strength of the songs.

6. Pearl Jam - I really like S/T but I found that the exact opposite was happening for me with this album as what was happening when I listened to No Code. I have been over-rating the album as a whole based on my particular enjoyment the best tracks (five songs in my top 32). The problem is that even those favorites aren't on the same level as No Code. Songs like Army Reserve, Unemployable and Severed Hand are great but they can't compete with Red Mosquito, Present Tense and In My Tree. Also, my lowest rated songs here come in slightly behind the lowest rated songs on No Code. I think part of my long appreciation for S/T is that it came directly after Riot Act (a bottom level PJ album for me) and I have been giving it "bonus points" for that.

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Bottom Tier:

7. Binaural - These ratings have given me a new appreciation for Binaural. There still is a decent gap between my mid level albums and my bottom level, but Binaural jumped a spot up in my rankings and closed the distanced itself from the bottom of my list significantly. One of the major reasons it has always ranked low for me is the crazy omission of songs from the original track list that would have made Binaural probably my fourth favorite album. I will never get how Sad, In The Moonlight, Education and Fatal were left out in favor of (in my opinion) far inferior songs. That being said, Sleight of Hand is probably the best song PJ has ever written. Nothing As It Seems has slowly climbed from a mid level PJ song to #30 on my list. Binaural's sonic experimentation boosts it's value as well.

8. Riot Act - Riot Act's over all value fell a bit in my mind. I've always ranked it ahead of Binaural and even considered moving it up another spot (potentially as high as sixth). The truth is there just aren't enough top tier songs on the album. Only one song (#25 You Are) rank in my top 40. Only Backspacer has a #1 that ranks lower on my over all list. There are plenty of "good" songs here that rank in the middle of the pack. Help Help, Cropduster, and I Am Mine are all examples. But there are some of my least favorite (non filler) album tracks too. I can't stand Get Right, Green Disease, and Ghost. Combine that with the fact that there isn't that one "classic" track, and I can't rank Riot Act higher then eighth.

9. Backspacer - Backspacer still comes in last place but believe it or not, it has gained a bit of respect in my mind. To my shock it actually ranked higher then Riot Act in my song for song comparison. That was something I never expected, and for that I appreciate it more then I did before. My major problem with Backspacer from its release till now is that it is by far the most bland album in PJs catalog. It is chalked full of okay and mostly unmemorable songs. There are a few songs that I still enjoy hearing from time to time, but there is no overall statement being made. There is no "wow" song in the lot. On the other hand there are no embarrassing songs on the album either (many would argue The Fixer here, but I don't hate it). The lows aren't as low as some tracks on other releases, specifically Riot Act, but the utter mediocrity of the album experience just leaves me feeling nearly nothing. This is the only PJ album I can listen to from beginning to end and say that I never feel much of an emotional response to any of it. For that reason more then any, I don't see how I can ever rank this ahead of any of the other PJ albums.

[Gods' Die]

I was thinking about what I think are the best records of the past 30 years or so and that No Code can't be in the top 10 but Vitalogy definitely has a right to be there and then that every time I listen to No Code I think I like it more than Vitalogy.

What a strange paradigm.

[Sigerson]

I was thinking about what I think are the best records of the past 30 years or so and that No Code can't be in the top 10 but Vitalogy definitely has a right to be there and then that every time I listen to No Code I think I like it more than Vitalogy.

What a strange paradigm.

That's because No Code is better than Vitalogy.

Anyway, current album rankings.

1. No Code
2. Yield
3. Binaural
4. Riot Act
5. Vs.
6. Vitalogy
7. Backspacer
8. Ten
9. Pearl Jam

[LetMeSleep]

I've treated this as albums in their released form, not as the collection of songs. That is why Binaural is so low.

1. Vitalogy
2. Ten
3. Vs
4. Yield
5. No Code (Great up to Mankind)
6. Pearl Jam (great up to Gone)
7. Riot Act (Great up to Get Right)
8. Binaural (falls flat again and again, bad transitions)
9. Backspacer

PHATJ - I concur with you regarding Binaural and Backspacer. Binaural does not work as an album for me. In fact I get rather bored with the sequence. It's not the songs as there are some top tier tracks here but the tracklist is poor and lack of the outtakes used on the official release is (for me) a real tragedy in Pearl Jams history. This could have been a brilliant album.

As for Backspacer, Just Breathe and Supersonic should not have been on the album. Maybe even the End should have been a Vedder solo release. But the truly scary part is that these 11 tracks were the best of the bunch for the albums vision. Yes there are some good tracks but very few that would make any of the pre 2000 albums. And The Fixer is one of the best tracks on this album.

[Birds in Hell]

I've treated this as albums in their released form, not as the collection of songs.

It hadn't occurred to me to do it any other way.

Though I regularly list No Code as my number one, I'm sure there's records that contain more of what I might consider "five star" Pearl Jam songs, but none come close to being as coherent and musical a collection when taken as a whole as No Code.

An album is, to me, much more than the sum of its individual parts; I can't imagine rating individual songs and considering that indicative of how I feel about their parent albums. That would feel entirely bogus and unrepresentative.

Yes there are some good tracks but very few that would make any of the pre 2000 albums. And The Fixer is one of the best tracks on this album.

Agreed on both counts. I imagine I'd feel a great deal more warmth towards Backspacer if it contained one or two genuinely excellent tracks, even if the rest were complete dross. S/T at least had Comatose, Unemployable and Parachutes and a number of songs I consider quite good (Army Reserve, Big Wave.)

As it is, however, there's nothing for me to return to there; no one glimpse of something that genuinely sticks with me. It's not that the songs are really bad - it's more that none of them are really, really good.

[stip]

I don't think I've ever seen No Code ranked dead last before.

I've ranked it last in the past, although I wouldn't anymore.

[stip]

I've treated this as albums in their released form, not as the collection of songs. That is why Binaural is so low.

1. Vitalogy
2. Ten
3. Vs
4. Yield
5. No Code (Great up to Mankind)
6. Pearl Jam (great up to Gone)
7. Riot Act (Great up to Get Right)
8. Binaural (falls flat again and again, bad transitions)
9. Backspacer

PHATJ - I concur with you regarding Binaural and Backspacer. Binaural does not work as an album for me. In fact I get rather bored with the sequence. It's not the songs as there are some top tier tracks here but the tracklist is poor and lack of the outtakes used on the official release is (for me) a real tragedy in Pearl Jams history. This could have been a brilliant album.

As for Backspacer, Just Breathe and Supersonic should not have been on the album. Maybe even the End should have been a Vedder solo release. But the truly scary part is that these 11 tracks were the best of the bunch for the albums vision. Yes there are some good tracks but very few that would make any of the pre 2000 albums. And The Fixer is one of the best tracks on this album.

Just Breathe is a lovely song, and the catalog is better for its inclusion.