Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural

[stip]

A very frustrating album. The best songs (or my favorites, anyway), NAIS, Insignificance, Grievance, Rival, and Parting Ways are some of their most ambitious songs, with some of the most interesting dynamic interplays between the band, and some of the most complicated relationships between the words/vocals and the music. But there's just not enough of them, and especially since this is a mood record, the constant disruptions of the mood (after an appallingly slow start) mean that the individual songs are never elevated by their surroundings. It's a jarring record of false starts and deflation, and more than most pearl jam albums this one really cries out to be sustained.

I think that's one of the reasons why we're so attracted to retracking Binaural. It's not that there are lots of b-sides to choose from (we don't have this conversation with Ten, No Code, or Riot Act), or that the quality of the b-sides is so much better than the songs on the album (again,Ten, No Code, and Riot Act all produced songs that were better than some of what we got). It's just that the weak songs on Binaural actively HARM the album in a way that doesn't happen on the other records.

[stip]

Stip, you're too much.

did you actually read, or are you just assuming?

[stip]

I think Binaural is probably my favorite guided tour thread, despite my personal opinion about many of the songs (which I mostly leave out of those). It's an interesting record.

[Norah]

Stip, you're too much.

did you actually read, or are you just assuming?

Not only did I read it, I tweeted summations of each post.

[stip]

[stip]

actually, maybe I should read those tweets first.

[Norah]

you should

[stip]

Anywhere you agree with me? I had more than a few nice things to say, even on some of the songs I don't like.

[stip]

well done. I laughed at Insignificance.

[Norah]

I agreed with you on most of the things you like, and none of the things you hate. In fact, when you point out specifics on the things you hate, those specifics tend to be the things I love.

[stip]

there's nothing here I really hate. There are only a few pearl jam songs I'd turn off. Songs like God's Dice suffer in part because the standard I hold pearl jam songs to is so high.

[Norah]

sigh

[stip]

it's really such a boring song.

[Thejambi]

it's really such a boring song.

[McParadigm]

it's really such a boring song.

Do you feel that it needs an increase of waves to ride high amongst and sirens to hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly

[digster]

From Insignificance to the end is the best thing the band has done, IMO. They have better records, but the amount of great songs there is amazing. The four best songs the band has done in the past fifteen years are there, pretty much all in a row, with the rest, barring Soon Forget, not far behind.

[McParadigm]

I wrote a bunch of shit about this album once, didn't I?

[Norah]

it's really such a boring song.

Do you feel that it needs an increase of waves to ride high amongst and sirens to hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly hear repeatedly

I'm pretty sure that would make the fear go away.

[stip]

they're both songs I would much rather listen to, for sure.

[EJ]

I wrote a bunch of shit about this album once, didn't I?

Yes. And, it was the best thing I've ever read about the album before.