stip wrote:my favorite thing I've read about Binaural
Binaural (2000) I once had a conversation with this guy about Pearl Jam in which he claimed that the band's best era was 1998 to 2002. This is the sort of argument a person makes after digesting so much of a particular artist's work that it has driven him to the brink of insanity. It's like saying, "You know, Raging Bull and Goodfellas are solid, but they pale in comparison to Scorsese's output from 1997 to 2002."3 The early '00s were clearly a bad time for Pearl Jam — Mike McCready struggled with drug addiction, there was the Roskilde tragedy, and the band was perceived by many casual observers as passé. Pearl Jam should've taken an extended break after Yield, but instead it plowed forward with the most dispiriting and deeply confused record of its career. Binaural represents the worst instance of Pearl Jam attempting to make music least suited to its specific skill set — it's a record of dense atmospherics and measured brooding by the most stridently anthemic and emotive band of its generation. What's supposed to be a pained, delicate sigh comes off as a dull, thudding roar. Binaural is a three-dimensional sonic representation of a band being flattened against a psychic brick wall
I've seen this before and I've always thought that sentence was a fucking awesome way to describe the album. Even though the writer meant it as a negative.
Being flattened against a psychic brick wall, and occasionally fighting back. Like trying to swim against the current.
cutuphalfdead wrote:The S/T production missteps are much more costly because they make it painful to listen to the songs.
It's the album that suffers most from the production. It has the best songs since Binaural, but the worst production. Gone made during Binaural would have been a classic, but on S/T it's a misstep.
Not at all. I think it has more potential, but squanders it. Riot Act has much better production, but some of the songs are fairly poor by Pearl Jam standards, and Vedder underperforms on part of the album. None of that is a major problem on S/T, yet it's a worse album that Riot Act.
Binaural on the other hand, is one of my all time favorite albums.
Since Binaural we've had Riot Act, S/T, Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. I think S/T has the songs with the most potential, but the worst production. Because of this I would rather listen to Riot Act than S/T. It's not that complicated.
The s/t production is that much stranger, because barring the first third of the record, it's not really a forceful or aggressive album. Most of the songs after Severed Hand are slow or mid-tempo.
The production meetings for self titled went something like this
Adam Kasper & Co.: So uh, what do we want to do in terms of how this record is going to sound?
Eddie vedder: No one liked that crap we pulled on Riot Act, let's just make this one loud!
AK & Co: Well perceived loudness is more complicated than just turning up the volume, we can only get so loud before things distort. Do you want the guitars more at the forefront or more clinical sounding drums? What parts do you want to be louder?
EV: Distortion rocks! Do that!
AK & Co: That's not the distortion you're thinking of, if it gets too loud things start to compress and the listener will be put off and end up turning the record down...
EV: Compression? What the fuck is that? Just make it loud!
