That Italian site with the recording session info says that half the album ("Sleeping By Myself," "Pendulum," "Sirens," "Infallible," "Swallowed Whole," and "Yellow Moon") were recorded in the first session alongside "Ole". The second session featured rerecordings of all of thos songs, except "Ole," but with "Pendulum" listed twice, and the rest of the album also recorded in that session.
Mike wrote:So they needed a two year break to be able to write genius songs like Future Days and Let The Records Play. I'm sure glad they took their time.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Mike wrote:So they needed a two year break to be able to write genius songs like Future Days and Let The Records Play. I'm sure glad they took their time.
Good keys take time friend.
There's the dog. You can't fake that stuff. Confess with your mouth.
I haven't changed my position either. The only statement I regret is 'My favourite band is back.' Cringe! But apart from that, same old: I like 10 songs, hate 2. The production and vocal performance sometimes weakens what could've been stellar.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
If I do a "RIP PJ" post in earnest, it's usually because I've been listening to Vitalogy / No Code / Yield / Binaural / Riot Act, and I'm suddenly wondering what ever happened. Because I don't hate the current PJ music but I'm not passionate about it either, like I used to be.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
It still floors me that Harmless (and he is not alone) can be so anxious about an album where they like 10 of 12 songs. There's probably only 5 pearl jam albums I'd say that about. If I can get to 8 I'm thrilled.
Of course among those 8 there are still usually a few songs I genuinely love (really Binaural and No Code are the only two pearl jam albums without at least one song I truly adore). If it's 10 pretty good and 2 bad I can see being bothered by that, I suppose.
My attitude for any band that I've been with for a long time (any artist really) is that each album produce a handful of memorable songs I want to keep and a few others i'll enjoy on those occasions I pop in a new album.
I have really liked maybe 3 songs total from Mark Lanegan's last two albums. But he's written so much stuff I do love that as long as each new album gives me a handful of new additions to flesh out the canon I'm happy. And every now and then you still get a surprise moment that's a lot more generous. Tom Waits last album only had 3 songs on it I could care about (and 2 great b-sides). But it's 3 new songs from one of my favorite artists that I can add to the pile. I'd like more, but I have enough that I don't NEED more. That's the place most of my favorite musicians are at--Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Mark Lanegan, Dan Bern, U2, James. REM would be there if they were still together so be careful what you wish for.
It is more frustrating when the artists are less prolific, as pearl jam has become.
Bands can fall off if they disappear for a long time (Tool) or have released a few albums where there was really nothing on it for me to care about (Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Metallica), but as long as an album gives me a few songs that add to the overall catalog and enable me to mix up what I'm listening to I'm usually fine with that.
harmless wrote:I haven't changed my position either. The only statement I regret is 'My favourite band is back.' Cringe! But apart from that, same old: I like 10 songs, hate 2. The production and vocal performance sometimes weakens what could've been stellar.
Now that I've had the album for a while I am much more aware of some of the production complaints--how too many songs make safe choices that defang them. But overall I think this was a very strong set of songs, and I think Eddie's vocal performance is pretty universally strong across the record.
My frustration comes from the fact that every song could have been better. We're talking about a band that until Riot Act probably had two or three songs I disliked, tops. Now I have to pick and choose the songs I like from the albums and yeah, that makes me sad. It appears that Pearl Jam had a higher success rate for me than they did for others, and it might be that creating the dissonance between what I'm saying and what you're saying. This band basically had a perfect run. I *like* 10 songs off Lightning Bolt, but they all have production and performance issues that frustrate me like mad.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
And the problems with LTRP and FD, for me, don't just make the songs bad; they kind of take a dump on the album too.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
The frustration is probably akin to getting a great book with a shit ending. Yeah, it's only the ending but it ruins the story for me.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Stip, I think that's also a very individual (not necessarily right or wrong) way of viewing an album catalog. To use your experience with Mark Lanegan as an example, I'd probably wouldn't have too many positive thoughts about his direction when I had gotten 3 songs to enjoy in two albums' worth of songs.
digster wrote:Stip, I think you've got to understand that's also a very individual (not necessarily right or wrong) way of viewing an album catalog. To use your experience with Mark Lanegan as an example, I'd probably wouldn't have too many positive thoughts about his direction when I had gotten 3 songs to enjoy in two albums' worth of songs.
Oh, I understand that. I'm well aware that i'm in the minority here. And if I was just getting into Mark Lanegan this would have probably turned me off. But this is a guy with probably 80+ songs that I love listening to. And so I'd prefer that number always be increasing, but there is so much there the fact that I now have mescalito to listen to outweighs the disappointment in ONLY having mescalito to add.
harmless wrote:My frustration comes from the fact that every song could have been better. We're talking about a band that until Riot Act probably had two or three songs I disliked, tops. Now I have to pick and choose the songs I like from the albums and yeah, that makes me sad. It appears that Pearl Jam had a higher success rate for me than they did for others, and it might be that creating the dissonance between what I'm saying and what you're saying. This band basically had a perfect run. I *like* 10 songs off Lightning Bolt, but they all have production and performance issues that frustrate me like mad.
Fair enough. Pearl Jam has three flawless albums for me. Since 1996 I've basically approached each album looking for the songs I'm going to want to keep listening to. L-bolt has plenty. It may, in the end, be more like Binaural or No Code than Yield or S/T in that it'll have fewer truly top tier songs. On the other hand L-bolt is a consistently enjoyable listen for me in a way no other pearl jam album has been probably since Vitalogy, where even the weakest songs on the album I still like.
Well Riot Act and Backspacer each just have one 5 star song, and I'm pretty sure at this point I can say that about Mind Your Manners.
I also agree Harmless that there may not be another pearl jam album where I can find as many things to nitpick about pretty much every performance (MYM may be the only one were I've got nothing). I think this is really a very strong crop of songs that are pretty rarely exhibited in their best possible light
There's some crappy songs on here, but one thing it has going for it that the last two didn't is that it's improving over time. I listened to it again about a week ago for the first time in a while and it still sounds okay. This is very much unlike Backspacer and particularly S/T, which I felt positively about at first and showed their true colors with repeated listening. Lightning Bolt, unlike those, seems to have survived the 'new album' feel I get, where I'm more likely to treat the songs with kid gloves.
