Good call on the size of the jacket. That started a trend of weird PJ packaging that I've never been a fan of.
This was the first CD that I got on release day and have continued to do so ever since which has lost some of the fun of the experience with so few record stores around anymore and fan club pre-order.
Anyway - this album does have two flaws. With the few weird tracks you really only get 10 normal songs on this one. I would have liked another song or two, and the other flaw would be the lack of solos by Mike. Maybe solos didn't fit in a lot of the songs and that is fine, but to me there's nothing like a McCready solo and they are usually the highlight of a PJ show for me.
I just put the case in on its side, which bothered me, but desperate times...
I remember the first time I had a CD tower that was designed like shelves rather than the preslotted CD spaces. I could store my double CD cases (fucking Mellon Collie and live Metallica bootlegs) and Vitalogy. It felt like a brave new world.
In the LAL Vitalogy thread, I said that Vitalogy ended with Immortality. I still think this. Stupid Foxy mophandlemama doesn't exist for me. Never has.
So, I don't see it as a flaw in the album, because I've cut it out of my brain.
The major flaw in the album is how out of place Betterman is. And that is really reaching for a flaw. I think it's about the perfect album once you accept that it ends with Immortality. Stupid Foxy mop is like an Ed-gasm spewed on the back cover and shouldn't count.
I think Pry,to is a nice transition into Corduroy, and Bugs is quirky enough to like. And Aya Davanita is the most enjoyable of the three.
I would say the tracklisting can make the album feel a bit disjointed in the second half, which is a shame. Still one of the best one two punches to open an album ever.
mac wrote:I would say the tracklisting can make the album feel a bit disjointed in the second half, which is a shame. Still one of the best one two punches to open an album ever.
Yeah, the first half is amazing. Corduroy is such a great song.
stip wrote:What is Stupid Mop adding to that? Especially by adding in a new character and clothing them in faux shocking statements that are trying way too hard to provoke. It's a pretty heavy handed postscript to what was a very graceful conclusion.
The thing is, I can understand wanting to end the album on something other than ''Immortality,'' which almost feels a little too perfectly ''final''; if ''Immortality'' is ''some die just to live,'' I like the idea of following that up with a seven minute drone to symbolize the dying (or the living?), or to at least give the listener some space to ponder whatever he or she wants. It's all down to that stupid voice-over, which just makes it feel like a hamfisted collegiate art piece. I never listen to it and agree that it's the worst thing about Vitalogy.
I agree, as well.
Also, I think I could be on board with it much more if it were a hidden track, as Stip suggested. You never totally get over that first listen through the record when you know there's one more song coming ... and then it's Stupid Mop. But as a weird sonic moment "hidden" at the end, I'd have no problem.
Sometimes, but sometimes it is wonderful, and I always think it is pretty clever
Pretty much.
I sometimes skip it after a few seconds if I'm not feeling it, and that's the biggest flaw I can find with Vitalogy.
Yeah, I kind of like Bugs and Aye Davanita. Pry To I just sort of consider the side change music and ignore. Outside the album or in the wrong context, Bugs can be pretty annoying, though.
stip wrote:Betterman is a great song, and the fact that you can make a serious case for either Nothingman OR Betterman being the worst song on this album just goes to show how great it is.
I wouldn't put Nothingman at the bottom, but it is the song that has fallen the furthest in my appreciation
I would make the case for Spin the Black Circle being the weakest song on the album. Which is also pretty complimentary, overall.
Again, I'm having a difficult time finding what I would consider a "major flaw" for this record. I like the interludes, "Bugs" doesn't play to Eddie's strengths, really, but it gets points for trying, and "Stupid Mop," while weak, is hardly the unlistenable garbage that most seem to peg it as.
I'm weary of "Betterman," so there's that, but, again, it's a good song. A friend of mine credits it, and Brendan O'Brien with elevating the album from being a collection of half-formed jams and sound art. I don't really agree with that sentiment, but I can see those terms being apt for a fair amount of the record's playing time. I guess I just find that to be endearing, and a part of the album's strength and charm.
theplatypus wrote:I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.
For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.
cutuphalfdead wrote:so glad i don't see signatures
theplatypus wrote:I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.
For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.
I would still say he's right, though--it's not an apt descriptor for the album as a whole, only for a few deliberately offbeat tracks that seem to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the album's reputation.
theplatypus wrote:I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.
For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.
I would still say he's right, though--it's not an apt descriptor for the album as a whole, only for a few deliberately offbeat tracks that seem to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the album's reputation.
Oh, sure. It's more a comment on how little sense it makes when people who have Vitalogy as one of their all-time favorite albums see the middle period albums as too experimental/difficult.
cutuphalfdead wrote:so glad i don't see signatures
Bugs and Aya Davanita are too long. At nearly three minutes each the aren't musical interludes but full length songs. As full length songs they are both out of place on this record and just not that good.
Not For You is a minute and a half to two minutes too long. There's just not enough musical ideas to warrant a six minute song.
Betterman belonged as the closer on Vs. and a toughed up Hard To Imagine should have taken its place on Vitalogy.
Think I’m going to try being kind to everyone a chance.
