Backspacer: Official Album Thread

[dimejinky99]

Platys a fifth dan hipster.

His avatar is 'the' batman

[bodysnatcher]

referring to masta's post...

With the solo ukulele record you put out in 2011, and Pearl Jam's hit "Just Breathe," it seems like you've opened the door for a bit of, not softness, but. . .

Sentimentality. For years, it was playing word games and expressing those emotions, but doing it in such a way that was cryptic and where Mark Arm from Mudhoney would still have some modicum of respect for me. But nowadays, it's more like sitting down and writing a song, and whatever comes out, comes out.

The new album also has the power ballad "Sirens," which sounds big – dare I say "commercial"?

You've already said it! You want to say something else? You want me to double-dare you? [Laughs] You know, a lot of these songs were written in the middle of the night, and you're the only one awake, it seems, for miles. There's no one criticizing what you're writing.

I like how he basically admits that Sirens that he knows people will criticize.

[Jorge]

What's a fifth dan

[bodysnatcher]

Platys a fifth dan hipster.

His avatar is 'the' batman

classic dime

[dimejinky99]

I wanted to say Jedi master hipster but it seemed incongruous.

[stip]

also, there's got to be a major difference between a ramshackle 60s cover that was recorded live on a soundcheck then released as a fan club single then off to the airwaves and became a hit by popular demand then put on a benefit album for Kosovar refugees and a song that uses the very musical stereotypes and idiosycrasies that PJ tried to shack off for most of their career. those hair metal mannerisms were what the Seattle scene stood against in the beginning and that stance surely appealed to me.

i'm not going to diss the song's lyrics or overall musical performance of the band but it's a clear and conscious choice from this band and BO'B and it's some kind of artistic u-turn that can't go unnoticed.

It's a song that probably wouldn't have appeared on earlier records, although pj deteactors in the early years considered pj one small remove from hair metal anyway.

My larger point was that I see no reason to think that the existence of stuff like red dot, soon forget, or wasted reprise were somehow keeping songs like sirens off the record, or that they are incompatible

i get what you're saying and you may be right. that being said, Ed claimed, when promoting LB and to ackowledge the corporate rock/hair metal roots of Sirens, that they'd stop caring what Mark Arm thought about their songs. so there's that stance that may (or may not) signify that current PJ doesn't care either about what they used to be. there's got to be something to think about when the band you used to love is now recording a power-ballad single that the singer can barely handle live just weeks after its release.

I think the fact that they aren't letting their sound be determined by what some random guy thinks is cool is great. They've been out of high school for a long time. What that has to do with whether or not Eddie can handle a song live don't know.

[Lament]

Mark Arm digs Wishlist.

[VinylGuy]

I still dont get the hatred Backspacer gets. Maybe because of the fixer video or the Target thing? Because even if you dont like it musically or lyrically, it was a very different approach for the band.

And yes, they gained a lot of new fans with this one.

[bodysnatcher]

I still dont get the hatred Backspacer gets. Maybe because of the fixer video or the Target thing? Because even if you dont like it musically or lyrically, it was a very different approach for the band.

And yes, they gained a lot of new fans with this one.

I hope they try and alienate the new fans that Backspacer/LB brought them like they tried to do with the fans that Ten/Vs brought them

[Lament]

I don't think the songs are very good. And I don't really buy the idea that it's a different approach, or that they're breaking new ground or experimenting or anything like that. It's a rock album made by a rock band with songs that I don't enjoy (except for Got Some).

[VinylGuy]

I dont think they are breaking new ground in terms of music in general but i do believe its was a new thing for the band. They way they wrote the songs, and specially the idea of having pop songs was new.

Hell, The Fixer was a wtf moment. Like or not.

[Jorge]

Backspacer is Pearl Jam with a tan, and a shitty goatee, and frosted tips.

[Lament]

I wouldn't consider The Fixer a WTF moment. Maybe it was surprising that it was the first single, yeah, but musically it had a lot of predecessors in the catalog. Then again, I didn't think it was any less an obvious attempt at a radio hit than World Wide Suicide was.

I don't begrudge them making the album, and I believe it's what they wanted to make. I just don't think it's very good.

[VinylGuy]

which ones ??

Is it wrong to try to have a radio hit?

[Lament]

which ones ??

I'd say The Fixer is in the same lineage (in terms of no frills, straight ahead, non-dramatic upbeat pop-rock) as stuff like World Wide Suicide, Big Wave, Undone, Ghost, Breakerfall, Sad, Leatherman, Mankind, etc.

Is it wrong to try to have a radio hit?

No. I probably love more songs that are/have been radio hits than anyone else on this board. But a song I don't like is a song I don't like, regardless of what it's trying to be. There should be a level of pop transcendence with a song that is trying to be a radio hit, and The Fixer doesn't achieve it.

[VinylGuy]

which ones ??

I'd say The Fixer is in the same lineage (in terms of no frills, straight ahead, non-dramatic upbeat pop-rock) as stuff like World Wide Suicide, Big Wave, Undone, Ghost, Breakerfall, Sad, Leatherman, Mankind, etc.

Is it wrong to try to have a radio hit?

No. I probably love more songs that are/have been radio hits than anyone else on this board. But a song I don't like is a song I don't like, regardless of what it's trying to be. There should be a level of pop transcendence with a song that is trying to be a radio hit, and The Fixer doesn't achieve it.

I get it...i only pointed that out because i read it like it was something negative.

About those songs and the fixer..maybe wws has a strong pop quality, but it still sounds like PJ. The same with the others...in The Fixer you had lots of "new" elements that werent covered in that list of songs. The bridge with the piano, the keyboards, the lack of crunchy guitars in the mix..

I really really like it.

[stip]

High five!

[bodysnatcher]

they only played The Fixer once on the last tour. i would have thought that was an every night song for them

[mastaflatch]

also, there's got to be a major difference between a ramshackle 60s cover that was recorded live on a soundcheck then released as a fan club single then off to the airwaves and became a hit by popular demand then put on a benefit album for Kosovar refugees and a song that uses the very musical stereotypes and idiosycrasies that PJ tried to shack off for most of their career. those hair metal mannerisms were what the Seattle scene stood against in the beginning and that stance surely appealed to me.

i'm not going to diss the song's lyrics or overall musical performance of the band but it's a clear and conscious choice from this band and BO'B and it's some kind of artistic u-turn that can't go unnoticed.

It's a song that probably wouldn't have appeared on earlier records, although pj deteactors in the early years considered pj one small remove from hair metal anyway.

My larger point was that I see no reason to think that the existence of stuff like red dot, soon forget, or wasted reprise were somehow keeping songs like sirens off the record, or that they are incompatible

i get what you're saying and you may be right. that being said, Ed claimed, when promoting LB and to ackowledge the corporate rock/hair metal roots of Sirens, that they'd stop caring what Mark Arm thought about their songs. so there's that stance that may (or may not) signify that current PJ doesn't care either about what they used to be. there's got to be something to think about when the band you used to love is now recording a power-ballad single that the singer can barely handle live just weeks after its release.

I think the fact that they aren't letting their sound be determined by what some random guy thinks is cool is great. They've been out of high school for a long time. What that has to do with whether or not Eddie can handle a song live don't know.

releasing their most commercial song yet, that's a huge departure - or a stylistic regression? - as a single that their frontman can't convincingly reproduce live speaks volumes as to where the band is, the importance they put in being a great band. i don't think there was this kind of occurences (downtuning newly-released songs) before Backspacer. now it's almost like it's their modus operandi.

[McParadigm]

Backspacer is Pearl Jam with a tan, and a shitty goatee, and frosted tips.

Which is still better than Pearl Jam pulling its wagon into town and going "Whatever it was you liked, we can still do that! Really! I swear! Mid-90's crunch? Anthemic balladry? Wave-like structures that build and then restart? Meandering mood pieces with cryptic lyrics? Oh god please still like us because we can almost write songs that remind you of way better songs from before..."

Give me Pearl Jam trying a really shitty thing over Pearl Jam Lightning Bolting all over any day of the week.