10th album rumors and speculation

[red calzolaio]

I wonder if Tom Tomorrow is doing the art for the new album?

That was a serious question, btw.

i liked his worked in backspacer but i want the band to do a different thing now.

wish they would have a fan entry for the next album cover...

seriously.

[dimejinky99]

If it's anything like the tshirt contest, we'd never see the album released. Ever.

[nyquillyn]

I thought the avocado worked as some sort of "pop" imagery. But the stuff on the inside was just terrible. It looks like a high school kid's take on Tool album art. But really, the main problem was that the two styles didn't mesh well together.

[red calzolaio]

If it's anything like the tshirt contest, we'd never see the album released. Ever.

i think i know where you're going with this even though i have never heard of this tshirt contest.

[gardenparty]

Yeah, it was a huge improvement on the previous record's artwork.

that was embarrassing. And makes me believe Ed/Jeff aren't as involved or passionate about it anymore. Especially this:

McCready said, "That symbolizes just kind of ... Ed's at the end of the process and said, for all I care right now, we've done such a good job on this record, and we're kind of tired from it. Let's throw an avocado on the cover. I think that's what happened, and our art director goes, hey, that's not a bad idea. I think we were watching the Super Bowl, and we had some guacamole or something."

[WtOB?]

Yeah, it was a huge improvement on the previous record's artwork.

that was embarrassing. And makes me believe Ed/Jeff aren't as involved or passionate about it anymore. Especially this:

McCready said, "That symbolizes just kind of ... Ed's at the end of the process and said, for all I care right now, we've done such a good job on this record, and we're kind of tired from it. Let's throw an avocado on the cover. I think that's what happened, and our art director goes, hey, that's not a bad idea. I think we were watching the Super Bowl, and we had some guacamole or something."

Lol.. "That symbolizes.." and then he just gives up trying to make up shit and comes out with the truth "Look.. we just didn't put any thought into it, OK?".

[stip]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

[WtOB?]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

[elliseamos]

Jeff Ament was interviewed on Siriux XM Pearl Jam Radio.
Jeff on new Pearl Jam album: "If all goes well it should be out before the end of the year".

[stip]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

[WtOB?]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

Perhaps it would have been better suited to Backspacer?

[Blenheim Augustine]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

Visually it is much better than Backspacer which is a mess - they should have just used the lady lying on top of the car / bed and the rest as jpegs in the publisher's recycle bin.

I thought it was a good rebrand from the previous black album covers going back to Vs (ex No Code). I wonder if they had an early version that was more like the interior artwork and felt that it was just more of the same so tried going for something more refreshing and that would stand out more in record stores.

I thought the avocado was meant to be a visual for the earth and then you can read in various things about fragility, retaining core values, ripening / maturing etc - on the other hand you can look at it from the pop art perspective and then realise that the avocado isn't really a consumer good or a celebrity - which most pop art would feature - but something from the land and something organic. Equally the could have been eating guacamole...

[Got Some]

Who gives a shit about the cover????

Get a close up of a sheep attempting to eat a carrot again for all I care. Still doesn't make vs a fucking amazing album

[harmless]

Who gives a shit about the cover????

Get a close up of a sheep attempting to eat a carrot again for all I care. Still doesn't make vs a fucking amazing album

I think that artwork can add a huge amount to an album. If artwork and music are working in tandem, they can help to strengthen the 'concept' of the entire work, basically making an argument for its existence. Great artwork can lift a really good album, to a great one, and a mediocre album to a fairly good one. Backspacer's artwork definitely helped to make the album more than the sum of its parts, in a way that S/T didn't... quite. Although I do think Pearl Jam have always been pretty good at it. You've talked about the sheep eating a carrot, but you obviously find the image very memorable. It's done its job, and even now it helps to remind you of the mood and feeling around Vs. Granted, musically it won't change an album; if the music is poor, the album can be said to be poor. But if PJ's next album is full of great songs but the artwork is absolute shite, it will affect my listening.

[harmless]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

Visually it is much better than Backspacer which is a mess - they should have just used the lady lying on top of the car / bed and the rest as jpegs in the publisher's recycle bin.

I thought it was a good rebrand from the previous black album covers going back to Vs (ex No Code). I wonder if they had an early version that was more like the interior artwork and felt that it was just more of the same so tried going for something more refreshing and that would stand out more in record stores.

I thought the avocado was meant to be a visual for the earth and then you can read in various things about fragility, retaining core values, ripening / maturing etc - on the other hand you can look at it from the pop art perspective and then realise that the avocado isn't really a consumer good or a celebrity - which most pop art would feature - but something from the land and something organic. Equally the could have been eating guacamole...

I preferred the Backspacer cover in every way. But the problem with both covers is not the concepts, but the execution. They look too dashed off.

[harmless]

nevertheless, I like the absurdity of that cover. I like it more than the Ten and Binaural artwork.

Both Ten and Binaural reflect the music a lot better than Avocado does. Binaural has the spacey element and Ten has the young/foolish/naive element with Jeff thinking that was a good cover idea.

that's true. The avocado reflects nothing. I just like the absurdity and playfulness of it, even though it is not a playful record.

You could argue that the avocado, and the zombies inside, actually represent the (psycho)tropics of Hawaii or such like, which echoes the surf style of Big Wave and the subject of Severed Hand etc. That's how I saw it. PJ had gone from being seen as 'grunge' to being more associated with the whole culture around the tropics and surf.

[stip]

that's an interesting read on it. Nice defense of artwork in general.

[harmless]

that's an interesting read on it. Nice defense of artwork in general.

[Juvenal]

Digression alert, you sluts:

Oh you malodorous malcontents, you did have to mention Avocado. I shall brook no opposition to a critique of this cover - you're all a bunch of tarts, even if some of you make me hard.

Let's go all art school, shall we? You yanks and your liberal arts or summat, snorting fair trade coffee and drinking drug lord cocaine. It's 2005 or 2006 or summat, and the band's bete noire is in the White House being a dick, killing people (a bit like the way his laudatory successor still kills brown people with drones but, ah, [YIELD ALERT!] you'd better stop me before I begin). So let's also suppose that you're Superman in that god awful Bryan Singer remake and you're looking at the earth in space. It's so pretty! Now, like the God of Google Earth you're zooming in. Ruh, roh Raggy, those big cityscapes (just about lacking the cavernous maw of DTE's video) start appearing until wham! Your nose is lodged in the dislodged guts of some grunt. Similarly - the Avocado artwork. Aint it nice? Peel back a layer and uhuh, it's the seed then another and oh teh oh noes! It's Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jams zombified! Scratch the surface with your mourning paper, lie crying onto your stars on your pillow (a limp flag delivered by a grim-faced soldier during a rainy burial day) and you see it's all gone to shit.

Of course, we're not saying that the band were thinking this. Eddie is simply a dwarf with a penchant for fireman poles and delicious eggs; Mike gets in arguments via twitter about Ole for chrissakes and Stone - well, Stone is probably into some kinky, filthy shit. The album contains water bollocks Big Wave, Marker and it's wank chorus (HUSH YOU FANBOY FUCKS) and Mike's dreadful denouement of lyrics. But it is, as was stated at the time, (and I paraphrase but sucky dicky) "A product of what it means to be an American right now". (Or indeed, what some people were feeling - perhaps viewed through a liberal perspective. 330 million people feeling exactly the same? Probably not but fuck it.) Angry, grim and, er, corpsey. Looking California, feeling Minnesota. And the album cover facilitates this dirty little switcheroo.

[harmless]

Digression alert, you sluts:

Oh you malodorous malcontents, you did have to mention Avocado. I shall brook no opposition to a critique of this cover - you're all a bunch of tarts, even if some of you make me hard.

Let's go all art school, shall we? You yanks and your liberal arts or summat, snorting fair trade coffee and drinking drug lord cocaine. It's 2005 or 2006 or summat, and the band's bete noire is in the White House being a dick, killing people (a bit like the way his laudatory successor still kills brown people with drones but, ah, [YIELD ALERT!] you'd better stop me before I begin). So let's also suppose that you're Superman in that god awful Bryan Singer remake and you're looking at the earth in space. It's so pretty! Now, like the God of Google Earth you're zooming in. Ruh, roh Raggy, those big cityscapes (just about lacking the cavernous maw of DTE's video) start appearing until wham! Your nose is lodged in the dislodged guts of some grunt. Similarly - the Avocado artwork. Aint it nice? Peel back a layer and uhuh, it's the seed then another and oh teh oh noes! It's Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jams zombified! Scratch the surface with your mourning paper, lie crying onto your stars on your pillow (a limp flag delivered by a grim-faced soldier during a rainy burial day) and you see it's all gone to shit.

Of course, we're not saying that the band were thinking this. Eddie is simply a dwarf with a penchant for fireman poles and delicious eggs; Mike gets in arguments via twitter about Ole for chrissakes and Stone - well, Stone is probably into some kinky, filthy shit. The album contains water bollocks Big Wave, Marker and it's wank chorus (HUSH YOU FANBOY FUCKS) and Mike's dreadful denouement of lyrics. But it is, as was stated at the time, (and I paraphrase but sucky dicky) "A product of what it means to be an American right now". (Or indeed, what some people were feeling - perhaps viewed through a liberal perspective. 330 million people feeling exactly the same? Probably not but fuck it.) Angry, grim and, er, corpsey. Looking California, feeling Minnesota. And the album cover facilitates this dirty little switcheroo.