Kevin Davis wrote:See, to my ears the middle of "Even Flow" is a jam section over a two-note bassline. Does it give rise to a few nicely organic moments? Sure. Does Mike rip on it? Naturally. But all these "changes" and "a lot more going on" is something I just don't hear. Compared to the more thoughtfully orchestrated middle sections in songs like "Light Years," "Nothing As It Seems," "Rival," and "Evacuation," it's kid stuff.
It's gotta be obvious, in your face, and preferably loud. Nothing too subtle, thoughtful, interesting, or clever for mikejasond, that's just boring.
It can be soft. I like soft songs. I love Elderly Woman, I like Low Light, Thumbing My Way, All Or None, I like Dead Man a lot, I like Soon Forget, I like a lot of their softer songs.
Yet none of these songs have the dynamics that you say you long for in the other songs. You're contradicting yourself.
Elderly Woman builds to the "hellooooo" verse. Thumbing My Way constantly changes keys. All Or None builds by Eddie jumping up the octave at the end. Low Light and Dead Man are static but I like them anyways because I do like the vibe they have.
I didn't say all of their songs have to be that way, but a lot more used to be
Kevin Davis wrote:See, to my ears the middle of "Even Flow" is a jam section over a two-note bassline. Does it give rise to a few nicely organic moments? Sure. Does Mike rip on it? Naturally. But all these "changes" and "a lot more going on" is something I just don't hear. Compared to the more thoughtfully orchestrated middle sections in songs like "Light Years," "Nothing As It Seems," "Rival," and "Evacuation," it's kid stuff.
It's gotta be obvious, in your face, and preferably loud. Nothing too subtle, thoughtful, interesting, or clever for mikejasond, that's just boring.
It can be soft. I like soft songs. I love Elderly Woman, I like Low Light, Thumbing My Way, All Or None, I like Dead Man a lot, I like Soon Forget, I like a lot of their softer songs.
Yet none of these songs have the dynamics that you say you long for in the other songs. You're contradicting yourself.
He's not contradicting himself, he never presented an argument that those songs' strengths rely on their dynamics.
tragabigzanda wrote:It sounds like you're more concerned with the dynamics than the repetition of parts. Those older records had very dynamic songs that often started at a low simmer and slowly built to a raging boil. Most of the songs on Riot Act and Binaural don't do that -- they're fairly static in their energy.
i am a day and five pages late to this thread, but this is a nice phrasing of a major issue I have.
tragabigzanda wrote:It sounds like you're more concerned with the dynamics than the repetition of parts. Those older records had very dynamic songs that often started at a low simmer and slowly built to a raging boil. Most of the songs on Riot Act and Binaural don't do that -- they're fairly static in their energy.
i am a day and five pages late to this thread, but this is a nice phrasing of a major issue I have.
The lack of raging boil on a song like Can't Keep is one of the things I like so much about it. There is the building tension and we don't really get the release with it.
Some other songs, like SOH and Help Help have a beautifully noisy release. Not the same as with ending of Go, but still, it's a path I liked. At the time, I felt PJ may be going down a bit of a Sonic Youth road there, but they ended up going the other way.
tragabigzanda wrote:It sounds like you're more concerned with the dynamics than the repetition of parts. Those older records had very dynamic songs that often started at a low simmer and slowly built to a raging boil. Most of the songs on Riot Act and Binaural don't do that -- they're fairly static in their energy.
i am a day and five pages late to this thread, but this is a nice phrasing of a major issue I have.
The lack of raging boil on a song like Can't Keep is one of the things I like so much about it. There is the building tension and we don't really get the release with it.
Some other songs, like SOH and Help Help have a beautifully noisy release. Not the same as with ending of Go, but still, it's a path I liked. At the time, I felt PJ may be going down a bit of a Sonic Youth road there, but they ended up going the other way.
There are times it works really well. A healthy diet has space for both. But if you were going to ask me if there was a style where I'm more likely to enjoy the result it's the former.
stip wrote:i mean, even the pearl jam songs I don't comparatively care for are still pretty good. There's only a small handful of songs I flat out dislike..
Well the chord progression in puzzles and games is the main chord progression for thumbing my way
wait, really?
Part became "Light Years" and the other part became "Thumbing My Way". It's an early hybrid of both. Why Eddie went back to the "Thumbing My Way" riff, I have no idea, because it's extremely boring.
Strat wrote:Fine, but its a pretty melody. Classic Neil young actually
No way is it anything like Neil. Just coz he wore the Neil hat? That riff is way too tight and the melody too self aware. Neil's playing is very primal, and there's nothing primal about TMW.
Its basically Long May you Run. Those three chords.
