RANK THE ALBUMS

[parasolmonster]

Insignificance is my least favorite album song

Seriously, what the actual Fuck.

I will be the first to admit that in terms of songwriting it's a very solid song. However, for my specific taste there is something about it that is like nails on a chalkboard.

There really is something "off" about that song and it kinda drives me crazy too.

THANK YOU! I seriously thought I was the only PJ fan who didn't like it.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Insignificance is my least favorite album song

Seriously, what the actual Fuck.

I will be the first to admit that in terms of songwriting it's a very solid song. However, for my specific taste there is something about it that is like nails on a chalkboard.

There really is something "off" about that song and it kinda drives me crazy too.

THANK YOU! I seriously thought I was the only PJ fan who didn't like it.

I'm not crazy about it either. I think it is Ed's singing? But I can't really pinpoint it.

[Strat]

You guy's are idiots.

[E.H. Ruddock]

You guy's are idiots.

calling us names won't make us like the song, strat.

[stip]

it might

[parasolmonster]

Now I associate the song with Stip calling me an idiot. Double whammy. The hatred of the song has intensified!

[epilogue]

Ugh. How is this thread still a thing?

Clickbait.

AL

[epilogue]

I'm certainly not gonna call anyone an idiot for disliking Insignificance. But I'm also not gonna pretend to understand it either.

[Monkey_Driven]

I'm certainly not gonna call anyone an idiot for disliking Insignificance. But I'm also not gonna pretend to understand it either.

[chewm]

I don't know, I might call them idiots.

[Kaius]

I would if I were you.

[Norah]

Yeah those people are idiots.

[PHATJ]

Insignificance is my least favorite album song

Seriously, what the actual Fuck.

I will be the first to admit that in terms of songwriting it's a very solid song. However, for my specific taste there is something about it that is like nails on a chalkboard.

There really is something "off" about that song and it kinda drives me crazy too.

THANK YOU! I seriously thought I was the only PJ fan who didn't like it.

I'm not crazy about it either. I think it is Ed's singing? But I can't really pinpoint it.

I certainly don't hate Insignificance, but I've always rated it on the lower half of Binaural. Some days I like it a little better than others, but it is mid-tier PJ for me.

[PHATJ]

I'm still going with this.

1. Vitalogy
2. Binaural
3. Yield
4. Vs.
5. Ten
6. No Code
7. Riot Act
----------------------------
8. Lightning Bolt
9. Pearl Jam
----------------------------
10. Backspacer

1. Vitalogy - Quite simply, this album is a masterpiece, and it belongs in the conversation with the best rock albums ever made.

2. Binaural - This has grown so much for me over the years. Once a bottom feeder on my list, now rightfully near the top. Sleight of Hand is absolutely PERFECT.

The top two have separated themselves from the pack. These are easily my favorites and when I listen to PJ, these are the albums I reach for first.
-----------------------------

3. Yield - Consistently strong album. This is the "happy" sounding PJ that I can (and still do) get into (unlike Backspacer).

4. Vs. - Raw, blistering energy, powerful. A classic in its own right. I still love listening to Vs. all these years later.

These two can't quite compete with the very best of PJ, but they are wonderful nonetheless. So far I'd be giving each album 5/5 stars.
-----------------------------

5. No Code - This one is difficult to place for me, and this is as high as I can reasonably place it. There is a lot to love about No Code, and there are many very good songs, but this was the first PJ album that also gave me songs that I just plain didn't care about.

6. Ten - I've placed this as high as number one in years long past. And in reality, it has as many top shelf songs as any PJ album (probably more). But it is 25 years old now, and I might listen to the album once a year. It is the reason PJ is PJ, and it is the reason this band has been my favorite band since I was 11 years old. But it has nothing left for me to discover, and my desire to regularly listen to Ten went away ten years ago.

These two are the "difficult to rank" albums for me. Ultimately, they fall in the middle of the pack, but they are pretty interchangeable in which place. No Code gets the edge simply because I'm more apt to listen to it these days.
------------------------------

7. Riot Act - There is a lot of material here. Much of it is very good, but I find very little on Riot Act to reach the heights of the albums that came before it. I also just think it's a bit too long. And the bottom end tracks on this album are some of my least favorite in the PJ catalog.

8. Pearl Jam - Terrible production, some decent songs, some horseshit songs (I'm looking at you, WWS). I really think this could have been a much stronger album with the inclusion of Cold Confession and Let it Ride, and some reasonably good production. It's just not that fun to listen to in its current state, which is a shame.

These two albums both show a great potential that simply wasn't reached. I'd love to hear a remastered and "complete" version of S/T and I just wish RA was a more focused and shorter version of itself.
-------------------------------

9. Lightning Bolt - I only like about 4 or 5 songs on LB, and the rest is pretty crappy. And worst of all, I find LB to be aging terribly for me. When this first came out, I was hopeful of getting an album that would at least be strong enough to be mid tier PJ, but this just isn't it.
-------------------------------

10. Backspacer - Fuck this shit.

[coptheriotact]

1. Riot act

I've always loved the variety on this album and I feel the album has 2 halves with different feels. matts playing has a the best balance between him playing creatively and fitting with pj. This album has the best production values as well. songs like "help help" and "ghost" only get better over time. In my top 10 albums Of all time.

2. No code
As pearl jam albums get worse and worse, I'm really starting to appreciate the jack irons period more and more. The feeling of them trying to get away from the spotlight comes though so clearly in sound, lyrics and vibe of this album, which gives this album so much purpose

3. Yield
I could easily interchange this album with the 2 below but the production on this wins out . It's my most played Vinyl from pj because of the great sound they got, it's loose with raw energy.

4. Vitalogy
Very solid collection of songs and a very interesting point in the bands career, they have made this album so intriguing and the frustration they were feeling at the time comes though in the music.

5 vs
If the albums above it didn't have so much character and purpose this one would be higher

6. Binaural
I used to have this one higher, almost near number one but listening to it recently I feel the album doesn't flow very well and although I appreciate the production experimentation, some of the songs don't sound right. (Eg. As stated in above posts - insignificance sounds clunky and muddled )I haven't heard binaural though headphones in a long time so maybe that's the issue . Maybe if tchad Blake had finished mixing it and the tracklisting had some of the bsides included it would not feel like somewhat of a missed opportunity. I still love this album though

7 Ten
A great album, although probably not the reason why People are still posting on this forum in 2016


8 Avocado
I hate listening to this album, it has no character and horrible compression, I feel like they had two failed sessions and combined them together to make an average album and applied extra compression to make it cohesive. Also eds over correcting his "tired riot act vocals" is taxing over a whole album

9 backspacer
If this album was a quick detour and they followed it up with something better in 2011. I could forgive this album and enjoy it for what it is, unfortunatly, this and the inferior lightning bolt make up a whole decade of the bands existence .

10 Lightning bolt
A logical extension of backspacer, how could that be what anyone wanted after 4 years?

After hearing so many bootlegs and live performances of the songs over the years , and pearl jam having consistent songwriting, I can, to a degree, enjoy all the songs of the first 7 albums somewhat equally, so listening to the albums in retrospect it's hard not to judge the albums on their production values alone as that is the main thing that separates the albums for me.

[chewm]

Yield





Binaural

everything else

[B]

I've been listening to albums getting ready for the Celebration podcast. Y'know, whenever I listen to an album, it goes up in my opinion. Except Riot Act, ... I like Riot Act less and less whenever I do these "I'm going to listen to the albums" things. It's so long and plodding and boring.

I think if I hadn't been so anti-Bush and that album hadn't been so timely and topical, I might have dropped out of Pearl Jam around the release of that album.

Vs.
Vitalogy
No Code
Yield
Ten
Backspacer
Lightning Bolt
Binaural
Pearl Jam


Riot Act

[LoathedVermin72]

good lord

[VinylGuy]

These days im listening to the studio albums a lot, specially because of the podcast too...but also, because of the whole rnr hof....

Vs
No Code
Ten
Binaural
Vitalogy
Yield
Backspacer
Riot Act
Lightning Bolt
ST

[rick malone]

Yeah not a big fan of Riot Act and shockingly am pretty whatevs about Ten

Vs.
Vitalogy
No Code

Yield

Ten

Albums 6 to 10 in order