Red Mosquito

blame it all on chemical intercourse

I think Nirvana had quite a few songs with sexual content, if nothing overtly sexy. Soundgarden's handling of the subject was pretty farcical -- songs like "Big Dumb Sex" and a few over-the-top covers like "Fopp" and "Touch Me." I can't think of any AIC songs that address sexuality in any way.

Grunge music was basically a paean to romantic inactivity. It's no wonder I identified with it so closely as a teen.

I'm amazed anyone had sex between '91 and '96.

I imagine all the flannel and Doc Martens got in the way.

And wallet chains, though depending on your tastes...

Wait, Down in a Hole isn't about sex?

Man in the Box is

Am I Inside

Shame In You

Rooster

Them Bones
Grind

I take it back, Alice in Chains is basically porn.

I don't even want to know what Angry Chair is about now.

while she walks slowly....

Seriously, No Code hands down!

The sweetness of the acoustic in Off He Goes...
The crunch of the electric guitars in Hail, Hail...
The boom of Jeff's bass in Sometimes...
The ending of Habit...
The melody/harmonies in Who You Are...
And Present Tense...

PRESENT TENSE PEOPLE!!!!

I am a present tense person.

Toss up between No Code and Yield but I vote Yield if only for the bridge on Faithfull. It also helps that they were playing so god damn well at this point (see: Single Video Theory).

I'm struggling (like everyone else) to comprehend how BO'B produced their heights and also their nadir in production with Lightning Bolt. I am left with the idea that we need to start giving Pearl Jam much more credit for their sound. In turn, you'd have to give them more blame for recent output.

So now I don't know who to blame again.

Blame both. Brendan's been there for both extremes of their career as you point out, so some credit has to be given to the band for churning out weaker compositions, sure. At the same time, though, Brendan has also taken a larger role in shaping the direction of the band's work by suggesting that they focus on completing certain song ideas while leaving others on the floor, as well as directing and contributing to the arrangements.

Some of it probably comes from everybody being older, with older ears that have frequency loss.

Some of it probably comes down to the post-Riot Act push for relevancy. They're clearly favoring having an impactful and immediate cheap (or car) speaker 'first listen' over having a rich, engaging record that reveals more of itself over time and begs for headphones.

Some of it may just be down to whoever is mastering. Backspacer has a decent production to it...nice enough separation where it's needed without sacrificing the unique color or muscle of each instrument, and some truly syrupy tones. I don't believe for a moment that LB ever had that, but maybe the mastering on this one highlighted some weaknesses.

Some of it is down to chosen tone. Does the bass sound good through a lot of this record? Fuck yeah. Because the bass tone isn't absolute trash like the guitars are in a lot of tracks.

Some of it probably results from the "put Ed front and center, and pull everything else back" logic, which has become a truly tragic thing for a producer to do. As Ed's voice ages from hovering like big sky to hanging desperately, like some jackoff archeologist who doesn't even know that in Latin Jehovah begins with a goddamn 'i,' the frequencies that need to be dedicated to making him sound good have changed. Pulling those frequencies from, say, an acoustic guitar to make the singer sound less like shit will definitely have an affect.

Some of it is probably Springsteen's fault. Bruce has very intense opinions about the sound of his records, which are usually summarized as "terrible" thanks to what I have to believe is the result of very early career hearing damage. You can hear how working with him changed Brendan by listening to The Rising, where Brendan had almost total control of the sound, and Magic, where Bruce was heavily involved. And, like Pearl Jam, Brendan seems to totally love Bruce and be incapable of differentiating his worst tendencies from his best.

Some of it just comes down to, when you have a band who are willful fucking idiots (or at least a bossy frontman who is) about the simplest aspects of the process by which their music is captured, then of course there's an increased risk of dumb dumb choices that could be detrimental to the final product.