Red Mosquito

God damn I love this song. I could see it ending up as my favorite from Gigaton when everything shakes out. The lilting, bouncy melody is an instant charmer, and Ed's vocals are perfectly done. I really love that little bridge bit with the toy saxophone or whatever it is. It's a great textural part that really reinforces the whole song. Light and airy while still being warm and comforting.

It boggles my mind to see the love for this song especially when people don't care much for Backspacer. I mean I'm glad people like it though. To me it sounds like a Backspacer outtake and I really like Backspacer too. If this were removed from the album and Comes Then Goes followed Take the Long Way the album would have a much better flow.

it has a lot more in common with "Present Tense", "Low Light" and "Wishlist" than Backspacer

Ms Harmless wrote:it has a lot more in common with "Present Tense", "Low Light" and "Wishlist" than Backspacer

I'm going to disagree on that. Maybe a tiny bit of Wishlist vibes but this reminds me more of a Speed of Sound part 2. Not a big fan of the lyrics either. I remember reading the title in the tracklist for the first time having a feeling this was going to a Spin the Black Circle or Mind Your Manners type track lol.

Gigalogy84 wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:it has a lot more in common with "Present Tense", "Low Light" and "Wishlist" than Backspacer

I'm going to disagree on that. Maybe a tiny bit of Wishlist vibes but this reminds me more of a Speed of Sound part 2. Not a big fan of the lyrics either. I remember reading the title in the tracklist for the first time having a feeling this was going to a Spin the Black Circle or Mind Your Manners type track lol.

it's a little like Speed of Sound in terms of the groove, but what the band made of it is so much more delicate and tasteful; maybe part of your distaste is disappointment at having expected something else? yeah, when I first saw the title I thought "oh God here we go, yet another Supersonic"; and then I read it was a quirky number by Stone and pictured something very like this, and the title an amusing red herring

Ms Harmless wrote:

Gigalogy84 wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:it has a lot more in common with "Present Tense", "Low Light" and "Wishlist" than Backspacer

I'm going to disagree on that. Maybe a tiny bit of Wishlist vibes but this reminds me more of a Speed of Sound part 2. Not a big fan of the lyrics either. I remember reading the title in the tracklist for the first time having a feeling this was going to a Spin the Black Circle or Mind Your Manners type track lol.

it's a little like Speed of Sound in terms of the groove, but what the band made of it is so much more delicate and tasteful; maybe part of your distaste is disappointment at having expected something else? yeah, when I first saw the title I thought "oh God here we go, yet another Supersonic"; and then I read it was a quirky number by Stone and pictured something very like this, and the title an amusing red herring

Well a lot of the disappointment for this song is that it just sounds so out of place on Gigaton (along with Retrograde). This song isn't terrible but I do think it is one of the weakest tracks.

Ms Harmless wrote:Matt is doing something so cool during the sax part (and a few times elsewhere): a bass drum on the "2" of the second bar (I think it's in 3/4 if I remember my time signatures); adds a real funk to the summery lilt

Pretty sure it's in 12/8. 1-2-3s counting to 4 on the 1's. bom bom bom bom

Whatever. The song is fucking cool as hell.

How does the band that wrote Future Days, Sirens and Just Breathe also come up with this freakin gem?!

brandez wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:Matt is doing something so cool during the sax part (and a few times elsewhere): a bass drum on the "2" of the second bar (I think it's in 3/4 if I remember my time signatures); adds a real funk to the summery lilt

Pretty sure it's in 12/8. 1-2-3s counting to 4 on the 1's. bom bom bom bom

Whatever. The song is fucking cool as hell.

you're right! 12/8

bluestate wrote:How does the band that wrote Future Days, Sirens and Just Breathe also come up with this freakin gem?!

For real

evenslow wrote:

Fattie_Vedder wrote:

littlecomment wrote:It sounds like Ed is aping Stone's vocal style to the point that I wondering if it was actually him the first time I heard it.

I felt that too! I think stone’s vocals on this would sound great. It would have been nice to have him do backing.

i'm betting stone did a full demo of this and EV is doing a faithful(l) version of that.

Totally agreed.

Unrelated, I will probably always have a lasting, albeit superficial connection to this one as it was title that was sent to me in that little 10C email reveal.

Juvenal wrote:Oh this is really lovely

McParadigm wrote:

bluestate wrote:How does the band that wrote Future Days, Sirens and Just Breathe also come up with this freakin gem?!

For real

I like all three of those songs, but this is better, and I can't believe I think that.

spike wrote:

Juvenal wrote:Oh this is really lovely

Hey! I like my songs with charming music and creepy lyrics!

McParadigm wrote:

bluestate wrote:How does the band that wrote Future Days, Sirens and Just Breathe also come up with this freakin gem?!

For real

Eddie wrote "Future Days" and "Just Breathe," and Eddie and Mike wrote "Sirens." Stone wrote this. That's how.

Way more than anything to do with production, the natural variation that comes with having four capable songwriters with four unique individual voices (as well as one guy with no songwriting instincts at all, who occasionally turns in a great riff) is my favorite thing about my favorite PJ records. I could be mistaken but I think that the only band member who has had a solo songwriting credit on a Pearl Jam album since 2002 has been Mike (and in case my delineation wasn't clear, he's the "no songwriting instincts at all" guy) for "Inside Job." This feels like a telling statistic.

It's nice to see a resurgence of that more "solitary but collective" approach to songwriting on this record, and I wish it was even more prevalent than it is. The one thing that holds this album back for me is how Vedder-centric much of it still is, and how stale most of the default elements of his songwriting have become.

what did you think of Comes then Goes, KD?

This is a good song. It feels like if Aye Davanita was a complete song; almost a full song transition piece to the last few songs on the album.

stip wrote:what did you think of Comes then Goes, KD?

I really liked it! This is what I had to say about it in the individual song thread:

Kevin Davis wrote:I think this is the first acoustic-Eddie-folkie-type song that really feels like it has some musical meat to it -- there is a lot going on melodically, things that don't stick out as remarkable in the first verse but which feel increasingly sharp and clever as they repeat themselves (and vary slightly), and as you begin to anticipate where the lyrical payoffs are going to come. It may be the first of these kinds of songs that gives the impression that the composition came first and the aesthetic was chosen deliberately because it fit, not because it just happened to spill out when Eddie picked up his acoustic one day. There's a Richard Thompson-y vibe to it that I really, really like. I wish it was the closer.

His other songs, though ("Who Ever Said," "Superblood Wolfmoon," "Never Destination," and "River Cross" -- I think that's all of them?), are pretty "white noise"-y for me at this stage. I don't necessarily dislike any of them, but I'm not really responding to them in any kind of meaningful way either. That certainly could change -- I've only listened to each song a few times -- but it's consistent with how I've responded to his songwriting for a while now.

Just fucking great. What a lovely little tune. Stoney, you goofy, quirky bastard.