Red Mosquito

The music during the verses is SO COOL. Like that could've gone a million different and more interesting places. But as soon as the pre-chorus comes in, it all goes to shit. And it becomes such a slog, too.

Third second chance. Shut up.

theplatypus wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Some weird vocal effect going on during the "I studied your face" line.

I think that's just 2013 Eddie trying to sing falsetto.

It's double tracked, though, right?

Probably. Or triple, or quadruple. It's Brendan O'Brien.

How can anyone say this is a good vocal performance? Look how much he's struggling. And this is a studio take.

Cool musical moment during the "solo".

"Time we best begin, here at the ending" is a nice moment. I will concede that. But other than that, I think this is a real low point in PJ's recording career.

"Pendulum" now. Weird how much hiss there is during the opening of this song.

I thought the lyrics were "to enthrall the pendulum throws".

I know this is just 'cause I listened to a lot of The Cure growing up, but the song this reminds me most of is "Siamese Twins" from Pornography. Except that song is a lot better.

theplatypus wrote:I thought the lyrics were "to enthrall the pendulum throws".

HEEZY LEFT ME A LONG TIME AGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This song is very dark and moody.

much dark. such moody. wow.

As an aside, can one 'throw' a pendulum? Much less throw it to and fro.

There's really not a whole lot to it. I mean, Jeff's circular bass line is kind of nice. People comparing it to "Sleight of Hand" or "Of the Girl" are off their rocker.

Like Jeff's solo albums, that song came and went with zero impact.

"Swallowed Whole". I like this song a lot, and I kinda get why people compare it to Into the Wild-- I mean, it has an acoustic guitar base, and it's very arpeggi-y, and it's about nature and the world and shit, but... to me, this is a better song than just about anything on that album, if only for the fact that it feels like a fully realized song, not just a vignette subservient to a film scene.

The bridge is really good. It moves very nicely. I also like the movement of the guitar solo atop the stopstutter drum line. It has some swing to it.

In fact, that's what I like the most about this song, especially towards the end, how the drums give it this kind of off-kilter feel, like Matt is trying to keep the song grounded. And yeah, this is very much like REM in that regard.

Good song. Make more like these, Pearl Jam.

On to some terrible crap now.

When Eddie sings "the pain, the pain" during LTRP it almost sounds like he's singing "THE PEEN, THE PEEN", and that would improve the song drastically for me.