Red Mosquito

oh i got that from the thats a you issue.

Sorry.

"You" because you were said "when a men calls himself a feminist, its weird."

yeah i dont get it

Anyway this is an ed thread, i dont want to get into a fight.

I don't want to speak for or at others. You made a statement. I addressed your statement. That's all.

yes, please move on

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

No keep going

I wont engage in a fight with Joe.

I do agree that "The Haves" is perhaves the single worst song EV has ever been involved with

yeah its awful.

Future Days is number two now.

Imagine what Brendan O’Brien could do to the Haves if he got a hold of it.

I prefer The Haves musically more than River Cross. Lyrics are indeed lame, but so is Quick Escape.

"River Cross" is merely dull, "The Haves" is an affront to human decency

The first two Pearl Jam records are, by and large, exercises in militant empathy. Observe a wrong and vanish inside it. Become the spark. Turn on the amps. Whatever happens next, happens.

But at LEAST as far back as Binaural, I just don't think he had that capacity in his songwriting anymore. He kept trying...especially on ST...but what used to be an almost totally stripped emotional wire now had protective layers. So the approach changed. Continue to observe the wrong. Continue to speak to the wrong. But keep yourself. You are yours. You have to be.

I'm saying that it shifted with time into more of a controlled thing. An intellectual exercise. A craft.

That militant empathy still informs a lot of his work (you can see it in Into the Wild, and on songs like Sleight of Hand, Army Reserve...not as much of Backspacer/LB, I guess), just as it pervades so very, very much of what he does and aspires to. It still exists as a spark to create. But the ability to let himself live inside that spark and whatever happens, happens....is gone.

Gigaton broke free of this problem in part because the wrong that was weighing on his mind was every bit as personal as it was universal. He could speak to it on a communal level simply by speaking directly to it on his own. That's a good dynamic for him, and he should look to it more often. I also think that's part of what a song like The End has going for it, as does the tail end of Brother the Cloud.

I don't hate The Haves, personally, but it is one of those rare times (and maybe I feel this way about something like My Father's Son, as well) where, when I look for the empathy that should be the true heart of the song...it feels false. Grotesque, in a way. Like a cynically applied mimic of something very old, now merely dubbed performatively useful. Gene Simmons putting on makeup before a show.

It’s an absolutely horrid song but there are a few others which are on par with it. Just to name a few:

No More
Out of Sand
Just Breathe
Future Days

I actually really enjoy the outro to Brother the Cloud. It’s classic Binaural/RA Eddie. The rest is meh.

If he is going to release a solo album then his backing band should be C-Average. Those shows are terrific to watch and listen to. Raw and inspired.

Birds in Hell wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

basically_infirmed wrote:I feel like the time for him to do this was 20 years ago

It's an interesting thought. I'd wager that if he put out an album of the exact same compositions, but with the production and singing sensibilities of 2000 Ed, it would still suck...

Ed was a better, more interesting songwriter in 2000 than he is now, though.

isn't this basically what uke songs is? he wrote a bunch of that around 2000.

McParadigm wrote:The first two Pearl Jam records are, by and large, exercises in militant empathy. Observe a wrong and vanish inside it. Become the spark. Turn on the amps. Whatever happens next, happens.

But at LEAST as far back as Binaural, I just don't think he had that capacity in his songwriting anymore. He kept trying...especially on ST...but what used to be an almost totally stripped emotional wire now had protective layers. So the approach changed. Continue to observe the wrong. Continue to speak to the wrong. But keep yourself. You are yours. You have to be.

I'm saying that it shifted with time into more of a controlled thing. An intellectual exercise. A craft.

That militant empathy still informs a lot of his work (you can see it in Into the Wild, and on songs like Sleight of Hand, Army Reserve...not as much of Backspacer/LB, I guess), just as it pervades so very, very much of what he does and aspires to. It still exists as a spark to create. But the ability to let himself live inside that spark and whatever happens, happens....is gone.

Gigaton broke free of this problem in part because the wrong that was weighing on his mind was every bit as personal as it was universal. He could speak to it on a communal level simply by speaking directly to it on his own. That's a good dynamic for him, and he should look to it more often. I also think that's part of what a song like The End has going for it, as does the tail end of Brother the Cloud.

I don't hate The Haves, personally, but it is one of those rare times (and maybe I feel this way about something like My Father's Son, as well) where, when I look for the empathy that should be the true heart of the song...it feels false. Grotesque, in a way. Like a cynically applied mimic of something very old, now merely dubbed performatively useful. Gene Simmons putting on makeup before a show.

enjoyed

Maybe this is Ed’s landing on water or trans

I think Tom waits is the only artist in my world that has an absolutely Impeccable record. Everyone else starts out genius. Changes lives. Then loses it and puts out landing on water. Has a few late career master pieces. Then a bunch of duds. But they stick around long enough If they’re lucky.

Fans bitch and moan and pick it all apart along the way. We tie our lives to them.

Then they die and we weep and realize the whole trip was worth it.

I thought he pulled back on doing his horrible over-enunciating thing, but it sounds worse than ever here.