Red Mosquito

mattyv1908 wrote:
Pearl Jam needs to recognize its core audience. Rather than 12 variants (I can understand one for RSD to continue supporting brick and mortar record stores), how about producing an audiophile pressing, half speed mastered, 45 rpm, master cut with care and pressed by either MOFI or QRP and sell it for $150. Offer it with the Blu-ray Dolby Atmos mix packaged together and they could probably get a guy like me (and others) to spend $200. Of course that would mean ensuring the signal recordings weren’t redlining the limiters and the mix wasn’t too dynamically smushed. They’ve done it in the past, as recently as their last album.

You could still have your mass production vinyl for the $35-45 price tag that less particular music listeners who still want the physical format to either collect or occasionally spin.

I guess I just feel that Pearl Jam is one of those bands who’ve earned their place as one of the top rock bands in history. Their fan base is mostly comprised of Gen X and early millennials at their peak earning periods of their lives. They can shell out $200-600 for concert tickets to see the band. They would appreciate the audiophile treatment of the bands music.

Would certainly be ideal...You'd get no strong debate from me.

The only pushback I'd offer on your scenario is something which you've already touched on; speaking strictly from a sonic perspective, Pearl Jam haven't really made an album that warrants such elaborate treatment. 45 rpm, 180g, half-speed mastered vinyl would be entirely wasted on this record. Something akin to a new Steven Wilson album? Without question. Dark Matter? You're really just separating Gen-Xers from their money for the sake of it.

I absolutely adore this album, but, they would have had to put the work in from the onset to really make that a worthwhile endeavor.

Which songs does Ed play guitar on? Who’s credited playing music besides the band?

Just want to endorse every flavor of "I'm glad this corner of the internet exists" sentiment from the past few days. I'm having the same feels right this moment but figured I'd keep it short.

I love seeing how the 5 star ratings keep going up...at 80 now

What happened to Boom Gasper?

They’re probably psyched to play these songs in front of people live. Can’t wait to see clips on YouTube.

I'm really curious to see what they play on Stern.

Monkey_Driven wrote:I'm really curious to see what they play on Stern.

Yeah me too. I’m sure a classic, maybe Betterman or Alive. Then I guess it’s Dark Matter, Wreckage and Waiting For Stevie.

I hope we get some tv shows next.

They should play the worst song off each of the last three albums followed by Waiting For Stevie. Really return to form it

Sgt. Crackpot wrote:Great album. I'm really enjoying it as a whole. A logical extension of Gigaton in places, and pushing the boundaries in other areas.

It's funny, years ago I feared these guys splitting up and PJ being no more. Yet here we are, after 30 odd years and they're releasing music of this calibre. Life has been fucked in recent years, but there are still pleasant surprises like this that make the grind still worthwhile.

Sarge makes an appearance!!

Which only leaves one question...
Where the fuck is Jorge?

Matters wrote:Which songs does Ed play guitar on? Who’s credited playing music besides the band?

It seems like Ed doesn't play a ton of guitar on this album. From what I gathered from interviews, he focused mostly on lyrics but he most likely plays on Wreckage, Stevie, Something Special, Got to Give and Setting Sun...

Also...
Watt: Guitar, Piano, Keyboards

Klinghoffer: Piano, Keyboards, Guitar

oneway23 wrote:

mattyv1908 wrote:
Pearl Jam needs to recognize its core audience. Rather than 12 variants (I can understand one for RSD to continue supporting brick and mortar record stores), how about producing an audiophile pressing, half speed mastered, 45 rpm, master cut with care and pressed by either MOFI or QRP and sell it for $150. Offer it with the Blu-ray Dolby Atmos mix packaged together and they could probably get a guy like me (and others) to spend $200. Of course that would mean ensuring the signal recordings weren’t redlining the limiters and the mix wasn’t too dynamically smushed. They’ve done it in the past, as recently as their last album.

You could still have your mass production vinyl for the $35-45 price tag that less particular music listeners who still want the physical format to either collect or occasionally spin.

I guess I just feel that Pearl Jam is one of those bands who’ve earned their place as one of the top rock bands in history. Their fan base is mostly comprised of Gen X and early millennials at their peak earning periods of their lives. They can shell out $200-600 for concert tickets to see the band. They would appreciate the audiophile treatment of the bands music.

Would certainly be ideal...You'd get no strong debate from me.

The only pushback I'd offer on your scenario is something which you've already touched on; speaking strictly from a sonic perspective, Pearl Jam haven't really made an album that warrants such elaborate treatment. 45 rpm, 180g, half-speed mastered vinyl would be entirely wasted on this record. Something akin to a new Steven Wilson album? Without question. Dark Matter? You're really just separating Gen-Xers from their money for the sake of it.

I absolutely adore this album, but, they would have had to put the work in from the onset to really make that a worthwhile endeavor.

I agree, and my prior comments made reference of that. But one album cycle ago it could have been possible with Gigaton. That album was prime for an audiophile release with an Atmos Blu-ray for a premium. The sound quality was exquisite. If they could do it then, they can do it now.

Hopefully if they do this again with Watt, who I think deserves near unanimous praise for the songs and enthusiasm he got out of the band, they have enough discernment to go with a mixer and engineer like Josh Evans who has been a part of the band’s orbit for at least a decade and did a phenomenal job “producing” Gigaton in the purely aesthetic and quantifiable aspect. No matter one’s opinion on the actual strength of the songs, I think it’s universally accepted that the album sounds fantastic from an ear pleasing standpoint.

McParadigm wrote:Album is OP; it insta-healed the whole party.

I just got out of a DnD sesh. Love it!

Gigaton is prob better

i got bugs wrote:Gigaton is prob better

Yeah, I think so too.

Hot Take: Who Ever Said is a better opener than Scared of Fear

ElonDusk wrote:Hot Take: Who Ever Said is a better opener than Scared of Fear

Hotter take..

SoF is the better opener but after that nope

I just replaced my failing vintage turntable with a new one. Can’t wait to replace the stock cart with my benz micro glider SL.

ElonDusk wrote:Hot Take: Who Ever Said is a better opener than Scared of Fear

I don’t think that is a hot take at all. Who Ever Said is quintessential Eddie Vedder post No Code writing to his strengths.

A hot take would be saying Superblood Wolfmoon is a better track 2 than React Respond. I’d make the case for it. In fact I’d make the case that Who Ever Said, Superblood Wolfmoon, Dance of the Clairvoyants, Quick Escape, Alright run 1-5 are each superior to Scared of Fear, React Respond, Wreckage, Dark Matter, Won’t Tell. It’s only from Upper Hand on to the finish of Dark Matter where it separates itself from Gigaton. Now the 1-5 run of Dark Matter is excellent in my opinion, and the quality may be very slight, but I think the first 5 of Gigaton are each stronger than the first 5 of Dark Matter.

I love this record for what it’s worth. I just think some of the opinions being thrown about are recency bias. And for those saying ranking this on par with Yield and better than anything since, I implore you to re-listen to:

Brain of J
Faithfull
No Way
Given to Fly
Wishlist

Then listen to

Light Years
Nothing as it Seems
Thin Air
Insignificance
Of the Girl
Grievance

Dark Matter is a great run of songs to be sure, but those two runs I mentioned off Yield and Binaural are what define the greatness of this band. If they decided to play either run in order at a tour stop this year we’d be gushing all over ourselves for the specialness of that night’s set.