Red Mosquito

13. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam
12. One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This – The New York Dolls
11. Continuum – John Mayer
10. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers And Bastards – Tom Waits
09. Blood Mountain – Mastodon
08. Boys And Girls In America – The Hold Steady
07. Hell Hath No Fury – Clipse
06. The Greatest – Cat Power
05. Fishscale – Ghostface Killah
04. Return To Cookie Mountain – TV On The Radio
03. Rather Ripped – Sonic Youth
02. Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers
01. Modern Times – Bob Dylan

So number 13... cheers. I knew it was at least close to top 10.

Tom Waits should never be below the RHCP in anything. Ever.

verb_to_trust wrote:13. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam
12. One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This – The New York Dolls
11. Continuum – John Mayer
10. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers And Bastards – Tom Waits
09. Blood Mountain – Mastodon
08. Boys And Girls In America – The Hold Steady
07. Hell Hath No Fury – Clipse
06. The Greatest – Cat Power
05. Fishscale – Ghostface Killah
04. Return To Cookie Mountain – TV On The Radio
03. Rather Ripped – Sonic Youth
02. Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers
01. Modern Times – Bob Dylan

Fishcale shouldve been number 1...

verb_to_trust wrote:Tom Waits should never be below the RHCP in anything. Ever.

That was the only real problem I had with that list...

verb_to_trust wrote:Tom Waits should never be below the RHCP in anything. Ever.

especially not below that shitty album.

injuddstree wrote:

digster wrote:

ABNorman wrote:I really wish we still had archives of the old board so we could see reactions to Self-Titled and Backspacer (rather than just peoples' memories).

I do remember pretty clearly that Backspacer and S/T had positive reactions overall, the latter very much in particular. That kind of got rave reviews in the immediacy after it's release. Backspacer's response was a bit more measured when it came to the album; The Fixer, on the other hand, I remember having a very mixed reaction (with it getting heated at points).

Self Titled was Top 10 albums of 2006 in Rolling Stone and received 4 or 5 star ratings in various publications.

Yeah it got good reviews. I don't really remember a Pearl Jam album ever getting uniformly poor reviews. That being said, I can't remember one ever getting rave reviews either. It was also the first time that PJ had really done a big push for one of their albums, and I think the time away made it seem like that much of a bigger deal.

Of all 6 songs we've heard, Getaway is the one I keep playing. The only issue I had was the "we all be thinking with our different brains" line. It just didn't fit into what I feel is a well written song. It really seemed like a horrible lyric. The more I listen though, the more I think it is purposely a bad lyric. The line right before it is "and if you want to have to pray, it's alright". I think the simpleness of the "different brains" lyric is a direct shot at prayer and religion.

Listening to these for a second time, the only one that sounds better today than it did yesterday is "Swallowed Whole." I think the REM parallels in that song are a lot more than superficial--the way the melody makes pit-stops in awkward, slightly unexpected places; the repeated words leading into that refrain (?); the way it manages to fit a deceptively good deal of melodic variety into a very narrow tonal register. It's one of the more harmonically acute Pearl Jam songs in recent years--there are some effective contrasts of major and minor chords, a few well-placed suspensions during the "chorus" ("Whispered songs...") and the "bridge" ("With no quiet..."). I'm prepared to say I dig this one--it would have fit right in on "Collapse Into Now."

"Getaway" feels like one of those songs that catches you pleasantly off-guard by how hummable it is but then gets on your nerves once you actually find yourself humming it. Eddie can keep these lyrics too--he's written too many thoughtful, considerate reflections on faith only to settle at age 50 for an ill-crafted rant that essentially amounts to "you're not the boss of me." The song is so busy reiterating its entitlement to its own thoughts that it forgets to actually come up with any (except for the part about the lizards, which I predict will inspire at least one GIF that gets run aground as badly as the fire pole one), which makes the song feel more petulant than defiant. Just really lousy, amateurish writing.

I'm not sure which angle I'm supposed to be seeing "Let the Records Play" from--I can't tell if it's supposed to be a serious character sketch, a deliberately jokey song about music, another "viva la vinyl" type thing, just an excuse for Mike to play some blooze, some combination of the above, or what. In the end the ambiguity doesn't do the song any favors--the composition isn't strong enough to sustain interest in an investigation. To my ears this is a simple example of the blind leading the blind--the guys who taught Pearl Jam the blues are the same guys that many people agree butchered the blues, so it's no surprise that the best they're capable of producing is an nth generation replica. Don't blame them; blame Tyler/Perry (the songwriting team, not the guy that makes the Madea movies). I do like the lyric, "I been hurt and I still recall the flaws on her face."

"Lightning Bolt" I haven't made up my mind on yet. It's just sorta there. Which is pretty much exactly how I still feel about "Unthought Known," four years on.

buckeye24 wrote:The only issue I had was the "we all be thinking with our different brains"

Is it because it sounds like bad Ebonics, and apart from his novelty recording of "Someday at Christmas" and his reference to Johnny 'Guitar' Watson as a sort of comic strip character, we have no reason to believe that Eddie Vedder has ever heard a single song by a black person, ever?

Kevin Davis wrote:

buckeye24 wrote:The only issue I had was the "we all be thinking with our different brains"

Is it because it sounds like bad Ebonics, and apart from his novelty recording of "Someday at Christmas" and his reference to Johnny 'Guitar' Watson as a sort of comic strip character, we have no reason to believe that Eddie Vedder has ever heard a single song by a black person, ever?

I was thinking of religion, not ebonics. I would still have an equal challenge of finding a more kindergarten lyric he's written if he had instead said, "we are all thinking with our different brains". I think the line is purposely placed next to the "prayer" line, a jab to religion. I don't think Eddie was thinking specifically about black people anymore than Mike thinks about toilet paper.

Everyone has missed the different brains joke.

How do we know god is a woman?
Gave man two brains but only enough blood to run one at a time.

That's what I took him to be saying.

dimejinky99 wrote:Everyone has missed the different brains joke.

How do we know god is a woman?
Gave man two brains but only enough blood to run one at a time.

That's what I took him to be saying.

keep it up and they'll be leavin' this town in a matter of days

Kevin Davis wrote:

buckeye24 wrote:The only issue I had was the "we all be thinking with our different brains"

Is it because it sounds like bad Ebonics, and apart from his novelty recording of "Someday at Christmas" and his reference to Johnny 'Guitar' Watson as a sort of comic strip character, we have no reason to believe that Eddie Vedder has ever heard a single song by a black person, ever?

Ben, the two of us need look no mooooore.

http://www.alternativenation.net/?p=34032

No idea if this is real.

Release_Me wrote:http://www.alternativenation.net/?p=34032

No idea if this is real.

I don't see why it wouldn't be; it makes sense for Sony to strike while the iron's hot. I'll be mildly curious to see the tracklisting.

So it will be RVM plus brother, WWS, just breathe, and fixer? Unless they stick some stuff on there we don't know that seems pretty unessential.

It would be hilarious if of the earth is there though

The word essential blows any hope of it being a lost dogs two, out of the water.
That's a shame. Sony would probably own the rights to everything up to a certain date.

stip wrote:So it will be RVM plus brother, WWS, just breathe, and fixer?

sony don't have the rights to just breathe and fixer, though. i suppose pearl jam could sign it over for this one. i'd like to see this done right, there's a lot of pretty cool essentials out there.

Kevin Davis wrote:Listening to these for a second time, the only one that sounds better today than it did yesterday is "Swallowed Whole." I think the REM parallels in that song are a lot more than superficial--the way the melody makes pit-stops in awkward, slightly unexpected places; the repeated words leading into that refrain (?); the way it manages to fit a deceptively good deal of melodic variety into a very narrow tonal register. It's one of the more harmonically acute Pearl Jam songs in recent years--there are some effective contrasts of major and minor chords, a few well-placed suspensions during the "chorus" ("Whispered songs...") and the "bridge" ("With no quiet..."). I'm prepared to say I dig this one--it would have fit right in on "Collapse Into Now."

"Getaway" feels like one of those songs that catches you pleasantly off-guard by how hummable it is but then gets on your nerves once you actually find yourself humming it. Eddie can keep these lyrics too--he's written too many thoughtful, considerate reflections on faith only to settle at age 50 for an ill-crafted rant that essentially amounts to "you're not the boss of me." The song is so busy reiterating its entitlement to its own thoughts that it forgets to actually come up with any (except for the part about the lizards, which I predict will inspire at least one GIF that gets run aground as badly as the fire pole one), which makes the song feel more petulant than defiant. Just really lousy, amateurish writing.

I'm not sure which angle I'm supposed to be seeing "Let the Records Play" from--I can't tell if it's supposed to be a serious character sketch, a deliberately jokey song about music, another "viva la vinyl" type thing, just an excuse for Mike to play some blooze, some combination of the above, or what. In the end the ambiguity doesn't do the song any favors--the composition isn't strong enough to sustain interest in an investigation. To my ears this is a simple example of the blind leading the blind--the guys who taught Pearl Jam the blues are the same guys that many people agree butchered the blues, so it's no surprise that the best they're capable of producing is an nth generation replica. Don't blame them; blame Tyler/Perry (the songwriting team, not the guy that makes the Madea movies). I do like the lyric, "I been hurt and I still recall the flaws on her face."

"Lightning Bolt" I haven't made up my mind on yet. It's just sorta there. Which is pretty much exactly how I still feel about "Unthought Known," four years on.

Wait till you have the liner notes; I can't help thinking that the 'Getaway' lyrics are cleverer than you give them credit for here. In 'Mind Your Manners', the way the phrase is used is a deliberate reapropriation and ironisation of the fundamentalist "focus on the family" mindset and language. This is the same, in my opinion; the language is horribly colloquial, but witty and with some interesting familial all-American puns (like the focus on "Simon Says", the children's party game, as a metaphor for religious instruction, for example). Generally, I think "you're not the boss of me now" is slightly less than what he's doing, since he's being more all-encompassing than that; the people he's addressing are some of his audience now, and this song is being touted for football and baseball games (I'm guessing) so there's going to be people rocking out to it who otherwise wouldn't listen to these anti-fundie lyrics. Anyway, that's just my take. It's not poetry, granted, but it's a cut above your standard rock music, as PJ always were. This one may not be for us, in style and marketability, but the lyrics are pretty wry and so undercut its catchiness.