Red Mosquito

cutuphalfdead wrote:

Anders wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:Gone isn't about fighting, it's about running away.

There's running away, and then there's going out to make a life (fighting). Two different things.

It's the same thing. You'll see, and then you'll be sorry.

Anders wrote:I think that if you leave a bad situation behind, and you do not focus on how you will succeed in the next one, how you will 'show them', then your chance of failure increases.

As someone who has lived through this multiple times and taken both attitudes, you are so unbelievably wrong it almost hurts. Unless you completely let go of any notion of "showing them" you will almost universally fail in your new endeavor, as it's just a sign that you're incapable of actually leaving your old one behind.

I'm willing to agree to disagree though, since you directed me towards who the girl in the tennis video was.

Revenge can be a great motivator, Lament.

Binaural's a good album. Really good.

I don't think we will agree on what generally is the best way forward in such a situation, but I respect that there is more than one solution, and that it's dependant on both the person and the situation. You make some good points, and I respect your opinion.

EJ wrote:Binaural's a good album. Really good.

Indeed. Had they added Sad and Fatal for Evacuation and Soon Forget, it would have been unforgettable.

Anders wrote:I don't think we will agree on what generally is the best way forward in such a situation, but I respect that there is more than one solution, and that it's dependant on both the person and the situation. You make some good points, and I respect your opinion, prick.

Fixed

cutuphalfdead wrote:Gone isn't about fighting, it's about running away.

See also: Yield

stip wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:Gone isn't about fighting, it's about running away.

See also: Yield

oh shi-

This album is:

Gone may be the worst song on a PJ record, at least prior to Backspacer, at least to me. There's nothing about it that makes me want to listen to it again.

I think this will always be my favorite Pearl Jam album; alongside Vitalogy, (which I'd currently rank 2nd) Binaural showed me how diverse PJ could be after Ten and Vs. melted my face off. Like many others, I found some of the record difficult at first. I love the opening trio now, but when I first go this album I was conflicted; I wanted "Gods' Dice" to be huge, as per its title, but it wasn't and "Evacuation" had an awesome bridge and a terrible chorus (which is still pretty true today, but I can stomach it now).

I've always loved "Light Years"; the lyrics, the sentiment, the music (am I wrong in thinking there's sort of a '50s style and vibe here?). It's often vied with "Sleigh of Hand" for the title of favorite, but the latter usually wins. That huge gulf of atmosphere that is hopeless yet still somehow appealing is tough to beat. So yeah, "SoH" is my fave from this album and possibly favorite PJ tune full stop.

Actually, outside of "Soon Forget," the second half of this album is just a beast. I've always twinned "Insignificance" and "Grievance." They're such powerful songs and I rank them near the top of PJ's best rockers. "Rival" is such a dirty, nasty tune that I couldn't appreciate when I was younger, but is such a great, dark beginning for the album's denouement. I want McP's eight minute "Of the Girl" to exist very badly. The version we have is perhaps the best studio recording of this band, it's incredibly detailed and masterfully mixed. A slow burn that could afford to burn even slower and still be great. And then there's "Parting Ways"; this is another one I'd like to be longer, but I'm not sure if I could take it if it was, it might be too devastating. We've seen on more recent albums why Pearl Jam doesn't use strings very often, but on "Parting Ways" they got it so right, it's painful.

I don't know that I've got as much to say about the remaining songs. I've never fully enjoyed "NAIS" as much as I should. Theoretically, it should kind of be the twin to "SoH" and thus hit as hard as that song does, but I've only experienced that a few times. "Thin Air" is pretty, but is probably the one song from this album that I've grown away from rather than closer to. I guess it's got a false sense of depth that's a little more difficult to get lost in nowadays.

So I guess that's that, though I didn't actually LAL.

On a side note, PryTo mentioned the "acoustic guitar" test a few times in his analysis, and I've just gotta air my distaste for that. It kinda works for Pearl Jam, this is true, but I don't like it as a metric for measuring the worth of music overall. There's too much great music out there that wouldn't pass the acoustic guitar test, because the arrangement is more essential than some idea of a song's skeleton.

digster wrote:Gone may be the worst song on a PJ record, at least prior to Backspacer, at least to me. There's nothing about it that makes me want to listen to it again.

Live is pretty almost cool, actually.

KurtLeon wrote:

digster wrote:Gone may be the worst song on a PJ record, at least prior to Backspacer, at least to me. There's nothing about it that makes me want to listen to it again.

Live is pretty almost cool, actually.

PJ need to stop translating live songs to albums, and start translating albums to live songs.

KurtLeon wrote:

digster wrote:Gone may be the worst song on a PJ record, at least prior to Backspacer, at least to me. There's nothing about it that makes me want to listen to it again.

Live is pretty almost cool, actually.

Wasn't a fan of it live, either; it's just overall very dull, to me at least.

bodysnatcher wrote:

KurtLeon wrote:

digster wrote:Gone may be the worst song on a PJ record, at least prior to Backspacer, at least to me. There's nothing about it that makes me want to listen to it again.

Live is pretty almost cool, actually.

PJ need to stop translating live songs to albums, and start translating albums to live songs.

What I hate is that for most bands, this is obvious. I saw an interview clip the other day where Matt said that he prefers making albums to playing live. Well, that much has been obvious for a long time but, anyway, he really should kick their asses about making their albums more interesting.

Brett wrote:I think this will always be my favorite Pearl Jam album; alongside Vitalogy, (which I'd currently rank 2nd) Binaural showed me how diverse PJ could be after Ten and Vs. melted my face off. Like many others, I found some of the record difficult at first. I love the opening trio now, but when I first go this album I was conflicted; I wanted "Gods' Dice" to be huge, as per its title, but it wasn't and "Evacuation" had an awesome bridge and a terrible chorus (which is still pretty true today, but I can stomach it now).

I've always loved "Light Years"; the lyrics, the sentiment, the music (am I wrong in thinking there's sort of a '50s style and vibe here?). It's often vied with "Sleigh of Hand" for the title of favorite, but the latter usually wins. That huge gulf of atmosphere that is hopeless yet still somehow appealing is tough to beat. So yeah, "SoH" is my fave from this album and possibly favorite PJ tune full stop.

Actually, outside of "Soon Forget," the second half of this album is just a beast. I've always twinned "Insignificance" and "Grievance." They're such powerful songs and I rank them near the top of PJ's best rockers. "Rival" is such a dirty, nasty tune that I couldn't appreciate when I was younger, but is such a great, dark beginning for the album's denouement. I want McP's eight minute "Of the Girl" to exist very badly. The version we have is perhaps the best studio recording of this band, it's incredibly detailed and masterfully mixed. A slow burn that could afford to burn even slower and still be great. And then there's "Parting Ways"; this is another one I'd like to be longer, but I'm not sure if I could take it if it was, it might be too devastating. We've seen on more recent albums why Pearl Jam doesn't use strings very often, but on "Parting Ways" they got it so right, it's painful.

I don't know that I've got as much to say about the remaining songs. I've never fully enjoyed "NAIS" as much as I should. Theoretically, it should kind of be the twin to "SoH" and thus hit as hard as that song does, but I've only experienced that a few times. "Thin Air" is pretty, but is probably the one song from this album that I've grown away from rather than closer to. I guess it's got a false sense of depth that's a little more difficult to get lost in nowadays.

So I guess that's that, though I didn't actually LAL.

On a side note, PryTo mentioned the "acoustic guitar" test a few times in his analysis, and I've just gotta air my distaste for that. It kinda works for Pearl Jam, this is true, but I don't like it as a metric for measuring the worth of music overall. There's too much great music out there that wouldn't pass the acoustic guitar test, because the arrangement is more essential than some idea of a song's skeleton.

Well said

I figure my opinions will be controversial so I'll post them anyways. not that anybody cares but I'll do it song by song as I listen because it's fun.

Breakerfall Okay, what's with the intros the last couple albums? I feel like all recent Pearl Jam albums start with a similar driving intro. Binaural, Backspacer, and Lightning Bolt all start with, to me, a very similar intro. Avocado is excluded and I love the intro into Life Wasted and how the drums come in right on the second measure unexpectedly. That's a topic for another time I guess.

I honestly think this is Pearl Jam's worst opening song they've ever done. The intro is cool and I won't really detract points for Backspacer and LB using a similar one because this was first. I actually really like the way it cuts out to just guitar for a bit. But as soon as Eddie comes in, I really just don't like this song at all. It's I think the only bad opening song they've ever done, with Gonna See My Friend the next worst, but not really bad.

I dunno, to me it's like there's just nothing to this song. I think it's the song in their catalog that I most pass over, because it just seems so...nothing to me. It's extremely generic and extremely boring. Besides that it's actually annoying and grating in my opinion.

In addition, this song has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REST OF THE ALBUM! Once, Go, Last Exit, Sometimes, Can't Keep, Life Wasted, and Gonna See My Friend especially all set the tone very well for the rest of the album. This one? It sets the tone for three songs, which the album is not going to follow. Its too bad because the tone this song sets up is "really generic rock album" and that's not what Binaural actually is but I was biased against it for a very long time because of this song and the two that will follow.