Red Mosquito

Vindicator wrote:

Vindicator wrote:I just heard Sirens followed by Lightning Bolt. I gotta say, the songs go REALLY well together. After the love sappiness of Sirens, Lightning Bolt picks you right the fuck up.And I'm not too crazy about the song, but it just WORKS very well after Sirens.

And Swallowed Whole fucking sounds nice too after Lightning Bolt the way I have it on my Ipod.

These songs sound nice and flow well together.

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

bluestate wrote:I find it very funny that SiriusXM just tweeted that Sirens "will premiere EXCLUSIVELY on PJ Radio" on Thursday but at least 4 other places were or are streaming it today:
Stereogum, WXRT Chicago, Alternative Nation, and Under the Radar. Perhaps they all got shut down though, along with Rdio.

yeah, i dont think any of them were supposed to be playing it

klvitalogy wrote:Gave Sirens the play loud in the car while driving test. It passed.

McParadigm wrote:

harmless wrote:All these people saying this sounds like "Adult Contemporary" need to give me a recommended list, please.

For what it's worth (and to the destruction of this page), all of these are songs that had their primary success on adult contemporary radio.

McParadigm wrote:YOU QUOTED EVERYTHING

WHY WOULD YOU QUOTE EVERYTHING

BurtReynolds wrote:

harmless wrote:

BurtReynolds wrote:

harmless wrote:The funny thing is, I always appreciated the Nickelback and Creed comparisons as the in-joke I thought it was, but then a song like this comes out and some people's reactions prove that they weren't joking. I guess I don't feel put off a song because it reminds me slightly of a band I hate, or I would've been put off PJ's attempts to sound like The Who ages ago.

wait, you mean you thought people were joking when they said they hated Creed and Nickelback?

No, I thought they were joking when they had a vendetta against them for ripping off PJ. Shit bands rip off great bands all the time. I realise, the Ed voice from Ten was ripped off blah blah blah but it doesn't go beyond that. They're an awful band and PJ aren't.

oh. Well Nickelback and Creed are shit bands, and they probably deserve extra scorn from Pearl Jam fans for being soulless copies, but I wouldnt call it a vendetta. I dont think people are hating on Sirens because it sounds like Nickelback and Nickelback cloned PJ, they just hate it because it sounds like Nickelback.

McParadigm wrote:YOU QUOTED EVERYTHING

WHY WOULD YOU QUOTE EVERYTHING

harmless wrote:I'm just gonna stop quoting from now on.

harmless wrote:

BurtReynolds wrote:

harmless wrote:

BurtReynolds wrote:

harmless wrote:The funny thing is, I always appreciated the Nickelback and Creed comparisons as the in-joke I thought it was, but then a song like this comes out and some people's reactions prove that they weren't joking. I guess I don't feel put off a song because it reminds me slightly of a band I hate, or I would've been put off PJ's attempts to sound like The Who ages ago.

wait, you mean you thought people were joking when they said they hated Creed and Nickelback?

No, I thought they were joking when they had a vendetta against them for ripping off PJ. Shit bands rip off great bands all the time. I realise, the Ed voice from Ten was ripped off blah blah blah but it doesn't go beyond that. They're an awful band and PJ aren't.

oh. Well Nickelback and Creed are shit bands, and they probably deserve extra scorn from Pearl Jam fans for being soulless copies, but I wouldnt call it a vendetta. I dont think people are hating on Sirens because it sounds like Nickelback and Nickelback cloned PJ, they just hate it because it sounds like Nickelback.

What about the many other bands it sounds like, though? Never mind. I just think Nickelback are so generic that any shit song could be compared to them and someone would think it was accurate.

bluestate wrote:Despite McP's futile attempts, I really think the positive reactions to Sirens are slowly starting to take control away from the Negative Nancys... Hmm....

I have written well over 200 pages of text on pearl jam’s music, what I think it means, and what it means to me. I have never felt as stumped by a song as I have by Sirens. For the first 5-6 listens I had no idea what to make of it. I still am not really sure. But if I was going to make a list of songs I thought pearl jam would someday write this would have been right there at the bottom. It is so puzzling because this is, in many ways, the anti-pearl jam song. Take almost everything you would normally expect from them, invert it, and you end up somewhere close to sirens.

Early reports of this song likened it to an 80s power ballad. I was expecting something huge and bombastic like November Rain. Hell, I was looking forward to that. I find as I’ve gotten older I have a certain appreciation for songs that just go for broke, and bask in their own ridiculousness. 10 years ago my favorite karaoke song to sing probably would have been Jeremy. Today it is Total Eclipse of the Heart.

In some ways, this is the textbook definition of a cheesy song. In other ways it is the opposite of cheese. There is often a calculated, manipulative quality to cheese, and this song fully embraces this type of song with the breathtaking sincerity that has always separated Pearl Jam from their peers. This is guilty pleasure that is not only guilt free, but would be puzzled by the suggestion that you should feel guilty.

It’s curious. It would be a textbook definition of an ultra cheesy 80s power ballad, except there is no huge chorus, the huge solo is subdued, there is no catchy vocal melody, no hook—the things that made the cheese fun. Everything that made an 80s power ballad what it was is actually absent from here. It’s almost like you’re left with the bare bones template of that style of song. These are master craftsmen, and so this begs the questions, what did Pearl Jam choose to fill it with, and did it work?

The music is very pretty, but oddly non-descript. Again, it’s almost like a template just waiting for the details that will make it beautiful. Like an undressed mannequin, maybe. There are some nice moments here and there (I really like the strumming coming out of the solo, for instance, and some nice background vocalizations), but for the most part it is unadorned, absence the lushness or desolation pearl jam usually adds to these songs. There is a lovely melancholy to the music, but again, it is still a blank canvas.

Eddie is what fills it in. This is a subdued performance, but he sounds beautiful and sings movingly. The song primes you for power ballad excess and then hangs all those expectations on Eddie’s affecting but understated performance. Unlike everything else we’ve heard on this record, the vocal melody is not particularly prominent. So it’s all on his subtle performance and the story he is telling. For instance, the song climaxes with a gentle falsetto delivery of the lyric ‘the fear goes away’ and some delicate vocalizations, rather than the bombast we’d normally expect. It tries to sweep you away so gently you don’t notice until you’re already falling. If you let it happen it’ll be a wonderful song. If you don’t, the song will be boring.

It’s a moving set of lyrics, for the most part, a story about the fear of loss that comes from being blessed by having something too precious to lose, and the gratitude for having experienced it. Eddie has covered this in The End, Speed of Sound, and Just Breathe. In some ways this is the most ambitious take on these themes.

In some ways this is a song written from a very specific experience, and easier to appreciate if you can relate (as is always the case with love songs about the possession of, rather than the hunger for). If you have that person you literally can’t bear to lose (not just someone you love) it’ll be easier to get inside this song. It’s a love song, but not love in the new love/passion/bright flame sense of the term. This is the love that turns to air, that you breathe in so often you cease to notice except for those moments where something forces you to step back and see it again for the first time. The shock of how powerful it is, and how meaningful it is, can be breathtaking when you are lucky enough to have it happen. There is no experience in the world that feels more real. But if you’ve never experienced it then Sirens will seem, well, cheesy.

It’s true that songs like The End and Just Breathe also tried to do the same thing. Many people found those songs cheesy or overwrought. I loved them, but I knew I loved them right away and they also had the tools to help me love them right away. The more striking vocal melodies, the drama/melodrama in the music. These aren’t present in Sirens, and so this isn’t an easy listen

So there we go. The song still confounds me, even ten listens in. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. I don’t feel indifferent about it (I can easily spot those reactions). For the first time in twenty years I just don’t know what I think yet. In that respect I don’t know when I’ve last felt this challenged by a pearl jam song, even though this doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult song. The challenge comes from the way it plays against expectations—the expectations I have for pearl jam and the way it simultaneously primes you for a particular experience and then undercuts the obvious foundations for that experience.

I can say this. I know that it is very pretty, but in a way that feels a little blank. Like I said above, this song, more than most of the catalog (if not all) is a canvas waiting to be filled. And Eddie fills it. But without the obviously vocal melody, chorus hooks, and the rest, it’s going to come down to learning the words, diving into the story, and letting it sweep me away. That will take time, and quiet, and not sitting in my office getting interrupted by my colleagues. If this is a song I want to belt at the top of my lungs it’ll be a massive success. If it isn’t, then it’ll be a song that comes up on shuffle, and gets the occasional listen as I try to discover if this is the time it’ll move me. But it is way too early for me to tell.

Tonight, when I pace the floor of my daughter’s room rocking her to sleep and listening to this song, I’ll find the answer. And since my eyes just teared up just a little, maybe I already know…

BurtReynolds wrote:I like rapmetal when it's done well, said no one ever.

Vindicator wrote:I just heard Sirens followed by Lightning Bolt. I gotta say, the songs go REALLY well together. After the love sappiness of Sirens, Lightning Bolt picks you right the fuck up.And I'm not too crazy about the song, but it just WORKS very well after Sirens.