Red Mosquito

Given To Fly, Do The Evolution and probably Wishlist are the only three songs I keep going back to from Yield. And by now I'm quite bored with Wishlist. All three are superior to everything on Backspacer. The rest of the album I rarely listen to. Except for maybe In Hiding or Brain of J when I'm feeling like it. Backspacer I can listen to right the way through and there's not a song I want to skip. Yes, not even Supersonic. I'd take it every day of the week over Pilate, MFC, Low Light, Push Me Pull Me, All Those Yesterdays and probably FaithFull. I've never felt any sort of connection to either of those songs though I can appreciate what they're trying to do. When you get over the fact that Supersonic is Pearl Jam just being silly/having fun, it's not a bad song at all. If they'd made more than one Supersonic, maybe I wouldn't be ok with it. And yes, I like Speed of Sound on the album. FoN is my favourite off Backspacer. I just don't get the hate. It's the most engaging song they've done in years. Virtually every song is a 3.5 or 4 star song for me. PJ fans can be difficult. I bet you're thinking the same about me

digster wrote:They're also doing very different things in each song. The riff in In Hiding purposefully disrupts the mellower feel of the verse to give the soar in the chorus something to build off of, and the majority of Force of Nature is riding that riff. That alone doesn't necessarily mean that the Force of Nature riff is bad, but it does seem tough to compare them in isolation to the rest of the songs they're in.

okay, good point

I think the choruses of MFC and In Hiding let those songs down quite a bit. If Ed delivers it right in the studio, I don't see much difference between Lightning Bowwowwkletfl,fwefewl;m and I'm in Hidaadyyeaeaaaah.

yeah, MFC has those great verses and that rhyming sing songy chorus with 'ask, I'm an ear' lyric that's just there to rhyme with disappear. It really hurts that song for me.

The best thing about LB is that 'Always something, never nothing...' bridge thing, which really gives it a Yield feel. Having said that, I can say the same about the ATW verse, so I have no idea what I'll feel about the song as a whole.

stip wrote:yeah, MFC has those great verses and that rhyming sing songy chorus with 'ask, I'm an ear' lyric that's just there to rhyme with disappear. It really hurts that song for me.

I don't remember who said it, but it's been said that the whole history of English poetry is characterized by a lack of words that rhyme.

Lounge Lizard wrote:

stip wrote:yeah, MFC has those great verses and that rhyming sing songy chorus with 'ask, I'm an ear' lyric that's just there to rhyme with disappear. It really hurts that song for me.

I don't remember who said it, but it's been said that the whole history of English poetry is characterized by a lack of words that rhyme.

The English language isn't conducive to rhyme at all, though; we don't have many rhyming words. The Romance languages, or some Asian / Middle Eastern languages, generally have loads of them. So something like a villanelle or a ghazal is possible in their respective languages, but incredibly difficult in English. We probably have literally two successful Villanelles in English, and they're by Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop.

okay, what's a vinaelle or ghazel?

stip wrote:okay, what's a vinaelle or ghazel?

I know, right? I bet he has a neck beard, harmless does

Villanelle (Italian form):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle

classic English example:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

Ghazal (Arabic form, pronounced 'Guzzle'):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal

Struggling to find English examples of that one. I'm currently reviewing a book by David Shook, Our Obsidian Tongues, which contains a good one called 'Mutt Ghazal', but I can't find it online.

Scrap that. These are by a poet and online friend, Jee Leong Koh. A sequence of 49 (I think) ghazals. They're pretty excellent.

http://atlengthmag.com/poetry/a-lovers-recourse/

The big thing for me that puts Yield so high above Backspacer is just the perfect feeling I get when I listen to it. Everything about the album just oozes passion and emotion to me. The music is perfect, the instrumentation is perfect, the production is perfect, the lyrics are amazing, and they all complement each other and flow ridiculously well. The whole album just has that amazing feel to it.

Backspacer just turns my stomach, almost right from the start. GSMF is a good garage rocker that I enjoy listening to, but after this it all goes to shit for me. I would even go so far as to say the rest of the album is almost embarrassing. I don't need to get into detail as it has all been exhausted on this board and others before since my complaints are the typical ones regarding lame lyrics, poor production/mixing/mastering, uninspiring musicianship, etc.

I guess my point is that without diving into details and trying to describe why, I just get an amazing feeling from Yield that I don't get from any other album by any other artist. If I'm in a good mood, it multiplies that good mood. If I'm down, it consoles me... I never have any desire to listen to Backspacer whatsoever.

The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

stupidmop wrote:The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

No, on both accounts.

stupidmop wrote:The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

I wouldn't take them over. I would add them.

EJ wrote:

stupidmop wrote:The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

No, on both accounts.

Would you take any Backspacer songs over any yield songs?

stupidmop wrote:

EJ wrote:

stupidmop wrote:The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

No, on both accounts.

Would you take any Backspacer songs over any yield songs?

I would get rid of Low Light.

And i don't mean take its place on the album or anything, just that if you had to choose to listen to one which would you go for.

Lounge Lizard wrote:

stupidmop wrote:

EJ wrote:

stupidmop wrote:The only songs that i'd take over yield songs are Johnny Guitar and GSMF and i'd really only take them over In Hiding and Pilate.

No, on both accounts.

Would you take any Backspacer songs over any yield songs?

I would get rid of Low Light.

See i would have said that a while back, but i've found a new appreciation for it recently. It's got a kind of melancholy lilt to it.

stupidmop wrote:See i would have said that a while back, but i've found a new appreciation for it recently. It's got a kind of melancholy lilt to it.

I can't be friends with it. Everytime I hear that chord progression I keep thinking they were desperately trying to invent another Nothingman but instead produced an overdone song with a needlessly dragging instrumental melody.

LikeLukin wrote:The big thing for me that puts Yield so high above Backspacer is just the perfect feeling I get when I listen to it. Everything about the album just oozes passion and emotion to me. The music is perfect, the instrumentation is perfect, the production is perfect, the lyrics are amazing, and they all complement each other and flow ridiculously well. The whole album just has that amazing feel to it.

Backspacer just turns my stomach, almost right from the start. GSMF is a good garage rocker that I enjoy listening to, but after this it all goes to shit for me. I would even go so far as to say the rest of the album is almost embarrassing. I don't need to get into detail as it has all been exhausted on this board and others before since my complaints are the typical ones regarding lame lyrics, poor production/mixing/mastering, uninspiring musicianship, etc.

I guess my point is that without diving into details and trying to describe why, I just get an amazing feeling from Yield that I don't get from any other album by any other artist. If I'm in a good mood, it multiplies that good mood. If I'm down, it consoles me... I never have any desire to listen to Backspacer whatsoever.

hey if you like yield you like yield. If you don't like backspacer you don't like backspacer.

You're wrong about the lyrics, though.