52. Spin the Black Circle vs. Wishlist vs. Lukin

[Kevin Davis]

"Wishlist" is a great example of Eddie giving the band a blank slate of a song, and the band just immaculately filling it in with these subtle swirls of color, texture, and emotion. It really sounds like it was made by a band in the kind of heightened communicative space that SVT and the press surrounding Yield portrays -- so much thoughtful restraint and detail, really cooperating to elevate this extremely simple song into something special and touching.

Love the others too -- "STBC" was one of the first PJ songs I ever heard, and it just bowled me over -- but this one's easy for me.

[Higgs]

That's a gorgeous way to frame Wishlist there KD.

I really can't believe my 180 on it to be honest. 4 or 5 years ago I despised it. Now I really love it. Very few songs go that way for me.

I do however remember Wonderwall being all over the radio in 96 or so and hating it as a Beatles rip off crap tune. My opinion on that changed pretty quickly though.

[Strat]

Just listened to wishlist again. Its so beautiful. You can even hear ed take a slight inhale before delivering each phrase. The way the guitars float in and out. Its so beautiful written, delivered, and recorded

[tragabigzanda]

"Wishlist" is a great example of Eddie giving the band a blank slate of a song, and the band just immaculately filling it in with these subtle swirls of color, texture, and emotion. It really sounds like it was made by a band in the kind of heightened communicative space that SVT and the press surrounding Yield portrays -- so much thoughtful restraint and detail, really cooperating to elevate this extremely simple song into something special and touching.

Great insight!

[Brett]

The idea of "Lukin" was fun the first time through. Play a song as fast as possible. We've got no time for anything extraneous. But, that's not really something that works for Pearl Jam, and it's become tedious over the years, though it's still fine in the kitchen sink context of No Code.

"Spin the Black Circle" is one of the band's better hard-edged, fast songs. So many tracks on Vitalogy feel like they're on the edge of falling apart, but the band maintains masterful command of the situation, and this is another one of them. It almost gets my vote, but...

"Wishlist" is fucking gorgeous. It has this feeling like it just materialized out of the air somehow in an effortless flow. Beautiful studio work, simple, yet affecting lyrics, and those mini guitar solos. It's a song of like to see go far.

[epilogue]

Well Lukin obviously isn't winning this thing, so I changed my vote to Wishlist.