Red Mosquito

Heathen wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Wait, I missed this

stip wrote:Interesting that he seems to have the vocal melody before the lyrics. I'd have thought the lyrics would come first

You actually thought "you're always saying that there's something wrong / I'm starting to believe it's your plan all along" are lines you build a song around?

Do they sound like lines you'd put on a record you intend to release to the public? And yet...

exactly

I mean, I like the life wasted lyrics but that's got to be on the short list for worst opening set of lyrics in the catalog

theplatypus wrote:

stip wrote:you're not the first person to say that.

DAMMIT

I'm not as blown away by these as I was with CC and LIR, but there are a few I like. I like Ten Billion Years more than Sunburn, which I'm not crazy about, but they are Stone solo songs. I wish that Stone album would have come out.

Any of these probably would have sucked once they were churned through the machinery like PRAMG songs are. Except maybe 2x4. That one could have been pretty cool.

Any chance of seeing these in lossless, or do the people who circulate these things enjoy being cunts?

Lossless would be nice, but at least these are a bit better than the CC/Let it Ride leak.

Are all of the new songs instrumentals?

10 billion years has vocals

Stocals.

Though Ed's humming some bass, right?

numbers wrote:Are all of the new songs instrumentals?

There are some vocals on open door as well, but not fully fleshed out

The first two fit in really well with all of these. Kind of completes the set. Adds some vocals to the instrumentals, and CC is such a powerful vocal performance, it just about carries the whole group.

Pearl Jam-What Could Have Been:
http://tonightatdawn.com/2014/10/19/pea ... have-been/

Mike does some fantastic work on 10 Billion Years

Honestly, while good, I'm finding these a bit underwhelming. Think I'd be more in to them if they had more vocals.

Yeah, 10 Billion Years is really the main takeaway. The others seem like instrumentals that were not constructed to be instrumentals; they're waiting for a vocal take.

This quote from Neil Young made me wonder how Pj can sound so relatively experimental here, and yet always seem to either go for the things that sound like themselves or hammer things like these into songs that sound like themselves..it's pertinent though

Do you ever worry about how your albums will be received or what people will think of them?

“I just keep doing what I want to do. I don’t spend much time trying to figure that out. It really doesn’t help, because then all you’d try to do is just spend all this time trying to figure out how to do the same thing again. As soon as you do it again, you’re pretty well finished. I’d rather do something else and make something happen.”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/neil-you ... 8?mod=e2fb

Its fun (and depressing) to think what could have been this past decade if they followed this particular muse.

Kral wrote:Its fun (and depressing) to think what could have been this past decade if they followed this particular muse.

That is where I'm at with this. When you add LIR and CC to this, there's some real missed opportunities. And career track too. Even as unfinished songs, some of these really capture the direction I wish this band took.

I love the space in these songs. How could they eff that production in the final cuts so badly?

Mine wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Strat wrote:I dont think Ed needs to go I just think the band needs to drop the idea of what pearl jam is supposed to be. Maybe that takes gettig a new producer.

I never thought they lost the capabliity of writing good music, it just seems their idea of what a pj record should be is hindering them

Great solo by mike on 10 billion years

Totally agree.

Also, maybe the rest of the band should stick up for themselves more, instead of just deferring to Ed automatically all the time. If that's in fact what's going on. I don't know if it is. But it sure seems like it lately.

It's the other way around according to them. They keep on saying that Ed's far easier to work with and does what they want him to do - as oposed to how Vitalogy and No Code were written. I remember one quote where Ed described Mike explaining him to re-do a song because he failed to see it trough 3D glasses. Stone said he likes raising the key of the songs - Severed Hand here is noticeably lower than the final version. Speed Of Sound is a noticeably different than the demo version and does't really sound like anything Ed did with or without the band. Just mentioning this examples to show how one could see it the opposite way.

Severed Hand is in exactly the same key as the released version here. I haven't done a direct comparison but I'm fairly sure these are the exact same instrumenal takes as the finished record (they just sound much, much better).

I certainly don't agree that Vedder is more hands-off now than in years past. The whole dynamic of the band seems to revolve around Ed's decisions. The band have said many times that only songs Ed's excited about will end up progressing further, which is somewhat understandable, making him effectively in more or less total control of the band's direction at any given time. I don't have any issue with that, I think good bands frequently need a benevolent dictator, I just think he sometimes makes baffling decisions.

EDIT: Just looked up the McCready quote you referenced of interest, it's from a 2013 Huffington Post interview with Vedder but I can't copy the text on my phone. In short, in talking about the band's internal creative process, Ed describes telling Mike to try a guitar part again, Mike responds that Ed needs to relisten to the existing take but with "3D glasses". Given Ed's in a position to instruct Mike to take another pass at a solo, it sure sounds like he imagines himself in the role of the band's de facto musical director (which, again, I have no issue with as it's often best if there's someone with their hands on the wheel).