Red Mosquito

Fallout Today: The music feels grounded and low stakes in a way Pearl Jam so rarely does. This has the strongest 'band in a room enjoying making music' vibe so far. It's a charming song. Kind of an REM vibe to the chorus, maybe. I really like what they're playing to punctuate the end of each phrase


With the exception of Brother the Cloud, the verses are really crushing the choruses thus far.

Listening to someone else solo all over this record I'm reminded of how emotional Mike's playing is.

There are a lot of lyrics all over a bunch of these songs. I am looking forward to digging into them. There aren't any official sources, right?

stip wrote:Fallout Today: The music feels grounded and low stakes in a way Pearl Jam so rarely does. This has the strongest 'band in a room enjoying making music' vibe so far. It's a charming song. Kind of an REM vibe to the chorus, maybe. I really like what they're playing to punctuate the end of each phrase


With the exception of Brother the Cloud, the verses are really crushing the choruses thus far.

Listening to someone else solo all over this record I'm reminded of how emotional Mike's playing is.

There are a lot of lyrics all over a bunch of these songs. I am looking forward to digging into them. There aren't any official sources, right?

There is a website that someone had linked to earlier that was pretty spot on for all songs. Will try to dig up

guitar_davey wrote:

stip wrote:

Fattie_Vedder wrote:

stip wrote:i saw a bunch of backspacer comparisons earlier, but this album has stronger Yield vibes to me

That’s weird to me. This album is the antithesis of Yield in terms of sound and musical composition. Yield allows the subtle notes, flourishes, and nuances of each instrument to stand out, this album emphasizes loudness and multiple instruments playing the same chords or notes in a resonant manner.

In spirit, not sound (I was not clear). I don't think it has any particular sonic similarities to any of the records.

In the sense that it's such a stylistic hodgepodge?

No, they have a few of those. McP nailed it on the previous page. There's a breezy lack of pretension. This is an album that doesn't seem to be interested in proving anything, and because it doesn't have to be anything, the songs can really exist in an unencumbered space that Pearl Jam has always struggled to find (and doesn't need to) and just be what they are. But Yield, as an album and the ideas it articulates, is probably the closest they've come to a similar space

The Dark: Probably my second favorite song on the album after Invincible. This is maybe the closest he's come to capturing/channeling the essence of Bruce Springsteen - especially the way Springsteen, at his best, captures that ineffable feeling of being liberated through music. Such a feel good moment

I bet BiH hates this song

I was listening to Picture, and my wife asked me if I was listening to the Rocky Horror Picture Show

stip wrote:The Dark: Probably my second favorite song on the album after Invincible. This is maybe the closest he's come to capturing/channeling the essence of Bruce Springsteen - especially the way Springsteen, at his best, captures that ineffable feeling of being liberated through music. Such a feel good moment

I bet BiH hates this song

Lol thinking he even got this far in the album. He turned it off after the second song.

stip wrote:Invincible - somehow this is my favorite song on this album.

I really like this song.

The Haves: Still the weakest song on the album, probably, but still elevated as an album track rather than a single. The schmaltz (which this song is positively drowning in) works better after 6 songs that are so resolutely unapologetic about being what they are. If this turns into a 'hold up your lighter' song it'll immediately drop back down but on the album it somehow rings at least a little true. The cracks in Eddie's voice (which just feel lived in) help.

The transition into the chorus is actually kind of lovely

I still really wish he stayed away from the Haves/Have Not lyrical framing

Good and Evil: This is fun. Ear wormy chorus. If these lyrics are decent I can see myself really liking this one. Feels more complete than Power of Right, which I guess is the closest moment on the record.

stip wrote:Fallout Today: The music feels grounded and low stakes in a way Pearl Jam so rarely does. This has the strongest 'band in a room enjoying making music' vibe so far. It's a charming song. Kind of an REM vibe to the chorus, maybe. I really like what they're playing to punctuate the end of each phrase


With the exception of Brother the Cloud, the verses are really crushing the choruses thus far.

Listening to someone else solo all over this record I'm reminded of how emotional Mike's playing is.

There are a lot of lyrics all over a bunch of these songs. I am looking forward to digging into them. There aren't any official sources, right?

I've given the album a close listen with all the lyrics here, and they seem pretty spot on:

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eddieve ... cible.html (links for each song at the bottom of each page)

The only glaring mistake I've noticed is the Mrs. Mills page has "guitar" where the lyric is pretty clearly "suitor."

Actually, there are official lyric videos out: https://www.youtube.com/c/EddieVedder/videos

Rose of Jericho: This is also pretty fun. I feel like Eddie is playing around with slightly sillier melodies he would stay away from on a Pearl Jam album. This is a really good chorus, a bit of a departure from the rest of the album in that regard. Didn't care for the bridge but the rest of this is good.


Try: This is the Stevie Wonder song, right? He's leaving it all on the table. This song is a blast. I love everything about it.

Jaeti wrote:Actually, there are official lyric videos out: https://www.youtube.com/c/EddieVedder/videos

Ohh, I'll have to check those out for the next listen

Picture: I was pretty into this, but the first chorus let me down a bit. The later iterations (after the bridge) are better, for some reason, and it's hard not to enjoy that piano at the end. Eddie and Elton sound pretty good together (this is better than that E-ticket song). Eddie's a pretty generous collaborator on this one.

Mrs. Mills: Further evidence that I'd probably enjoy the Beatles more if they weren't singing on them. So Eddie's strength as a storyteller isn't regularly found in the descriptive details of the pictures he paints, but this is some of his stronger writing in that regard. this was a delight - another example of a song that Pearl Jam probably COULD do, but would never occur to them that they should. Some All Those Yesterdays meets the Counting Crows vibes to this (if I had to find something other than The Beatles)

On My Way: I described this as an end credits earlier, and I don't have anything better. This is a wonderful way to end the record, and two minutes is just about perfect. Recycling the lyrics really adds to the 'recapping the journey' feel of the song, and knowing the story behind his father obviously gives this extra resonance.

stip wrote:Long the Way: This feels much less slight in the context of the record. I really like the Tom Petty vibes of the song - the music, Eddie's delivery, all of it. Again, this is a space Pearl Jam hasn't really played with before, and Petty is a great touchstone for Eddie (I also love his wildflowers cover from the last batch of xmas singles). Just a few more f'ing lyrics would have really helped elevate this.

The psychology of the bands you like, the album experience, and all of it are really on display. This was a song I was pretty disappointed in when it was all I knew of Earthling and it had to carry all the weight of my expectations. But on an album I'm enjoying, with no obvious Pearl Jam aspirations, it's so much easier to appreciate and judge it for what it is, and appreciate the craft and artistry and intent.

Brother the Cloud: Really enjoy the verses and the way they tumble into the chorus (and it's a great chorus - and the melody on 'these are just dreams/as sad is it seems/I'm always wide awake' is great. But similar to Power of Right, the David Byrne bridge feels like it should be in a different song. There are a few frankensongs on this album. The transition into the darker outro is better done, but I'm a bit less interested in it. I get the sentiment behind the fuck you but I don't really like how its executed.


This should have been the first single (at least if we had to choose between the three we had)


Also, apparently the version I'm listening to on Spotify is edited.

Where’s Neil Young when you need him!?

So this really opened up for me on that third listen. There's a lot to love right off the bat, and I am excited to unpack the rest to see what sticks. There's a lot of writing on the songs that didn't immediately grab me in their entirety, and good lyrics will absolutely elevate those songs, so fingers crossed. I agree that the production seems to be concerned first and foremost with being loud (Eddie has hearing loss issues, right?), but the core songs have a lot to recommend, and the performances are all game across the board. This album is significantly better than the 3 singles, two of which are two of the weakest songs on the record.

I may lean into this more than most, but Pearl Jam records have narratives within and across them - they're in conversation with each other in a way that I think is really compelling, but it also means that there are limits to how much they can push the boundaries of what Pearl Jam is without breaking that spell. I feel like Earthlings (ugh, that name sucks), offers a view into who Eddie is when he doesn't have to play the role of Eddie Vedder. To be fair, I do think that is absolutely an authentic part of who he is. But it's not all he is, and it is refreshing to get to see the rest. This is Eddie we do see outside the music, but rarely within it - and as an album this stitches those pieces together.

Even though Eddie's Pearl Jam influences tend to hover around The Ramones, The Who, Neil Young, and a few others, it's easy to forget how much of a music fan (and historian) he is. Their love for and understanding of the larger sweep and history of rock music why Pearl Jam is such an incredible cover band (especially compared to their peers) but it so rarely crops up in the writing. Given how all over the place his own personal listening habits are, it's great to see Eddie embrace that diversity, and pretty dexterously in the process.

This album kind of showcases why something like Dance, which is such a stylistic departure, can sound so organic. I am usually in the ‘Pearl Jam should sound like Pearl Jam camp. But between Dance and this album, I’m kind of rooting for them to just throw it all out for the next album and see what they come up with.


It's too early to say if this will be better than Into the Wild, but I already prefer this way more than Uke songs. It's such a feel good record.

So with all that preamble out of the way, lets do some ranking!


The best
Invincible
The Dark
Try
Mrs. Mills

I am delighted and charmed by all four of these songs, and intrigued by the fact that these are some of the biggest departures for him on the album.

Good
Brother the Cloud
Rose of Jericho

(these are both good, but they are close to the kind of song Pearl Jam would write and don't rise to that level - at least not initially)

Pretty Good
Good and Evil
Picture
Fall out Today
Power of Right

The chorus lets each of these down but there are definitely elements of each of these songs I want to go back and explore further. Good lyrics may bump a few of these up (probably not Picture)

Okay
Long Way

Not good
The haves



The lead singles from the last 6 Pearl Jam albums have been some of my favorite songs on the record. So I was definitely preparing to be a disappointed with this. And then as luck would have it the first two singles are the bottom of the album for me.

Obviously Backspacer and Lightning Bolt are still better

Really having trouble getting into this one, but only on my second listen. Was really underwhelmed after first listen and I dug the Long Way when it came out. The Haves not so much and Brother the Cloud is ok. The only song that really grabbed my attention was On My Way but it's too damn short. I could have stood to hear that one meander on for another 2 mins at least.

Pearl Jam


More earthlings.

Gotta say I mostly agree with Stip until the last post of course. I do think this is better than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt for many of the points Stip is making - this is an organic Eddie Vedder that is outside of Pearl Jam. I still have a hard time being convinced either of the two Pearl Jam albums are organically Pearl Jam - they feel like Pearl Jam trying to be something different (even if that miscalculation results in them sounding like a caricature of themselves) - even if they are both still good albums.