Red Mosquito

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

Beautifully written, and although I am a tiny bit more optimistic of the album than you (to an extent that I *know* will bite me on the ass), although I see MYM as *a little* more than 'the same again', although my Pearl Jam is evidently not exactly your Pearl Jam, I agree with nearly everything you've said about the single.

I loved the sneak in of "fight to get it back again".

Good write up Jorge.

It's weird b/c in 2006, especially after RA, I wanted PJ to "rawk" again. S/T is the album I wanted, or so I thought. After more and more listens to all their albums, it's the middle period I want'. I want the experimentation of "Happy When I'm Crying", the "alternative" rockers like "Insignificance", and the feelings/emotions of "In My Tree".

S/T made me really happy initially, but it quickly wore off, and the album fell nearly to the bottom for me. Backspacer was similar. With more and more listens of either, I like each less and less. Whereas with the middle albums, the more I listened, the more I liked them.

re: MYM. It's really growing on me. My first reaction was that I like the first 10 seconds or so, then meh. After multiple listens (more than 10, less than 20), it's growing on me. Ed sounds good, and there are some subtleties in there too. I have a feeling the new album may not live up to the middle ones for me, but I think I'm gonna like it more than either S/T or Backspacer.

harmless wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

Beautifully written, and although I am a tiny bit more optimistic of the album than you (to an extent that I *know* will bite me on the ass), although I see MYM as *a little* more than 'the same again', although my Pearl Jam is evidently not exactly your Pearl Jam, I agree with nearly everything you've said about the single.

Fun piece to read. I agree with 99% of it all and feel the same way about the band through the years as him. Except, I was fine with the S/T and Backspacer approach as a "return to form" (whatever that means) as I felt the band deserved to - take it easy. I am optimistic about Lightning Bolt because 1)im Strat and I cant help it and 2) I feel MYM is a much better song that Jorge and others give it credit for.

I, personally, cannot see how STBC achieves something that this song does not, except for that it came first and was one of the first attempts at hardcore punk/metal, and at the time we were not quite sick of these types of PJ songs.

But yea I do hope this album is more of a curveball than the previous 2. It is time for PJ to create something that once again establishes them as something greater than just a rock band.

Strat wrote:

harmless wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

Beautifully written, and although I am a tiny bit more optimistic of the album than you (to an extent that I *know* will bite me on the ass), although I see MYM as *a little* more than 'the same again', although my Pearl Jam is evidently not exactly your Pearl Jam, I agree with nearly everything you've said about the single.

Fun piece to read. I agree with 99% of it all and feel the same way about the band through the years as him. Except, I was fine with the S/T and Backspacer approach as a "return to form" (whatever that means) as I felt the band deserved to - take it easy. I am optimistic about Lightning Bolt because 1)im Strat and I cant help it and 2) I feel MYM is a much better song that Jorge and others give it credit for.

I, personally, cannot see how STBC achieves something that this song does not, except for that it came first and was one of the first attempts at hardcore punk/metal.

But yea I do hope this album is more of a curveball than the previous 2.

Whilst I think all of this is true...

Strat wrote:It is time for PJ to create something that once again establishes them as something greater than just a rock band.

I'm not sure it'll extend to that, but we'll see.

darth_vedder wrote:
It's weird b/c in 2006, especially after RA, I wanted PJ to "rawk" again. S/T is the album I wanted, or so I thought. After more and more listens to all their albums, it's the middle period I want'. I want the experimentation of "Happy When I'm Crying", the "alternative" rockers like "Insignificance", and the feelings/emotions of "In My Tree".

S/T made me really happy initially, but it quickly wore off, and the album fell nearly to the bottom for me. Backspacer was similar. With more and more listens of either, I like each less and less. Whereas with the middle albums, the more I listened, the more I liked them.

Well said, I have/had the same feelings.

harmless wrote:

Strat wrote:

harmless wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

Beautifully written, and although I am a tiny bit more optimistic of the album than you (to an extent that I *know* will bite me on the ass), although I see MYM as *a little* more than 'the same again', although my Pearl Jam is evidently not exactly your Pearl Jam, I agree with nearly everything you've said about the single.

Fun piece to read. I agree with 99% of it all and feel the same way about the band through the years as him. Except, I was fine with the S/T and Backspacer approach as a "return to form" (whatever that means) as I felt the band deserved to - take it easy. I am optimistic about Lightning Bolt because 1)im Strat and I cant help it and 2) I feel MYM is a much better song that Jorge and others give it credit for.

I, personally, cannot see how STBC achieves something that this song does not, except for that it came first and was one of the first attempts at hardcore punk/metal.

But yea I do hope this album is more of a curveball than the previous 2.

Whilst I think all of this is true...

Strat wrote:It is time for PJ to create something that once again establishes them as something greater than just a rock band.

I'm not sure it'll extend to that, but we'll see.

Strat wrote:
I, personally, cannot see how STBC achieves something that this song does not, except for that it came first and was one of the first attempts at hardcore punk/metal, and at the time we were not quite sick of these types of PJ songs.

I'm with you on this argument.

But, I'll go one step further and say that at the time of its release, I thought STBC was pretty terrible. It honestly just seemed like a cliched response of the band (namely, Ed) to put out this type of song. From all of his behavior prior to this album's release, it was pretty clear he was trying to distance himself as much as he could from the mainstream. It wasn't that much of a surprise to me to hear a song like this. Its grown a lot on me, and I definitely enjoy it more now. But, for a long time, I (wrongly) couldn't separate the music from Ed's somewhat obnoxious desire to shed his image.

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

It always makes me laugh when people describe this song as punk and then say it sounds like Motorhead...if Matrix was here, he'd laugh too.

Why does it make you laugh? Lemmy himself calls Motörhead a punk band. At the very least, "Ace of Spades" is most definitely a punk song stylistically.

EJ wrote:

Strat wrote:
I, personally, cannot see how STBC achieves something that this song does not, except for that it came first and was one of the first attempts at hardcore punk/metal, and at the time we were not quite sick of these types of PJ songs.

I'm with you on this argument.

But, I'll go one step further and say that at the time of its release, I thought STBC was pretty terrible. It honestly just seemed like a cliched response of the band (namely, Ed) to put out this type of song. From all of his behavior prior to this album's release, it was pretty clear he was trying to distance himself as much as he could from the mainstream. It wasn't that much of a surprise to me to hear a song like this. Its grown a lot on me, and I definitely enjoy it more now. But, for a long time, I (wrongly) couldn't separate the music from Ed's somewhat obnoxious desire to shed his image.

I hated Binaural for years because I thought they'd 'phoned it in'. And sometimes I think maybe they did, and I was just too much of a fan to notice. So now I'm cautious about making those big pronouncements about PJ. I either like what I'm hearing, or I don't, but the great thing about this band is that they don't need to do much to make me happy. I've never asked them to do anything other than write the kind of song I'm wanting -- even vaguely -- and I wouldn't still be here if they weren't doing that more often than not.

theplatypus wrote:

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

It always makes me laugh when people describe this song as punk and then say it sounds like Motorhead...if Matrix was here, he'd laugh too.

Why does it make you laugh? Lemmy himself calls Motörhead a punk band. At the very least, "Ace of Spades" is most definitely a punk song stylistically.

It's funny, punk / hardcore and metal / thrash seem to be two styles, as far as I can see, whose fans want desperately to be mutually exclusive. I don't like *that*, I like *that*, get it right. But so often the bands aren't that precious about it. While everyone's calling Meshuggah 'math' or 'progressive' metal, I've seen the lead singer interviewed and he said 'We're a death metal band.'

Five days in, it's had 1,133 recorded spins at radio, with an estimated audience size of 6.25 million.

It might have a shot at breaking the top 20 at Alternative and Active Rock in its first seven days....it's by far the fastest growing track at either of those formats. It's already at #10 at the much smaller Mainstream Rock (for comparison's sake, just .5 of those 6.25 million listeners are from the Mainstream Rock stations playing the track).

So there.

darth_vedder wrote: S/T made me really happy initially, but it quickly wore off, and the album fell nearly to the bottom for me. Backspacer was similar. With more and more listens of either, I like each less and less. Whereas with the middle albums, the more I listened, the more I liked them.

I didn't have that experience at all. I thought S/T was crap from first listen and my opinion hasn't changed one bit. Backspacer was better, but still cut from the same cloth.

I knew "No Code" was good from the first time I heard it. I thought they were finally doing something important and I couldn't understand why their fanbase was abandoning them.

I'm certain that I like "Mind Your Manners" and will continue to like it, and I hope the entire album is equally as inspired.

The only song that I've ever changed my mind about after initial listen was "Evacuation" and that was only because I was looking at it superficially like most people do. Most of Pearl Jam's songs aren't that complex.

Wendy Carlos's Twin wrote:

darth_vedder wrote: S/T made me really happy initially, but it quickly wore off, and the album fell nearly to the bottom for me. Backspacer was similar. With more and more listens of either, I like each less and less. Whereas with the middle albums, the more I listened, the more I liked them.

I didn't have that experience at all. I thought S/T was crap from first listen and my opinion hasn't changed one bit. Backspacer was better, but still cut from the same cloth.

I knew "No Code" was good from the first time I heard it. I thought they were finally doing something important and I couldn't understand why their fanbase was abandoning them.

I'm certain that I like "Mind Your Manners" and will continue to like it, and I hope the entire album is equally as inspired.

The only song that I've ever changed my mind about after initial listen was "Evacuation" and that was only because I was looking at it superficially like most people do. Most of Pearl Jam's songs aren't that complex.

theplatypus wrote:Alright, guys, here it is. My review of "Mind Your Manners", for those who were asking about it.

It takes the song as a starting point for a longer analysis of the band's career as a whole. It doesn't look like many of you will agree with me.

Great job Jorge. You say what I think in a way I could never.

McParadigm wrote:Five days in, it's had 1,133 recorded spins at radio, with an estimated audience size of 6.25 million.

It might have a shot at breaking the top 20 at Alternative and Active Rock in its first seven days....it's by far the fastest growing track at either of those formats. It's already at #10 at the much smaller Mainstream Rock (for comparison's sake, just .5 of those 6.25 million listeners are from the Mainstream Rock stations playing the track).

So there.

I believe the lead single off the last two albums performed similarly. A quick scan of their chart history shows WWS as their best "performing" single since Last Kiss. It reached No. 1 on the Alt chart and 41 on the Hot 100. The Fixer was No. 3 on the Alt chart and 56 on the Hot 100.
Strange, it looks like Brother from the Ten reissue reached No. 1 on the Alt chart. I don't remember hearing that on the radio.

turned2black wrote:

McParadigm wrote:Five days in, it's had 1,133 recorded spins at radio, with an estimated audience size of 6.25 million.

It might have a shot at breaking the top 20 at Alternative and Active Rock in its first seven days....it's by far the fastest growing track at either of those formats. It's already at #10 at the much smaller Mainstream Rock (for comparison's sake, just .5 of those 6.25 million listeners are from the Mainstream Rock stations playing the track).

So there.

I believe the lead single off the last two albums performed similarly. A quick scan of their chart history shows WWS as their best "performing" single since Last Kiss. It reached No. 1 on the Alt chart and 41 on the Hot 100. The Fixer was No. 3 on the Alt chart and 56 on the Hot 100.
Strange, it looks like Brother from the Ten reissue reached No. 1 on the Alt chart. I don't remember hearing that on the radio.

Using Billboard chart history as a measurement is pretty useless. In the case of WWS, it got a lot of push from Whatsitcalled Records, and had a very big up front presence before fading very quickly. Hot 100 placement is also hugely influenced by sales. The only Pearl Jam single post-2000 that made the Hot 100 on radio play was Just Breathe (Fixer's strength was its longevity)...the others made the big chart exclusively due to fans buying the single/download/digipack/whatever as soon as they possibly could.

Previously:

Fixer and Just Breathe were slower starters, because Pearl Jam still hadn't really rejoined the rock radio movers and shakers yet. But they both went on to top 50,000 spins during their charting tenure (JB maybe as high as 65,000)(for comparison's sake, Given to Fly managed around 45,000). WWS was somewhere south of 35,000...possibly below 30,000, but a lot of that was in a very compressed period of time. Neither I Am Mine nor Nothing as it Seems passed the 15,000 spin mark.

Of course none of this addresses audience size. Just Breathe had by far the biggest audience. Then Given, then Fixer, then WWS.

Two things, no three, Things i'm really loving about this song.

1. Eds delivery of the patience lines. He's back and it sounds incredible.
2. Mikes solo. He's also back. Him at his wild firey best.
3. The two choruses/melodic parts.

I'm coming to like this song more and more.

I like the verses more than the chorus. The chorus has the same simple "I want to be in your brain" type pop ambitions of something like Marker. It's cool, but by the fourth time you've heard it...you've heard it, you know?

The verses offroad like mad, though, precariously balancing punk push with circular groove in a way that lets Ed twitch and swagger his way around that throwback vocal echo. I still like the bass breaking away from the song in the "Mind your manners" part, and the Bad Religionesque crowd call stuff.