Red Mosquito

Jaeti wrote:

Strat wrote:Other than it being a lead piano for the outro, you guys are hearing things in your head like crazy folks

Part of the fun!

Strat wrote:Other than it being a lead piano for the outro, you guys are hearing things in your head like crazy folks

Tj wrote:

Strat wrote:Other than it being a lead piano for the outro, you guys are hearing things in your head like crazy folks

You don't hear it?

Strat wrote:

Tj wrote:

Strat wrote:Other than it being a lead piano for the outro, you guys are hearing things in your head like crazy folks

You don't hear it?

No I do not hear the alive solo. I hear a piano solo as an outro

Tj wrote:

Strat wrote:30 years into it Ed can still send chills down my spine with a focused delivery, his voice, and lyrics. Speaking particularly about the end of Brother the Cloud .

Shit.

It really ssomething. The Dark has that quality to me as well especially once I connected it to the "in the dark" lyric from Release.

Kevin Davis wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Andrew Wottman is not the problem here. He seemed to encourage some fast, fruitful sessions with a bunch of new sonic territory. It’s the mix and master that are trash.

Right out of the gate, the album Earthling reminded me of -- in a really uncanny way, for two records that are so stylistically and sonically dissimilar -- was Beck's Colors. After reading this post and going down the Wikipedia credits rabbit hole, I learned (in a discovery that made me feel way more like a master detective than it should have) that the two albums were mastered by the same dude -- an apparently very well-traveled guy by the name of Randy Merrill, who won Grammys for his work on both Colors and its follow-up Hyperspace (which I've never heard), as well as Taylor Swift's folklore and Adele's 25. The mixing engineer, Serban Ghenea, seems to have his prints on all of these albums as well, though he only mixed select tracks on most of them, and the credits indicate that he's responsible for all of Earthling. Nevertheless, birds of a feather and all that.

After revisiting your extremely useful rundown of these various job titles, the reason these two very different records sound more or less "the same" becomes really clear -- it's the way the aggressively emphasized vocals and the extremely limited (not sure if I'm using the right term here) drum sounds relate to each other, with a square wall of crystalline sonic detritus in the middle, that feel something like these guys' (or at least Merrill's) sonic signature, as distinct across projects as a singer's voice. My ears don't usually latch onto stuff like this, but having this connection confirmed was kind of revelatory to me; it definitely makes me think differently about where certain buttons are being pushed and what decisions are being made at which steps, as well as how much this post-production stuff really does take on a life of its own within the music.

I really enjoy both Earthling and Colors (and folklore, for that matter), so clearly what these guys are putting down doesn't inherently put me off many finished products. However, I expect that might be different in an environment where I come in with a preconceived notion about what the chemistry between five distinct players is supposed to sound like. Without any meaningful framework for, or attachment to, what a musical dialogue between EV, Klinghoffer, Watt, and Chad Smith naturally is (I didn't realize until getting the CD that Hansard and Cheney weren't part of the studio band), my ears just follow whatever cues the presentation tells them to follow, i.e. "hooks hooks and more hooks." While it's a shame that a drummer as good as Chad Smith would be effectively reduced to the role of session hack on any project, I ultimately don't think I'd feel any differently about this record if the drummer actually was a session hack -- it's an EV solo album, he's clearly the focal point, and that's what I'd expect. On a PJ album, regardless of where the music goes stylistically, a presentation style that naturally diminishes the individuality of specific players is going to be up against 25-30 years of intimate familiarity with and connection to how five individual musicians communicate. That's a heavy lift.

All that said, probably my biggest takeaway from Earthling so far is that what I know in regards to what ingredients are going to contribute to an album that I end up liking falls somewhere on the spectrum between "very little" and "jack shit." With what I think is pretty reasonable precedent (i.e. three advance singles I didn't really like, and advance reviews that suggested the rest of the album would be more of the same), I fully expected to hate this record, and I was 100% wrong, this despite the fact that all of the superficial things I feared about it more or less came true. So who knows. Ultimately, I find the more I can separate myself from the, "What does this mean for PJ's next record, how does this compare to different PJ albums, etc." exercises, the more enjoyable Earthling is. Whatever it signifies directionally, it's just a really fun album to listen to; as soon as Eddie starts in with his dumb-assed spaceman banter on "Invincible," I'm smiling and strapped in for the ride. Do I want this same thing from a PJ album? Maybe I do; I don't think I'll know until I hear it.

Ms Harmless wrote:the chord sequence underneath the soloing sounds like Alive, not so much the soloing itself

guitar_davey wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:the chord sequence underneath the soloing sounds like Alive, not so much the soloing itself

This. It just has a similar aesthetic to my ears. A few of the little runs in it harken to the vibe Mike goes for on the Alive solo.

Monkey_Driven wrote:

Tj wrote:

Strat wrote:30 years into it Ed can still send chills down my spine with a focused delivery, his voice, and lyrics. Speaking particularly about the end of Brother the Cloud .

Shit.

It really ssomething. The Dark has that quality to me as well especially once I connected it to the "in the dark" lyric from Release.

There are some excellent vocal moments on this. The warbling is still present, but he plays around the edges of his current capabilities in some really surprising and encouraging ways.

Tj wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:

Tj wrote:

Strat wrote:30 years into it Ed can still send chills down my spine with a focused delivery, his voice, and lyrics. Speaking particularly about the end of Brother the Cloud .

Shit.

It really ssomething. The Dark has that quality to me as well especially once I connected it to the "in the dark" lyric from Release.

There are some excellent vocal moments on this. The warbling is still present, but he plays around the edges of his current capabilities in some really surprising and encouraging ways.

Strat wrote:30 years into it Ed can still send chills down my spine with a focused delivery, his voice, and lyrics. Speaking particularly about the end of Brother the Cloud .

Shit.

EJ wrote:Finally got a chance to listen to this. Been through it a few times. I like it much more than I expected. It's nice to be able to compartmentalize Ed's work here and not compare it to Pearl Jam. A big part of that has to be that he's aged, we've aged and maybe changed our expectations with it.

It's interesting to hear all of Ed's influences in these songs. A bit over the top at times, but you can tell he and the band are having fun so it's not offensive in any way. Ed's voice sounds great throughout. The production kinda sucks though, way too glossy. Also, not a big fan of the lead guitar on this album. Just very generic, almost cheesy 1980s stuff, but not overly offensive by any means.

The best of the bunch:

Fallout Today - very infectious song. Ed channeling The Wallflowers and The Travelling Wilburys in this one.

Power of Right - love Ed's delivery in this one. Nice riff. Very QOTSA-ish.

Brother The Cloud - this seems like the most "Ed" song on the album.

Invincible - there's a level of cheese to this Peter Gabriel song. But, I dig it. It feels big.

On My Way - the melody of this reminds me of REM's The Lifting. Like others have said, I wish this was longer.

Long Way - very straight forward Petty homage with terrible lyrics. Comes across great live though. I now enjoy the song.

Mrs. Mills - a bit over the top with The Beatles here, but that was the point. He's having fun with Ringo. Nice melody.

The rest of the songs are decent, just don't feel the need to listen to again. Well, actually The Haves is terrible.
Overall, good job Ed. Hard to believe he's pushing 60 with what he put out here.