Red Mosquito

Given a few listens already and beyond expectations and the inevitable PJ comparisons, the record is good in its own right. The songs are very good, the band sounds great and Eddie nails it.

It will receive criticism for being a parallel job to PJ, belittling itself for being Vedder alone and not the whole band, but songs like Invicible, Power of Right, Try, Rose of Jericho, Mrs Mills, The Dark... are just great songs, which is what counts. Whether played/written by Eddie with Watt, with Gossard or with Beethoven.

It's 3,5-4 stars for me, at the very least.

How about this:

Invincible
Power Of Right
Long Way
Flag Day
Tender Mercies
Rather Be Home
Brother The Cloud
Fallout Today
The Dark
Rose Of Jericho
Try
Mrs. Mills
On My Way

Anders wrote:How about this:

Invincible
Power Of Right
Long Way
Flag Day
Tender Mercies
Rather Be Home
Brother The Cloud
Fallout Today
The Dark
Rose Of Jericho
Try
Mrs. Mills
On My Way

This record is way better than the Flag Day soundtrack. And very different, too.

Fallout Today is slowly becoming my favorite. I think someone might have mentioned this but it reminds me of middle-era REM (maybe Reveal?). Love the backing harmonies - reminds me of Mike Mills.

Does anyone know who plays all the solos/leads on the album? Love the solo on this one. It's interesting they have Kliffhoffer there but it's Watts who plays the lead guitar live. Curious if he plays lead on the entire album.

DeeDee wrote:

Anders wrote:How about this:

Invincible
Power Of Right
Long Way
Flag Day
Tender Mercies
Rather Be Home
Brother The Cloud
Fallout Today
The Dark
Rose Of Jericho
Try
Mrs. Mills
On My Way

This record is way better than the Flag Day soundtrack. And very different, too.

This tracklisting is superior to Earthling for me. Earthling has a few songs that I really don't like. Tender Mercies would be a top five song on Earthling if it first appeared here.

SJM wrote:Fallout Today is slowly becoming my favorite. I think someone might have mentioned this but it reminds me of middle-era REM (maybe Reveal?). Love the backing harmonies - reminds me of Mike Mills.

Does anyone know who plays all the solos/leads on the album? Love the solo on this one. It's interesting they have Kliffhoffer there but it's Watts who plays the lead guitar live. Curious if he plays lead on the entire album.

I love FT. yeah, it has that REM element but also sounds like something from Riot Act maybe? Down?...its a way better song and idea than Swallow Whole, but similar too.

I think Watt does all the leads.

Anders wrote:

DeeDee wrote:

Anders wrote:How about this:

Invincible
Power Of Right
Long Way
Flag Day
Tender Mercies
Rather Be Home
Brother The Cloud
Fallout Today
The Dark
Rose Of Jericho
Try
Mrs. Mills
On My Way

This record is way better than the Flag Day soundtrack. And very different, too.

This tracklisting is superior to Earthling for me. Earthling has a few songs that I really don't like. Tender Mercies would be a top five song on Earthling if it first appeared here.

Tender Mercies is good, but those Flag Day songs don't fit here, I think. The mood is completely different. I'd re-track LB and GIgaton with songs from Earthling, but not this one with the soundtrack.

I agree with your choices from Earthling, btw.

VinylGuy wrote:I love FT. yeah, it has that REM element but also sounds like something from Riot Act maybe?

Riot act + reveal

DeeDee wrote:

Anders wrote:

DeeDee wrote:

Anders wrote:How about this:

Invincible
Power Of Right
Long Way
Flag Day
Tender Mercies
Rather Be Home
Brother The Cloud
Fallout Today
The Dark
Rose Of Jericho
Try
Mrs. Mills
On My Way

This record is way better than the Flag Day soundtrack. And very different, too.

This tracklisting is superior to Earthling for me. Earthling has a few songs that I really don't like. Tender Mercies would be a top five song on Earthling if it first appeared here.

Tender Mercies is good, but those Flag Day songs don't fit here, I think. The mood is completely different. I'd re-track LB and GIgaton with songs from Earthling, but not this one with the soundtrack.

I agree with your choices from Earthling, btw.

The songs from Earthling sounds very different from each other though. I love Fallout Today, Invincible, Try and The Dark, and Rose Of Jericho is really growing on me. But if I never hear Picture again, that will be soon enough.

Anyway, I made this playlist. Was a bit difficult to make it sound right, when I first divided the Flag Day songs all over the record. But together like this it sounds just right, and I think it's a much stronger group of songs than Earthling by itself.

VinylGuy wrote:

SJM wrote:Fallout Today is slowly becoming my favorite. I think someone might have mentioned this but it reminds me of middle-era REM (maybe Reveal?). Love the backing harmonies - reminds me of Mike Mills.

Does anyone know who plays all the solos/leads on the album? Love the solo on this one. It's interesting they have Kliffhoffer there but it's Watts who plays the lead guitar live. Curious if he plays lead on the entire album.

I love FT. yeah, it has that REM element but also sounds like something from Riot Act maybe? Down?...its a way better song and idea than Swallow Whole, but similar too.

I think Watt does all the leads.

yeah Riot Act was what FT made me think of too

The outro vocal in Good & Evil is WILD for a guy pushing 60:

"I wish you well, I wish you Hell, I wish you were bygone
But in your dreams, die in your dreams so you have a wake-up
I wish you well, I wish your death and witness your karma
Change your ways and change your aim, don’t live in denial"

poll is up. went with 4. I am realistically at. 3.5 and it could climb up or down

I gave it a 2. It’s more like a 2.5. But it’s not a 3.. avocado and gigaton are a 3.

4 stars, specially in context of Ed´s own career.

The Earthlings (live) missed a trick by not joining "Invincible" with "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds

tragabigzanda wrote:

lecherouslittlestump wrote:I'm shocked at how good this album is.

Not sure if this is the most deadpan sarcastic stump post ever, or if it’s for real

I think he said a succinct, sincere-sounding, praiseworthy thing the other day, too. So it might be real.

Outstanding song. So fun.

Jaeti wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

lecherouslittlestump wrote:I'm shocked at how good this album is.

Not sure if this is the most deadpan sarcastic stump post ever, or if it’s for real

I think he said a succinct, sincere-sounding, praiseworthy thing the other day, too. So it might be real.

I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Eddie Vedder and the Earthlings were hunched over their instruments. Eddie slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Andrew Watt tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Eddie Vedder's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.

I gave it a 4. Technically I'm probably at a 3.5 right now. If songs like Try or Mrs. Mills (which I like but haven't yet made me think "I want to hear this right this second") grow a bit, then it's probably a no-doubt 4-star.

4.5 – Brother the Cloud
4 – Invincible, Fallout Today, The Dark, On My Way (5-star for what it is & is trying to do)
3.5 – Power of Right, Try, Mrs. Mills
3 – Long Way, Good and Evil, Rose of Jericho, The Haves
2.5 – Picture