Red Mosquito

stip wrote:

theplatypus wrote:I don't really like Into the Wild that much. Three good songs (two of which are covers), and a bunch of forgettable vignettes.

I think Hard Sun (cover or not) is one of my favorite pearl jam related songs of the decade. No Ceilign Far Behind, Society, Guaranteed, and Rise are really good. I think Tuloumne and wolf are nice little moments.

I could do without end of the road. But beyond the strength of the songs the whole album itself was just appealing as a whole. A lot crammed into a bunch of short, simple songs.

i really dont like hard sun at all. i dunno why, it never did anything for me. the rest of those songs i like. far behind was initially my favorite, but thats probably bc it sounds like a pearl jam song. i think 'rise' is the best song on the album. pretty simple, but it kinda kicks my ass. i actually heard a cover band play it at a bar once.

rise grew on me a lot over the years.

I think Eddie's vocal performance in hard sun is maybe his best of the the last 10 years. It's not that interesting a song, but what he does with it is great. Have you heard the original? it's terrible.

theplatypus wrote:I don't really like Into the Wild that much. Three good songs (two of which are covers), and a bunch of forgettable vignettes.

While it's one of the more immediate moments, Society strikes me as one of the lesser tracks on the album. It's built on that same progression that made Just Breathe and a hundred other songs, and it seems like it thinks it's a lot more clever than it actually is.

Into the Wild is a great example of why those score-the-song album rankings are just ludicrous. It's a mood piece, for Christ's sake...an intended step into atmospherics and away from "Here's your hook, here it is again, here's your chorus, here's that hook by the way, now cue the guitar and make me cry" songwriting. Play it back to back with Mona Bone Jakon (also damn short and speckled with vignettes), and you'll be goddamn fine.

McParadigm posts turn me on.

Songs, as non-sentient constructs, are incapable of self-awareness or cognizant thought.
Anyway, "Guaranteed" shares the same progression as a bajillion different songs and is, essentially, 18 seconds of melody repeated over and over again for 3 minutes. You can say the album is a "mood piece", but so is Pink Moon and that doesn't feel nearly this slight. Film soundtrack or otherwise, Into the Wild is still a collection of songs, and I find those songs clunky, boring and ordinary.

Apart from the covers, the only track that really moves me is "No Ceiling", and I like it a lot.

When I listen to Into The Wild I never think "this is a great song, but it's a cover so it really shouldn't count".

cutuphalfdead wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:

tommymctom wrote:
I just kinda feel like Pearl Jam is holding each of the members of Pearl Jam back at the moment.

This guy gets it.

I just wish it seemed like the members of pj still had a passion to create pj music. i think Jeff does, and Im pretty sure mike does, but they seem like the only ones

I don't even care. But if the passion is elsewhere I wish they'd just make that their main focus. Why waste time with Pearl Jam if it's keeping you creatively tethered?

Spoiler: show

I know the answer to that question. It pays the bills.

Im still too much of a pearl jam fan to want them to give that up and focus on their other bands, as much as i like brad, ed solo, stone, and rndm, i still like every pj album over any side project album.

So Backspacer is better than Into The Wild, Bayleaf, and Mad Season?

Yes, as good as those albums are, and i would put interiors in that list since i would say its one of the best side project albums, they only have bits and pieces of the magic of pj....at least for me. Backspacer is pretty far away from what i would like pj to sound like, but it has some great songs on it and a lot of very good songs, and the album as a whole works really well.

warehouse wrote:i think 'rise' is the best song on the album. pretty simple, but it kinda kicks my ass. i actually heard a cover band play it at a bar once.

Yeah, I think "Rise" is another one I really like. I had almost completely forgotten about it, though.

theplatypus wrote:Apart from the covers, the only track that really moves me is "No Ceiling", and I like it a lot.

that's one of the best.

This love has got no ceiling is a great lyric and a wonderfully abrupt ending to the song. The first time I heard it (on some leak I downloaded) I thought a longer song was cut off.

theplatypus wrote:Apart from the covers, the only track that really moves me is "No Ceiling", and I like it a lot.

Rise is a pretty great song i think, but no ceiling might be my current favorite on the album, i kinda wish it was just a bit longer though

theplatypus wrote:Songs, as non-sentient constructs, are incapable of self-awareness or cognizant thought.

My experience has tended to gravitate further and further away from Non-Sentience Theory, the more often I try to write.

Anyway, "Guaranteed" shares the same progression as a bajillion different songs and is, essentially, 18 seconds of melody repeated over and over again for 3 minutes. You can say it's a "mood piece", but so is Pink Moon and that doesn't feel nearly this slight. It's still a collection of songs, and I find those songs clunky, boring and ordinary.

Guaranteed is probably my second least favorite full song on the album, but its progression doesn't begin to compete with the frequency of the I vi IV V. And I am not sure what you mean by "slight," since part of the charm of Pink Moon to me has been that it is slight. The difference is that Moon uses slight to feed its wistful and dreamy feeling, where Into the Wild and Mona Bone Jakon are attitudinal and adolescently stubborn in their want for something that matters....and are played and sung accordingly.

Clunky, boring and ordinary seem to get more to the point of what really matters here: these songs, by and large, don't move you. What else is there to say after that?

theplatypus wrote:Apart from the covers, the only track that really moves me is "No Ceiling", and I like it a lot.

No Ceiling is the perfect expression of what ITW is trying to be. Love it.

stip wrote:you know, there's really only a few songs on Mad Season I ever cared about. The b-sides with Mark Lanegan were all pretty disappointing to.

Is a string of posts ranking every Pearl Jam & Pearl Jam-related album into one list brewing? Or has it already been done?

Lament wrote:Is a string of posts ranking every Pearl Jam & Pearl Jam-related album into one list brewing? Or has it already been done?

I think ruddo might be the best to check with about that project

McParadigm wrote:My experience has tended to gravitate further and further away from Non-Sentience Theory, the more often I try to write.

McParadigm wrote:Guaranteed is probably my second least favorite full song on the album, but its progression doesn't begin to compete with the frequency of the I vi IV V.

Sure. I was reacting to your critique of "Society"'s chord changes-- the whole album is pretty simplistic. And "Society", in particular, is a song that's so strongly rooted in the old-time folk tradition that I don't really care much about what the hands are doing (I've been listening to collections of old-time folk 78s and I think "Society" fits right in). I love Ed's performance and what they were able to capture in the studio take. I think it really works.

McParadigm wrote:Clunky, boring and ordinary seem to get more to the point of what really matters here: these songs, by and large, don't move you. What else is there to say after that?

Pretty much. I don't hate the album. I just find it real hard to get excited about, and at times vexed by the love that it gets in the board. I can find more to hold on to in even my least-favorite Pearl Jam album.

I like guaranteed. don't care for the rest.

Into the Wild is okay, but has always felt pretty slight to me. I'm with stip on Hard Sun being the highlight. I'd probably put it above Backspacer at least in terms of PJ's records, but that's more about BS' weaknesses than ITW's strengths.

That being said, besides an occasional listen to ITW and recently Bayleaf I haven't really liked what I've heard of PJ's side projects, though I haven't heard close to all of them.

While far from a perfect album I really enjoy into the wild. Sounds great in the fall and even better when I'm driving up to the mountains for a good camping weekend.

End of the road is one of my favorites on the album though. I like hearing Ed experiment with the instrumental thing. Not just the 4 chord acoustic fingerpicking instrumental