Red Mosquito

Everybody calm down

Just listened to some Earthing. For people who generally like both Dark Matter and Good and Evil, I'm curious how they compare for you.

For me, Good and Evil was always just okay. But I liked it a bit more today thinking on the possibility that it's what the other hard/harder/relentlessly pounding songs on the album might sound like musically.

Also, something about Rose of Jericho (musically, again) vaguely connected to some aspect the final door-leak clip.

If all of that approximates what Watt gets out of PJ-proper vs. the Earthlings, then this is going to be good.

stip wrote:Here is an exercise - is the first single the best song on an album for you. Choices are yes, no, maybe

Alive - yes
Animal - no
Spin the Black Circle - no
Who You Are - no
Given to Fly - maybe
Nothing As it Seems - no
I Am Mine - yes
World Wide Suicide - maybe
The Fixer - maybe
Mind Your Manners - yes
Can’t Deny Me - obviously
Dance of the Clairvoyants - yes

Looking at this, I think PJ (or whoever picks the singles) does do a good job of picking songs that tend to be in the upper echelon of their records (for the most part). But almost all of these songs are indicative of what that album's going to be like, and how it's going to break from the previous record (going from Given to Fly to NAIS really sets you up for the turn on Yield/Binaural, likewise Mind Your Manners into Dance). I think it's fair to guess Dark Matter fits that mold as well.

only given to fly and dance are the best for me. i always thought they did a bad job of picking singles though.

warehouse wrote:only given to fly and dance are the best for me. i always thought they did a bad job of picking singles though.

yeah, always; I thought this was common knowledge around here

Jaeti wrote:Just listened to some Earthing. For people who generally like both Dark Matter and Good and Evil, I'm curious how they compare for you.

For me, Good and Evil was always just okay. But I liked it a bit more today thinking on the possibility that it's what the other hard/harder/relentlessly pounding songs on the album might sound like musically.

Also, something about Rose of Jericho (musically, again) vaguely connected to some aspect the final door-leak clip.

If all of that approximates what Watt gets out of PJ-proper vs. the Earthlings, then this is going to be good.

I think every song on Earthling is excellent apart from Long Way and The Haves (which are both fine)

digster wrote:

stip wrote:Here is an exercise - is the first single the best song on an album for you. Choices are yes, no, maybe

Alive - yes
Animal - no
Spin the Black Circle - no
Who You Are - no
Given to Fly - maybe
Nothing As it Seems - no
I Am Mine - yes
World Wide Suicide - maybe
The Fixer - maybe
Mind Your Manners - yes
Can’t Deny Me - obviously
Dance of the Clairvoyants - yes

Looking at this, I think PJ (or whoever picks the singles) does do a good job of picking songs that tend to be in the upper echelon of their records (for the most part). But almost all of these songs are indicative of what that album's going to be like, and how it's going to break from the previous record (going from Given to Fly to NAIS really sets you up for the turn on Yield/Binaural, likewise Mind Your Manners into Dance). I think it's fair to guess Dark Matter fits that mold as well.

Looking at this, Dance of the Clairvoyants is the only song that I think the single was the best song from an album.

Animal is my favorite song from Vs., but it was not the first single. That was Go.

The only ones that I think are clearly the best songs on their respective albums are Given To Fly, I Am Mine, and Dance of the Clairvoyants. A few others might be close to being the best. I think what's more relevant is to ask how many of these would qualify as album highlights? Pretty much all could fit in that category. So, if Dark Matter is really not an album highlight, that would be a first of sorts. I like the song and enjoy it well enough. Just don't want it to be representative of the rest of the album.

Release_Me wrote:The only ones that I think are clearly the best songs on their respective albums are Given To Fly, I Am Mine, and Dance of the Clairvoyants. A few others might be close to being the best. I think what's more relevant is to ask how many of these would qualify as album highlights? Pretty much all could fit in that category. So, if Dark Matter is really not an album highlight, that would be a first of sorts. I like the song and enjoy it well enough. Just don't want it to be representative of the rest of the album.

are you putting "best song" and "album highlight" in different categories here?

Ms Harmless wrote:

Release_Me wrote:The only ones that I think are clearly the best songs on their respective albums are Given To Fly, I Am Mine, and Dance of the Clairvoyants. A few others might be close to being the best. I think what's more relevant is to ask how many of these would qualify as album highlights? Pretty much all could fit in that category. So, if Dark Matter is really not an album highlight, that would be a first of sorts. I like the song and enjoy it well enough. Just don't want it to be representative of the rest of the album.

are you putting "best song" and "album highlight" in different categories here?

The way I see it, an album highlight could be one of the best songs on the album. Doesn't have to be the best. I'll pick RVM as the best off Vs personally, but I won't deny that Animal is an album highlight. Same for Alive. I think Black is the best song, but Alive is up there.

Release_Me wrote:

Ms Harmless wrote:

Release_Me wrote:The only ones that I think are clearly the best songs on their respective albums are Given To Fly, I Am Mine, and Dance of the Clairvoyants. A few others might be close to being the best. I think what's more relevant is to ask how many of these would qualify as album highlights? Pretty much all could fit in that category. So, if Dark Matter is really not an album highlight, that would be a first of sorts. I like the song and enjoy it well enough. Just don't want it to be representative of the rest of the album.

are you putting "best song" and "album highlight" in different categories here?

The way I see it, an album highlight could be one of the best songs on the album. Doesn't have to be the best. I'll pick RVM as the best off Vs personally, but I won't deny that Animal is an album highlight. Same for Alive. I think Black is the best song, but Alive is up there.

yeah that's fair

stip wrote:Here is an exercise - is the first single the best song on an album for you. Choices are yes, no, maybe

Alive - No, it’s Black.
Animal - No, it’s Rearviewmirror
Spin the Black Circle - No, it’s Immortality
Who You Are - Maybe. Could also be Hail, Hail, In My Tree, or Smile
Given to Fly - Easily
Nothing As it Seems - No, but it’s runner-up to Sleight of Hand
I Am Mine - Yes.
World Wide Suicide - No, it’s Marker in the Sand
The Fixer - No, it’s Force of Nature
Mind Your Manners - Maybe, but I really like Infallible.
Can’t Deny Me - No, Can’t Deny Me Live
Dance of the Clairvoyants - No, it’s Whoever Said

Lightning Bolt is the only other title track, right? That song blows. Dark Matter is 3 stars on a good day. There will be many better songs on the album.

Alive - 2nd best
Animal - 4th
Spin the Black Circle - hard to place, awesome, but not the best
Who You Are - no, but maybe the most interesting
Given to Fly - 4th, but the obvious choice for 1st single
Nothing As it Seems - 4th, but the only reasonable single
I Am Mine - 4th, but the obvious best 1st single
World Wide Suicide - good god no
The Fixer - no, but obviously a single
Mind Your Manners - yes
Dance of the Clairvoyants - yes

Ten - Alive (favorite: Release)
Vs. - Animal (Rearviewmirror)
Vitalogy - Spin the Black Circle (Immortality)
No Code - Who You Are (Present Tense)
Yield - Given to Fly (Do the Evolution)
Binaural - Nothing As It Seems (Nothing As It Seems)
Riot Act - I Am Mine (You Are)
Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide (Severed Hand)
Backspacer - The Fixer (Speed of Sound)
Lightning Bolt - Mind Your Manners (Pendulum)
Gigaton - Dance of the Clairvoyants (Dance of the Clairvoyants)

stip wrote:Here is an exercise - is the first single the best song on an album for you. Choices are yes, no, maybe

Alive - yes
Animal - no
Spin the Black Circle - no
Who You Are - no
Given to Fly - maybe
Nothing As it Seems - no
I Am Mine - yes
World Wide Suicide - maybe
The Fixer - maybe
Mind Your Manners - yes
Can’t Deny Me - obviously
Dance of the Clairvoyants - yes

Dance is the only yes

warehouse wrote:only given to fly and dance are the best for me. i always thought they did a bad job of picking singles though.

For me, it's less that those are the best songs on their albums, but more that I do think they give a good indication as to where the band was going on those albums, and how it differed from before. If you listen to NAIS after listening to Yield, I think it gives a fairly good illustration of how the band was aiming for on Binaural compared to the previous record. If you heard WWS after listening to Riot Act, same thing. I feel like Mind Your Manners is the only one that doesn't really feel like the album it came from, and that may be because Lightning Bolt is all over the place anyways.

tragabigzanda wrote:

stip wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

Anders wrote:With them releasing this as the first single, and naming the album after it, it would be surprising if it’s not an album highlight.

Very worrisome indeed

that it is the title track is intriguing, but it is the best of a sub par series of titles if they really wanted to use one

We have no basis for comparison yet but given its success thus far on the charts it seems like it was a good choice for a radio ready single and the kind of music clip liscensing/promotion they like to do.

DM is an easy listen. thats a good quality for a single

This presumes that producing music to maximize ticket and merch revenues is a valuable end goal. I don’t agree with this view, and feel they’re further devaluing their legacy.

And DM is neither an easy listen, nor is it particularly challenging. It’s just kind of there. Which kind of explains why it’s doing well on modern rock radio.

I did not say maximizing exposure is the end goal behind why songs should be written. But I think its pretty relevant when choosing among the music you have to figure out what to release. pearl jam are not an event band anymore - certainly not like what they once were. And if you are proud of your music and want people to find it seems like this is what you’d want out of a lead single.

it's demonstrably false that "their fans will follow them anywhere", given that most of their fans didn't follow them beyond Vitalogy

they've explicitly said that they regret self-sabotaging their popularity like that; it doesn't matter if a minority of us thinks it would be cool if they still did it