Eddie Vedder - Earthling

[Hatfield]

Warped Tour opening act

There is certainly something of this to the general production on the album, this kind of generic 'modern rock' sheen that I find really aesthetically distasteful.

Combined with the influence/contribution of "Watt" (and Klinghoffer to a lesser extent), I think they'd have to be the greatest set of songs Ed's ever written for this album to even remotely register for me; the end product is almost fatally compromised from the outset.

I think my ideal "Ed solo album" scenario would be him recording an album in a big old house somwhere with, I don't know, Mitchell Froom producing. No celebrity cameos, no additional songwriters. Just some good songs, naturally produced - a sense of time, space.

After Into the Wild, I think there was a pathway for Ed to build a career as a respected, mature songwriter - explore folk, blues, jazz, other more traditional musical forms - but I'm now pretty certain he just doesn't have it in him.

The production is huge negative to this record. However, the energy/motivation/inspiration Andrew, Josh and Chad brought out in Ed is likely what is motivating to Ed. He seems to want a genuine, easy experience with making music and this Earthlings experience clearly was. I want a solo album like you described, but we might not get there without the magical pieces falling into place.

[Release_Me]

I'm happy this album is nothing like ITW. I liked ITW but it was one-dimensional. This is a proper, diverse album.

[Hatfield]

The melodies Ed wrote for this album are incredible. I keep waking up with a different one in my head.

Today it was:

Your silence covers me
Like heavy water
Fathoms underneath the sea
Midnight, not a cloud in the sky
I should be lost in your eyes

Earthling is inching up to 5 stars.

[Strat]

The melodies Ed wrote for this album are incredible. I keep waking up with a different one in my head.

Today it was:

Your silence covers me
Like heavy water
Fathoms underneath the sea
Midnight, not a cloud in the sky
I should be lost in your eyes

Earthling is inching up to 5 stars.

Right now that is probably my favorite passage on the album. Kind of cracks me every time. 2 years since my mom passed today and this is waterfalls. However, the song itself is so fucking danceable and lovely.

its a really great song to me.

[Ms Harmless]

I just realised that the bridge of "The Dark" sounds like the verses of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, which is fucking cool

[tragabigzanda]

I just realised that the bridge of "The Dark" sounds like the verses of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, which is fucking cool

Some might even say it’s a blatant rip-off

[Ms Harmless]

lol yeah

[tragabigzanda]

I still love it. But for an album full of on-the-nose homages and rip-offs, that bridge is probably the most recognizable (rivaled by the Petty song)

[RockPusher]

I'm a big fan of Take On Me and I hadn't noticed it, but I see it now. I actually love the idea of Ed covering that song as earnestly as he basically does in this one.

BTW, that solo at the end of The Dark is such an Andrew Watt pretending to be Mike McCready moment, and my brain is actually filling in the notes that Mike would be hitting that Andrew doesn't/can't.

[Ms Harmless]

yup

[Noaheb]

The melodies Ed wrote for this album are incredible. I keep waking up with a different one in my head.

Today it was:

Your silence covers me
Like heavy water
Fathoms underneath the sea
Midnight, not a cloud in the sky
I should be lost in your eyes

Earthling is inching up to 5 stars.

Right now that is probably my favorite passage on the album. Kind of cracks me every time. 2 years since my mom passed today and this is waterfalls. However, the song itself is so fucking danceable and lovely.

its a really great song to me.

So its not just me. Every morning I wake up with one of these running through my brain. I was totally expecting to be done with PJ/Ed after the last few albums but this and especially Gigaton, which I just put on for the first time in a couple months, have brought me right back. I'm actively trying to learn the lyrics now and I love it!

Sorry about your Mom Strat.
Its a line in Comes then Goes that does it to me "The Queen of Collections took your time, Sadness comes cause some of it was mine "

[Jaeti]

Had a busy four days of work and hadn't had a chance to put this on all week, but I took today off and got to blast it in the car for the first time. Fantastic stuff. Long Way even managed to come on right as I'd crested a hill on the highway and a bunch of winter terrain spread out in front of me.

Also, I've decided the bittersweet notes that conclude The Haves are the exact moment a lone homeless individual wakes from a dream and remembers, again, as every day, that they don't have a partner in the world. There is no couple.

"When you wake up, it just might be
The first of many blows that you'll receive"

The two-note blow lands again and again.

[PHATJ]

The melodies Ed wrote for this album are incredible. I keep waking up with a different one in my head.

Today it was:

Your silence covers me
Like heavy water
Fathoms underneath the sea
Midnight, not a cloud in the sky
I should be lost in your eyes

Earthling is inching up to 5 stars.

Right now that is probably my favorite passage on the album. Kind of cracks me every time. 2 years since my mom passed today and this is waterfalls. However, the song itself is so fucking danceable and lovely.

its a really great song to me.

[PHATJ]

I still love it. But for an album full of on-the-nose homages and rip-offs, that bridge is probably the most recognizable (rivaled by the Petty song)

Yeah, I noticed both of those immediately. But I don’t hate it at all. Ed has a skill of taking those melodies or chords, or even just the essence of a song, and doing them justice while making them his own. That’s a talent. They could easily come off as hokey or ham-fisted, but I think there’s a consensus here that these songs bring a lot to the table. I was thrilled at how much I loved Gigaton, and I’m pleasantly surprised with Earthling for sure.

[Anders]

I just realised that the bridge of "The Dark" sounds like the verses of "Take On Me" by A-Ha, which is fucking cool

Some might even say it’s a blatant rip-off

That’s really interesting.

[McParadigm]

I could always use a little more Take On Me than I currently have

[RockPusher]

I could always use a little more Take On Me than I currently have

Right??

[i got bugs]

Everyone is so big on invincible, yet I'm not

[Bammer]

I could always use a little more Take On Me than I currently have

Oslo Light

[Bammer]

Man Of The Hourwegian