Red Mosquito

I just think it sounds so lifeless and clinical for a song that seems to be written and performed with such an atmospheric, expansive tone.

I'm not saying there's not problems with the songwriting on the record at all, but I don't see any here. This one was a production issue.

digster wrote:I just think it sounds so lifeless and clinical for a song that seems to be written and performed with such an atmospheric, expansive tone.

I'm not saying there's not problems with the songwriting on the record at all, but I don't see any here. This one was a production issue.

I gotcha, I just disagree.

Personally I find it very atmospheric and expansive.

Is it a 12-string in this, like Sirens?

To me, there is nothing lifeless about this. I am in love with this tune.

digster wrote:I just think it sounds so lifeless and clinical for a song that seems to be written and performed with such an atmospheric, expansive tone.

I'm not saying there's not problems with the songwriting on the record at all, but I don't see any here. This one was a production issue.

Yeah, I find this to be the richest sounding song on the album

Different strokes, I guess. Again, I'm talking less about the song and more about the production of it. I think the degree to which it sounds glossy and sterile to me is exaggerated by the fact that the song itself seems as far from that feel as could be.

Fair enough. I think that adds to the elegiac feel of the song.

I'm with digster. This one got bob'd bad. Imagine if it sounded like hard to imagine crossed with parting ways or something. And I'm not talking about eds voice or anything like that, just the sound.

I've come to accept the solo at the end, now I just need to get over the rather bombastic opening and the first solo. And the keys, ugh.

But im quite liking it. Biggest 'grower' of the album for me.

If BoB is "going for" anything, it's probably what he thinks the general public considers "iconic" Pearl Jam: the Ten / Versus sound. Those albums were fairly effects-laden: lots of reverb and echo etc on voices and instruments. You think it sounds sterile, he probably thinks it sounds epic and expansive. I have no real opinion on it; I think both can be achieved by both approaches (Ten or Binaural, say). But I can understand why it's pissing people off, as we thought Pearl Jam had grown out of the studio slickness of Ten. I guess I feel better about this approach when I think of how slick R.E.M records sound. A lot of the time, their style could be more raw, but it isn't. At least we have a bunch of records that *are* raw, and we can enjoy those if that's what we like. This is just something else to add to the mix (no pun intended).

harmless wrote:If BoB is "going for" anything, it's probably what he thinks the general public considers "iconic" Pearl Jam: the Ten / Versus sound. Those albums were fairly effects-laden: lots of reverb and echo etc on voices and instruments. You think it sounds sterile, he probably thinks it sounds epic and expansive. I have no real opinion on it; I think both can be achieved by both approaches (Ten or Binaural, say). But I can understand why it's pissing people off, as we thought Pearl Jam had grown out of the studio slickness of Ten. I guess I feel better about this approach when I think of how slick R.E.M records sound. A lot of the time, their style could be more raw, but it isn't. At least we have a bunch of records that *are* raw, and we can enjoy those if that's what we like. This is just something else to add to the mix (no pun intended).

Ten and NAIS are on the top of a lot of people's list. So PJ fans are huge reverb fans.

I get a "Rival" meets "Low Light" vibe to this one. But I dig it. 4 stars.

Mine wrote:

harmless wrote:If BoB is "going for" anything, it's probably what he thinks the general public considers "iconic" Pearl Jam: the Ten / Versus sound. Those albums were fairly effects-laden: lots of reverb and echo etc on voices and instruments. You think it sounds sterile, he probably thinks it sounds epic and expansive. I have no real opinion on it; I think both can be achieved by both approaches (Ten or Binaural, say). But I can understand why it's pissing people off, as we thought Pearl Jam had grown out of the studio slickness of Ten. I guess I feel better about this approach when I think of how slick R.E.M records sound. A lot of the time, their style could be more raw, but it isn't. At least we have a bunch of records that *are* raw, and we can enjoy those if that's what we like. This is just something else to add to the mix (no pun intended).

Ten and NAIS are on the top of a lot of people's list. So PJ fans are huge reverb fans.

Sure, but there's a whole host of other slick, shiny and synthetically precise things going on in BoB's production.

Yellow Moon sounds like orgasmic sounds from Low Light while being double teamed by Longroad and Nothing As It Seams.

harmless wrote:

Mine wrote:

harmless wrote:If BoB is "going for" anything, it's probably what he thinks the general public considers "iconic" Pearl Jam: the Ten / Versus sound. Those albums were fairly effects-laden: lots of reverb and echo etc on voices and instruments. You think it sounds sterile, he probably thinks it sounds epic and expansive. I have no real opinion on it; I think both can be achieved by both approaches (Ten or Binaural, say). But I can understand why it's pissing people off, as we thought Pearl Jam had grown out of the studio slickness of Ten. I guess I feel better about this approach when I think of how slick R.E.M records sound. A lot of the time, their style could be more raw, but it isn't. At least we have a bunch of records that *are* raw, and we can enjoy those if that's what we like. This is just something else to add to the mix (no pun intended).

Ten and NAIS are on the top of a lot of people's list. So PJ fans are huge reverb fans.

Sure, but there's a whole host of other slick, shiny and synthetically precise things going on in BoB's production.

B'OB seems to favour things that sound like a bad sample library played trough a keyboard. It's like he approaches everything like his "piano". He tends to make everything sound as if it was fake, at least it's the direction in which he seems to take everything even when he isn't completely going for it.

BoltofLightning wrote:To me, there is nothing lifeless about this. I am in love with this tune.

I am too, each listen gets better and it builds nicely. It has a nice solo too

Thank God for this song. Even if you hate everything else on LB this song is worth your $12. I do have gripes with Ed's enunciation and wish it was longer and louder. It also closes the album (there is no Future Days in this dojo).

This needs to be the jumping off point for album #11.

digster wrote:Different strokes, I guess. Again, I'm talking less about the song and more about the production of it. I think the degree to which it sounds glossy and sterile to me is exaggerated by the fact that the song itself seems as far from that feel as could be.

Agree completely. The natural atmosphere has been polished off completely.

I've gone from wondering whether this song is about suicide to wondering whether Newtown / Sandy Hook was in mind as well. Ed speaks of gun control in his interview with... I can't remember. But those lyrics, "Round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows", aren't they children's nursery-rhyme-like? I wondered if they were from Roal Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I couldn't find any quote. A couple of places mention it being from a nursery rhyme, and being associated with a merry-go-round, but all I can recall is "Round and round the garden...". Does anyone remember where it originates?

There's ring a ring a Rosie, a pocket full of posies, a-tisshew a-tishew we all fall diwn (posies being the old word for poems btw)

The other one was all around the garden, looking for a farthing, but I can't remember the end of that one.

The artwork also suggests a merry go round from above