Red Mosquito

darthvedder81 wrote:I've never outright hated a Pearl Jam album before so I still have all kinds of hope for this despite basically loathing MYM.

Why can't PJ bring back the riffage though? I'm not one of these jock rockers who needs everything to sound like "Ten" or "Versus" but why not more stuff in the vein of "Amongst the Waves" (one of the best PJ songs since GTF in my view). Nice mid-tempo rockers with solos that sound written and not torn off on the first take. Bring in some new crazy influences to it ala No Code but let's bring some real craft back PJ, not just relentless power chords. I really hope they do.

Amongst the Waves was pretty bad, dude.

I would be surprised if MYM is really representative of how the majority of the rest of the album sounds. Vitalogy had STBC and then Whipping and maybe Last Exit in the same sort of tone. The new album will have a few other faster songs too, but where the value will really be decided is in the mid tempo and ballads. Cheese like Amongst the Waves and ballads that don't quite come off like Just Breathe and The End will hopefully be replaced with a few songs that actually remind us of why we liked this band in the first place.

verb_to_trust wrote:Amongst the Waves was pretty bad, dude.

I can never listen to that song after this:

verb_to_trust wrote:

darthvedder81 wrote:I've never outright hated a Pearl Jam album before so I still have all kinds of hope for this despite basically loathing MYM.

Why can't PJ bring back the riffage though? I'm not one of these jock rockers who needs everything to sound like "Ten" or "Versus" but why not more stuff in the vein of "Amongst the Waves" (one of the best PJ songs since GTF in my view). Nice mid-tempo rockers with solos that sound written and not torn off on the first take. Bring in some new crazy influences to it ala No Code but let's bring some real craft back PJ, not just relentless power chords. I really hope they do.

Amongst the Waves was pretty bad, dude.

I would be surprised if MYM is really representative of how the majority of the rest of the album sounds. Vitalogy had STBC and then Whipping and maybe Last Exit in the same sort of tone. The new album will have a few other faster songs too, but where the value will really be decided is in the mid tempo and ballads. Cheese like Amongst the Waves and ballads that don't quite come off like Just Breathe and The End will hopefully be replaced with a few songs that actually remind us of why we liked this band in the first place.

Or you're right I guess it was pretty bad. Opinion re-evaluated and corrected.

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:Amongst the Waves was pretty bad, dude.

I can never listen to that song after this:

What's the problem here?? Sounds good to me.

Now that VH1 Storytellers where Ed tried to say that Betterman was now an anti-war song...

That performance isn't all that bad. Eddie was struggling a little vocal wise, but considering the sweat on his face he may have been crook. Mike seems to have forgotten the solo and made it up as he went along. The rest of them played very well and were nice and tight.

All in all, that's not enough to put me off the song. However I do think the studio version was just spoiled by poor production, which prevented it from being in my regular rotation.

"Amongst The Waves" is not my favorite PJ moment. But it's not their worst either. I feel like it gets vilified because it's kind of inoffensive maybe? I dunno.

theplatypus wrote:"Amongst The Waves" is not my favorite PJ moment. But it's not their worst either. I feel like it gets vilified because it's kind of inoffensive maybe? I dunno.

I'm shocked it doesn't get more love. Almost as shocked as I am with how many people like Force of Nature which I consider Backspacer's weakest track. Skip it constantly.

I say Amongst the Waves is the most classic Gossard/Mid-tempo ballad since Dissident and you can run and tell dat.

ok but who do I tell dat to

Also I would like to invite you to come post in my "what race are you" thread over in General Discussion. thank you kindly

ATW is like sleeping with an ex for old times sake and finding out they're not even any good in the sack anymore and it's a shame cos the sex was te only thing they were really any good at in the first place.

And then you have the 'its not you it's me' conversation but you might actually mean it.

Ledbetterman10 wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:First listen and I'm really disappointed in "Mind Your Manners." This is pretty much exactly the sort of thing I was holding out hope that this album wouldn't be. The bridge sounds like the fucking Offspring.

Well then what the heck were you hoping for?

Where to start.

Well, I'll start by just being as frank as I can think to be: I was hoping for something other than a straightforward rock song.

I realize Pearl Jam are a rock band, and that to a certain extent, straightforward rock songs are what they do. But you asked me what I was hoping for, and this is my honest answer. I'm just tired of this type of song. It doesn't necessarily sound like any one song in their catalog, and yet, if someone asked me to think up in my mind what "modern Pearl Jam" sounds like, this is pretty much the exact thing I'd think up. So, in that regard, I guess the one simple thing I'd hoped for is that Pearl Jam would transcend my expectations. It's been a long time since they've transcended my expectations. I miss them transcending my expectations.

With a few exceptions that have managed to seep through over the years, punk rock does not interest me. I completely missed my window for developing an appreciation for it, and it's not a music that lends itself well to discovering for the first time on historical grounds. When I was about 20 I bought the 4CD Rhino box set "No Thanks! The 70's Punk Rebellion" and hated about 98% of the material on it--to my mind it was musically unexciting and thematically juvenile, and the "energy" that was its supposed cornerstone just felt like a complete farce to me. It's not the sort of music I care to hear a band like Pearl Jam, a group comprised of five people with a tremendous collective musical range and who have in the past made textured, nuanced, sonically diverse records that posed questions about what the limits of that range might be, fall back on as fifty year-old men. I keep trying to come up with a better of way of saying this, one that doesn't just make me sound like a closed-minded old grump, but anything else just keeps feeling disingenuous. I wanted a song that wasn't just five guys grinding away on a few power chords and flailing about as per usual. The part in the middle sounds exactly like the kind of manufactured punk cheese that they've made it a point to publicly lambast in the past.

(On that same note, I've reached my breaking point with Ed's redundant lyrical themes and bullshit new age platitudes. "Self-realized and metaphysically redeemed"--sounds like he's about one unthought away from commissioning Sylvia Browne to write the liner notes to his next solo album, which will be packaged just like "No Code" only using tarot cards instead of Polaroids.)

Kevin Davis wrote:(On that same note, I've reached my breaking point with Ed's redundant lyrical themes and bullshit new age platitudes. "Self-realized and metaphysically redeemed"--sounds like he's about one unthought away from commissioning Sylvia Browne to write the liner notes to his next solo album, which will be packaged just like "No Code" only using tarot cards instead of Polaroids.)

You're god damned right.

We need to do something to make him sad and brooding, so he'll write some good lyrics again. We need be careful not to make him mad, or well end up worse off. Any ideas?

Kevin Davis wrote:When I was about 20 I bought the 4CD Rhino box set "No Thanks! The 70's Punk Rebellion" and hated about 98% of the material on it--to my mind it was musically unexciting and thematically juvenile, and the "energy" that was its supposed cornerstone just felt like a complete farce to me.

EVERY SONG IN THAT COMPILATION IS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AMAZING ARE YOU KIDDING ME

Amazing? Really? What about that stuff "amazes" you?

Well there's like a million songs in that compilation so I can't possibly sum it all up with my current energy level, but Rich Kids, Boomtown Rats, The Buzzcocks, Richard Hell, Iggy & The Stooges, New York Dolls, The Jam, The Damned, The Pretenders, early Blondie, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Wire, just a fantastic lineup of some of the best rock and roll ever made. Energetic, melodic, dirty and fun. I listen to that compilation a lot. I was just listening to it earlier today!

Just not my thing, I guess. I like the Jam (and EC, of course, I think he's on there a couple times).

Yeah, I guess it's a bit like acting surprised that someone who said "I don't like 90s techno music" would react negatively to a compilation of all 90s techno music. For what it's worth, I think every one of those songs is better than "Mind Your Manners". Also, I am now listening to that compilation again.

Wonder if the October release date is a ruse and they'll drop it much earlier to beat leaks?
That'd be cool

Kevin Davis wrote:Where to start.

Well, I'll start by just being as frank as I can think to be: I was hoping for something other than a straightforward rock song.

I realize Pearl Jam are a rock band, and that to a certain extent, straightforward rock songs are what they do. But you asked me what I was hoping for, and this is my honest answer. I'm just tired of this type of song. It doesn't necessarily sound like any one song in their catalog, and yet, if someone asked me to think up in my mind what "modern Pearl Jam" sounds like, this is pretty much the exact thing I'd think up. So, in that regard, I guess the one simple thing I'd hoped for is that Pearl Jam would transcend my expectations. It's been a long time since they've transcended my expectations. I miss them transcending my expectations.

With a few exceptions that have managed to seep through over the years, punk rock does not interest me. I completely missed my window for developing an appreciation for it, and it's not a music that lends itself well to discovering for the first time on historical grounds. When I was about 20 I bought the 4CD Rhino box set "No Thanks! The 70's Punk Rebellion" and hated about 98% of the material on it--to my mind it was musically unexciting and thematically juvenile, and the "energy" that was its supposed cornerstone just felt like a complete farce to me. It's not the sort of music I care to hear a band like Pearl Jam, a group comprised of five people with a tremendous collective musical range and who have in the past made textured, nuanced, sonically diverse records that posed questions about what the limits of that range might be, fall back on as fifty year-old men. I keep trying to come up with a better of way of saying this, one that doesn't just make me sound like a closed-minded old grump, but anything else just keeps feeling disingenuous. I wanted a song that wasn't just five guys grinding away on a few power chords and flailing about as per usual. The part in the middle sounds exactly like the kind of manufactured punk cheese that they've made it a point to publicly lambast in the past.

(On that same note, I've reached my breaking point with Ed's redundant lyrical themes and bullshit new age platitudes. "Self-realized and metaphysically redeemed"--sounds like he's about one unthought away from commissioning Sylvia Browne to write the liner notes to his next solo album, which will be packaged just like "No Code" only using tarot cards instead of Polaroids.)

I don't even dislike MYM that much, but yeah, this a million times. And punk is always awful.

I feel like this album is gonna be so good it'll unite the stips and the adamdudes.