Song of the Moment: Yellow Moon

[Ms Harmless]

Harmless just said it, but it is a child's nursery rhyme, and it evokes the feeling of a carousel. Constant movement with no destination that is enchanting as a child but feels pointless as an adult. Likewise, the image/lyric of 'to the moon I go' as a way to process/understand what happens when you die/what comes next is there to highlight how overmatched and overwhelmed the singer feels. He is reduced to a childlike level of understanding against the existential enormity of the moment.

yep

I absolutely agree that I'd like to hear this produced by Josh Evans, but I feel like that about the last three records entirely, so...

[warehouse]

Harmless just said it, but it is a child's nursery rhyme, and it evokes the feeling of a carousel. Constant movement with no destination that is enchanting as a child but feels pointless as an adult. Likewise, the image/lyric of 'to the moon I go' as a way to process/understand what happens when you die/what comes next is there to highlight how overmatched and overwhelmed the singer feels. He is reduced to a childlike level of understanding against the existential enormity of the moment.

harmless seems capable of having a conversation without having to be pompous to a different opinion.

[stip]

round and round we go
where we stop no one knows
so tonight the moon I go

Perfectly good lyrics that tie in well with a song about contemplating suicide in the face of a seemingly meaningless or insignificant existence


the post, however, is a great example of the hyperbolic illiteracy that categorizes most conversations about lightning bolt

those lyrics sound like they were written by a child. sure, if you want to say they are good in the context of the song, go for it, but they are terrible.

also, i had no idea you were such an arrogant dickhead.

edit: seriously, what a ridiculously pretentious insult. how smug do you have to be to post something like that?

Less smug, more exhausted

exhausted from what? patting yourself on the back?

having to read snide, dismissive, occasionally ignorant, occasionally borderline offensive comments about two albums that I really like and generally think highly of, warts and all. The environment here surrounding conversation and discourse around those two albums felt toxic, to the point I stopped posting here for about 18 months (I didn't start a tantrum thread, I just stopped showing up) because I had reached the limit of how much I wanted to read it or defend it. It has ceased being fun, and I had fulfilled whatever narcissistic obligation I thought I may have had to keep posting anyway.

Eddie is a thoughtful lyricist, and while there are dud lines and weak moments, there is also a great deal of subtly and nuance in what he does. And he is good at picking up on themes or ideas and really working through and processing them across the expanse of an album so that songs are in conversation with each other. And I wish more people put in the time to engage it, and even if they don't like it, try and appreciate what the song is looking to accomplish.

So for what it's worth, my comment is less directed at you than a type of posting that had started to rear up again in the two 'ultimate album' threads that I find VERY frustrating (see what Trag is doing right now, for instance). You just happened to be the next person to come along. So my apologies. I was lashing out in exacerbation and did not intended to give offense.

[stip]

Harmless just said it, but it is a child's nursery rhyme, and it evokes the feeling of a carousel. Constant movement with no destination that is enchanting as a child but feels pointless as an adult. Likewise, the image/lyric of 'to the moon I go' as a way to process/understand what happens when you die/what comes next is there to highlight how overmatched and overwhelmed the singer feels. He is reduced to a childlike level of understanding against the existential enormity of the moment.

yep

I absolutely agree that I'd like to hear this produced by Josh Evans, but I feel like that about the last three records entirely, so...

The Riot Act production was great but it was also such a mood record that it became easy to take it for granted - part of the song itself, rather than the presentation of the song. Gigaton makes it clear just how much S/T, Backspacer, and Lightning Bolt (especially S/T and Lightning Bolt) suffer. The mix on Spotify improves S/T a fair bit (not the BoB remix - the base mix), but outside of the first 3 songs it is so excessively abrasive that most of the songs suffer. And the production on Lightning Bolt suffocates the life out of a batch of songs that I remain convinced that if they had appeared elsewhere would be fully appreciated. But it took Gigaton, and the return of an album that just sounds really good (and the way it elevates almost everything on it) to really make that clear. At least to me

[warehouse]

round and round we go
where we stop no one knows
so tonight the moon I go

Perfectly good lyrics that tie in well with a song about contemplating suicide in the face of a seemingly meaningless or insignificant existence


the post, however, is a great example of the hyperbolic illiteracy that categorizes most conversations about lightning bolt

those lyrics sound like they were written by a child. sure, if you want to say they are good in the context of the song, go for it, but they are terrible.

also, i had no idea you were such an arrogant dickhead.

edit: seriously, what a ridiculously pretentious insult. how smug do you have to be to post something like that?

Less smug, more exhausted

exhausted from what? patting yourself on the back?

having to read snide, dismissive, occasionally ignorant, occasionally borderline offensive comments about two albums that I really like and generally think highly of, warts and all. The environment here surrounding conversation and discourse around those two albums felt toxic, to the point I stopped posting here for about 18 months (I didn't start a tantrum thread, I just stopped showing up) because I had reached the limit of how much I wanted to read it or defend it. It has ceased being fun, and I had fulfilled whatever narcissistic obligation I thought I may have had to keep posting anyway.

Eddie is a thoughtful lyricist, and while there are dud lines and weak moments, there is also a great deal of subtly and nuance in what he does. And he is good at picking up on themes or ideas and really working through and processing them across the expanse of an album so that songs are in conversation with each other. And I wish more people put in the time to engage it, and even if they don't like it, try and appreciate what the song is looking to accomplish.

So for what it's worth, my comment is less directed at you than a type of posting that had started to rear up again in the two 'ultimate album' threads that I find VERY frustrating. You just happened to be the next person to come along. So my apologies. I was lashing out in exacerbation and did not intended to give offense.

maybe you should have started a tantrum thread? i was just taken aback b/c i wouldnt expect snide, dismissive ignorant comments from you.

as far as the lyrics, i just cant help but find that line too cliche. "to the moon i go" i get b/c the song seems to be about death, but the lines before i find really jarring. and i think i heard the same line in a pink floyd song. which maybe was the entire point, didnt they say they were listening to pink floyd alot when they wrote this? holy shit i think i'm on to something

[stip]

Look, I've got 35,000 posts and have been on this forum for almost 20 years. Everyone has a bad moment. The key is whether or not people recognize it and apologize when it happens.

[Jorge]

Not me. I've never had a bad moment.

[warehouse]

Look, I've got 35,000 posts and have been on this forum for almost 20 years. Everyone has a bad moment. The key is whether or not people recognize it and apologize when it happens.

well now i love you again

[stip]

round and round we go
where we stop no one knows
so tonight the moon I go

Perfectly good lyrics that tie in well with a song about contemplating suicide in the face of a seemingly meaningless or insignificant existence


the post, however, is a great example of the hyperbolic illiteracy that categorizes most conversations about lightning bolt

those lyrics sound like they were written by a child. sure, if you want to say they are good in the context of the song, go for it, but they are terrible.

also, i had no idea you were such an arrogant dickhead.

edit: seriously, what a ridiculously pretentious insult. how smug do you have to be to post something like that?

Less smug, more exhausted

exhausted from what? patting yourself on the back?

having to read snide, dismissive, occasionally ignorant, occasionally borderline offensive comments about two albums that I really like and generally think highly of, warts and all. The environment here surrounding conversation and discourse around those two albums felt toxic, to the point I stopped posting here for about 18 months (I didn't start a tantrum thread, I just stopped showing up) because I had reached the limit of how much I wanted to read it or defend it. It has ceased being fun, and I had fulfilled whatever narcissistic obligation I thought I may have had to keep posting anyway.

Eddie is a thoughtful lyricist, and while there are dud lines and weak moments, there is also a great deal of subtly and nuance in what he does. And he is good at picking up on themes or ideas and really working through and processing them across the expanse of an album so that songs are in conversation with each other. And I wish more people put in the time to engage it, and even if they don't like it, try and appreciate what the song is looking to accomplish.

So for what it's worth, my comment is less directed at you than a type of posting that had started to rear up again in the two 'ultimate album' threads that I find VERY frustrating. You just happened to be the next person to come along. So my apologies. I was lashing out in exacerbation and did not intended to give offense.

maybe you should have started a tantrum thread? i was just taken aback b/c i wouldnt expect snide, dismissive ignorant comments from you.

as far as the lyrics, i just cant help but find that line too cliche. "to the moon i go" i get b/c the song seems to be about death, but the lines before i find really jarring. and i think i heard the same line in a pink floyd song. which maybe was the entire point, didnt they say they were listening to pink floyd alot when they wrote this? holy shit i think i'm on to something

I am only passingly familiar with Pink Floyd so I couldn't comment. If and when you listen to this again, try and approach it as an experience of existential awe - it is a good starry quiet night song that is really meant to evoke a feeling of your own powerlessness and meaninglessness. If you don't like it you don't like it, but the childlike regression in that verse is done with intentionality. It isn't cliched because it isn't lazy, or shorthand.

The music captures this pretty well, I think (though Mike breaks the move). The music isn't flashy or showy or busy, but it envelopes. It feels immense with nothing to prove. It's almost indifferent. As it should be. Jeff wrote this one, I think. He doesn't do simple compositions that often, but he captured something pretty powerful here, I think.

[stip]

Not me. I've never had a bad moment.

That's because you are the platonic form of posting the rest of us are measured against

[Ms Harmless]

it seems to me that Jeff (did he write this?) has a wide-eyed, childlike imagination, which displays an age-regressive vulnerability

I like Jeff

[stip]

This solemn Jeff Ament and Eddie Vedder penned song almost didn't make the Lightning Bolt album, but the two Pearl Jam guitarists championed it. "We ended up moving the key a little bit and that really brought the vocal out more in a really interesting way," Stone Gossard told Billboard magazine. "But the odd time signature of that song creates something unique about that song,"

"In terms of a lead," added Mike McCready, "I feel that that was trying to actually write a beautiful part of a person ascending."

Looks like. What is the odd time signature of the song?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

are there other songs in 11/8?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

no PJ songs? It never occurred to me that Yellow Moon was in an alternate signature

[Jaeti]

Crazy talk. It gets ranked like this:

Yellow Moon
Mekhi Phifer
Food water shelter
Everything else

Fixed

[Jaeti]

The Lightning Bolt guided tour never reached conclusion, did it? Never made it to Yellow Moon?

[Mike]

no PJ songs? It never occurred to me that Yellow Moon was in an alternate signature

It's more like 3/4 with a beat missing in the last bar. (which could technically be called 11/8)
one two three - one two three - one two three - one two
one two three - one two three - one two three - one two

And that's not the whole song. In some parts it's just 3/4 without the beat missing.

This is what makes it feel similar to Low Light. Low light is 3/4 but with an added beat at some points.
one two three - one two three - one two three - one two three four

[stip]

The Lightning Bolt guided tour never reached conclusion, did it? Never made it to Yellow Moon?

it didn't actually. I think got halfway through and work blew up and there was almost no engagement. It was too much work to be something I was just doing for myself. I may finish it before doing one for Gigaton, since they are both middle aged albums and Gigaton resolves or expands upon a bunch of themes on that album.