Red Mosquito

Aroma of Man
...
the rest

mac wrote:I am alarmed that the band hasn't been called to task on these tracks.

By what, the "Right Opinion Committee"? I happen to really enjoy both "Sirens" and "Future Days", not because I'm a Pearl Jam sheep, but because they come across as incredibly heartfelt odes to love and life and commitment. I can understand if that's not what someone may want to hear when they listen to Pearl Jam, but as artists they certainly don't have to apologize for what they produce.

They don't have to. But it'd be nice.

I really hope there's a "WELL THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION, MAN" faction in the Great RM Schism of 2014.

theplatypus wrote:They don't have to. But it'd be nice.

To me, it would be completely demeaning, like someone apologizing for giving me a present that I enjoy.

theplatypus wrote:

What is that? Oh yeah, it's the sound of a Red Mosquito member jacking off their ego.

Do you do push ups to psyche yourself up before you log onto RM?

theplatypus wrote:This isn't anywhere near my most successful thread, chump.

Link please

Aurynsdad is such a blues lawyer sometimes.

He's just glad that he finally found a fan club that is also a fan of him.

I get bored at work

Heathen wrote:stip is going to love the hell out of you

I can't muster the energy to fight with this post, but I really really want to

LetMeSleep wrote:

Heathen wrote:stip is going to love the hell out of you

Stip's having a bad April.

*2014

theplatypus wrote:This isn't anywhere near my most successful thread, chump.

What do you consider your most successful thread?

mac wrote:I'm gonna go with...

No code
Vitalogy
Vs.
Yield
Binaural
Ten
-----gap-----
Riot act
-----bigger gap----
Backspacer
-----huge gap---
S/T
Lightning bolt.

The first six lp's are great, and are fairly interchangeable for me at least in terms of ranking - they are very different from each other, and all have their merits. No code is as far as the group got musically. I'm open is still embarrassing though. Then you get a drop off in quality with riot act. This record has it's moments though, it's just that there are songs on here that I can't listen to because I really don't dig them - the rot is setting in. Which brings us to the last three records - I don't recognize these as being by pearl jam. These albums are not just bad, but terrible and they shouldn't exist. Backspacer is the best of the last three, and it's still pretty bad - supersonic honestly is one of the lamest things I have ever heard. Lyrically, it actually makes me cringe. Some songs are listenable (fixer, the end, amongst the waves), i suppose, but I don't like bon jovi and the goo goo dolls so I can't listen to this crap really. The other two are appalling. I didn't think it was possible for bad records to make you question the other material a group has produced, but these two succeed in exactly that. My life would be better if I hadn't heard sirens and future days. They are MOR shit for moms and blues lawyers - I am alarmed that the band hasn't been called to task on these tracks. I understand that they are old, rich millionaires now, I can live with that - but please stop making new music. It is dead sounding music, pointless and wrong.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. People can say what they want, but Avocado was when they went from respectable to borderline butt-rock mediocrity. Cheesy ballads and generic rockers. Some of the riffs/basic premises of the songs are so lame, it offends me. I know it's all a matter of opinion, but to me it comes down to having good taste. When bands are uninspired/spoiled, they do things in bad taste, and they play like shit. PJ are knee deep in that right now.

Wendy Carlos's Twin wrote:

mac wrote:I'm gonna go with...

No code
Vitalogy
Vs.
Yield
Binaural
Ten
-----gap-----
Riot act
-----bigger gap----
Backspacer
-----huge gap---
S/T
Lightning bolt.

The first six lp's are great, and are fairly interchangeable for me at least in terms of ranking - they are very different from each other, and all have their merits. No code is as far as the group got musically. I'm open is still embarrassing though. Then you get a drop off in quality with riot act. This record has it's moments though, it's just that there are songs on here that I can't listen to because I really don't dig them - the rot is setting in. Which brings us to the last three records - I don't recognize these as being by pearl jam. These albums are not just bad, but terrible and they shouldn't exist. Backspacer is the best of the last three, and it's still pretty bad - supersonic honestly is one of the lamest things I have ever heard. Lyrically, it actually makes me cringe. Some songs are listenable (fixer, the end, amongst the waves), i suppose, but I don't like bon jovi and the goo goo dolls so I can't listen to this crap really. The other two are appalling. I didn't think it was possible for bad records to make you question the other material a group has produced, but these two succeed in exactly that. My life would be better if I hadn't heard sirens and future days. They are MOR shit for moms and blues lawyers - I am alarmed that the band hasn't been called to task on these tracks. I understand that they are old, rich millionaires now, I can live with that - but please stop making new music. It is dead sounding music, pointless and wrong.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. People can say what they want, but Avocado was when they went from respectable to borderline butt-rock mediocrity. Cheesy ballads and generic rockers. Some of the riffs/basic premises of the songs are so lame, it offends me. I know it's all a matter of opinion, but to me it comes down to having good taste. When bands are uninspired/spoiled, they do things in bad taste, and they play like shit. PJ are knee deep in that right now.

I know - it's not me pointlessly trolling or something, I was so taken aback by the shitness of sirens that I played it to friends to see if it was really happening, and they too just looked back at me in horror. It's the pits - I am not alone in thinking this. But saying that, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that's the beauty of a free society. If people like sirens, that's up to them. I do find it insane though as to my ears it's appalling and cheesy and sounds like bad Brian Adams. I can't believe how free of any creative ideas they are now, or why they are making such mind-boggingly poor choices lyrically and musically. I can only come to the conclusion that they can't write good music any more. I would like an interviewer to ask them why they think it's good, and ask them why they want to sound like 80's power ballads now. And, I would like to say aurynsdad, I am sorry if I have offended you. But this is a discussion board where you, ya know, discuss pearl jam! The lameness of the last three albums fascinates me so I wanted to discuss this topic, and I feel that I can accurately describe the reasons why I don't like it. But I would never claim that my opinion is everyone's opinion, nor would I want it to be. If you like sirens, good for you, you are free to ruin your life in anyway you see fit. If you are in a state of mind where you can enjoy this track, it's an pure thing that you can't fake, so fair enough. There are more evil songs out there than sirens, if we are putting things in perspective, don't get me wrong.

IMHO.

I guess this is directed mostly at Mac, since most everyone else has heard this before. I've been a fan since 1992. I think the Ten-Vs-Vitalogy run is the greatest three album run by any band ever (it's certainly my favorite). In fact, Vitalogy and Ten are my first and third favorite albums of all time. For me, at least, No Code was an important moment in pearl jam history since it's the point that they fell to earth. Since No Code every pearl jam album has been at least slightly disappointing to me. (whereas even an album like Vs, which has some underdeveloped ideas, is played with such intensity that I don't care and usually don't even notice) There are songs I love on all of the post no code albums, songs I like on all of them, and songs I'm disappointed with on all of them. On occasion there are even songs I'm a little embarrassed by, All of the records and the songs on them are either, in some way, comparing themselves to those first three records and failing to measure up (Yield) or moving in directions that I don't think play to the band's strengths. At the very least they don't play towards what drew me to them.

I think Pearl Jam is at its best when they are defiant, forceful, exploding outwards. The first two albums do that (Vitalogy less so but it's such a ridiculously album it doesn't matter). They were a band that was looking for answers, and was going to force the universe to give them up or die trying. I think it suited Eddie best as a singer, since there was such a primal, elemental quality to his voice. A force of nature. There was also a clarity and a purity to his voice that played off music that was less a search for truth and more a demand for it.

But from No Code on they songs are more inward looking, thoughtful, reflective. And in the process I think this undercut Eddie's best qualities as a vocalist, and arguably the band as musicians. The songs are maybe more nuanced, but they lose that immediacy that was so compelling to me. It was what pearl jam did better than anyone. Riot Act was maybe the low point in this process--a record full of songs from a band that had started to doubt itself--the Camusian rightness of its cause, the faith that it would find the answers, the sense of solidarity it created with the listener (I am lost I am no guide, but i'm by your side/if I knew where it was I would take you there...)

And so for someone like myself, the last three records (S/T-Lightning Bolt) were, in different ways, a breath of fresh air because they are albums that are largely written in an attempt to recapture the feel (in different ways) of those first three records. They are not fully successful, but they don't need to be in order for me to still enjoy them immensely. The songs have some of the old fighting spirit on S/T, and all the records have a confidence, an outward focus, an expansive quality, that reminds me of those first few albums. They are still coming from a place of knowing, rather than searching, which is too bad (but I wouldn't expect otherwise from a band of middle aged men whom life has treated pretty well), but I feel, for the first time in a long time (12 years between vitalogy and s/t) that they are at least going to wrest those answers from the universe, and that I'm invited along for the trip. Eddie can't do what he used to with his voice, but I feel like the recent records (the last two especially) do a great job with the vocal melodies to draw you in when his voice can't quite do it all on its own. Eddie can't read the phonebook and make it sound awesome anymore, but he can still sing it really well. The songs are catchier, more immediate, and they connect in a way they haven't, as a whole, in a long time. Sometimes it is in way that are a little obvious (Sirens and future Days) but the connection is no less real for it (and there are lots of people who have had very real emotional reactions to Sirens, even if RM makes them feel like they need to apologize for it). But basically Sirens is the older version of a song like Black. I think Black is better, but if you can imagine why people like one you can understand why they would care about the other. If you can understand why someone would like Thumbing My Way you can understand why someone would like Future Days (I'm not saying if you like one you have to like the other, mind you)


S/T: This album was a breath of fresh air after two albums where it sounded like either a 10000 weight was crushing the band (Binaural) or they just didn't really feel like fighting anymore (riot act). S/T roared to life right out the gate and didn't really relent. There was an in your face quality to almost everything that was, at least for a while, really refreshing. Much of it didn't age as well as it could have after the initial need for an album that sounded like that passed, but much of the songwriting on it is really good, even if the harsh abrasive quality doesn't suit all the songs. Life Wasted, Comatose, and World Wide Suicide are all top 20 songs for me that I have played to death--great songs that became even greater because they were proof that pearl jam could still write songs with a 'mad at god for not existing' kind of fire that you can only get from people who stubbornly refuse to stop believing that there is some good in the world despite all the manifest evidence to the contrary. I distinctly remember how strong my reaction was to the first time I heard WWS, and how I actually teared up a little bit the first time I heard S/T in its entirety--a feeling of relief and gratitude that pearl jam could still do what I wanted them to after a decade of, with some exceptions, largely demonstrating otherwise. There were some clunkers in there (I've never liked Unemployable or Big Wave or Inside Job--although I tried for a while with the later), and gone didn't age well and was a bit under developed. But that was no different than the No Code-Riot Act run, and the high points here were exactly the highs I was looking for. Even an off-kilter song like Parachutes had those same outward and expansive qualities I was looking for in a way that a song like Man of the Hour (maybe the last of the original songs from what many on RM have started calling the middle period) did not. Man of the Hour drew you in. Parachutes filled you up.

Love: Life Wasted, WWS, Comatose, Parachutes
Like: Severed Hand, Marker, Come Back, Reprise
Okay: Army Reserve, Gone,
Don't Like: Unemployable, Big Wave, Inside Job

This would be a pretty common breakdown for anything post vitalogy, but the songs I love I really love more than anything post vitalogy other than a handful of tracks on Yield

Backspacer: I have two complaints about backspacer. Supersonic is quite probably the worst song they've ever put on a studio album. And with the exception maybe of Force of Nature there are no truly standout tracks on the album. But Backspacer was the first time since Vitalogy that I wanted to listen to the entire record--that I liked 10/11 tracks. And there is a lightness and playfulness to the album (which does not need to mean a lack of depth, and I don't think it does) that made backspacer easy, quick, enjoyable, relaxed, in a way that no other pearl jam album had been before. It was a really nice closing chapter to the journey that began in Ten. Many people are bothered by the feel of that album--cheap, disposable, etc. but I see it as a well earned reward at the end of a pretty harrowing journey. It's a victory lap, and it is totally earned if you understand that the build to it doesn't happen within the album itself, but in the 9 that preceded it (and a lot of the backspacer songs actually sound quite a bit fuller and more rewarding if they stick them on after a block of more serious songs from earlier in the catalog)


Love: Gonna See My Friends, the Fixer, Force of Nature, Got Some, Johnny Guitar
Like: Unthought Known, Speed of Sound, Amongst the Waves, Just Breath, The End
Okay: nothing
don't Like: Supersonic

Lightning Bolt: : This is a frustrating album in ways because I think it is a very strong set of songs (one of their strongest) but almost each song is presented in a way that does not do it justice. I think all the qualities that I was describing above that I look for in pearl jam are present here, and in a lot of ways this album is like a mirror image of Vs--stronger and more complete writing but lacking some of that albums intensity (although what doesn't) and the songs consistently presented in ways that underwhelm, whereas you can't imagine the songs on Vs. getting treated any better. I do think Eddie sounds really good on everything, and, even moreso than Backspacer, I genuinely like and enjoy listening to every single song on here. There aren't as many top shelf moments as there were on those first albums (not even close), but I'd defend every song on this album as at least pretty good and reaching for the places I want pearl jam to reach. And a song like Sirens speaks to a self-confidence and a 'I don't give a shit what people think' quality that i like. It takes a certain degree of balls for a band like pearl jam to write something that unabashedly sentimental and to present it in that format. Although many people talk all the time about wanting pearl jam to take risks, follow their heart, etc. what they usually mean is 'i want pearl jam to write songs that I like'. And I like this song. I wouldn't want a whole album of them, but I like that Sirens exists, and that I have it, and that I was able to play it for my best friend (who is not a fan but has heard a fair bit of them over the years) and have him tell me that he basically listened to that song on repeat for two weeks. I like that I was able to give lightning bolt to another friend who was a huge pearl jam fan and stopped caring after Yield and have him tell me a few weeks later that this was really good and the the first pearl jam album he's cared about in 15 years. I like that I was able to give it to a colleague who had stopped listening to pearl jam (his favorite bands are currently the national and arcade fire) and have him tell me he liked it a lot more than AF's new album. And I like that there are some new tricks and some new directions on that album--songs that hint at new avenues they could explore.

Lightning Bolt is not Ten, or Vitalogy, or whatever record you'd put in that spot. I don't know how many of those songs would make a personal GH. But I've yet to tire of it, and there's no song I skip. It's a good, solid, enjoyable album from top to bottom. If pearl jam keeps making albums where there are a few songs I like I'll be happy because it means every few years I'll get a few songs I like. If they keep making albums where I really like everything I hear I'll be ecstatic.

Love: Mind Your Manners, Lighting Bolt,Infallible, Pendulum, Sleeping By Myself, Yellow Moon
Like: Getaway, My Father's Son, Sirens, Swallowed Whole, LTRP, Future Days



And since this is the ranking thread:

Vitalogy
Ten
Vs
Lightning Bolt
Backspacer
Yield/ST
No Code/Binaural
Riot Act

TLDR version for chud:

I like that Eddie has stopped apologizing for being Eddie on the last few records.