Binaural: Official Album Thread

[Mine]

Im still trying to nail down what it is about this album that I just dont like. I keep trying to nail down what that 'static' feel is to me.

I feel like there's just a lot of times where the vocal melodies, and the chords are just monotone...like hitting the same chord over and over, or singing a vocal melody with very little variation. Like occupying a very narrow musical space...Like Gods Dice has a bunch of those spots where its just the same chord over and over again, the chorus of Evacuation is mostly just the same chord over and over again...I think thats even what I don't like about Light Years

When I hear Light Years live, they do a new guitar line for the intro that has more motion and bounce and I love it, but then we go into the verse and it seems like Stone just keeps playing the same chord over and over and over again too....Same with on the chorus I just keep hearing the same chord again and again and again...

NAIS same thing the chorus just seems to move very little, like moving by very small steps and just droning and seeming so repetitive....the Breakerfall verses....again Eddie just barely leaving the same note. Like Lukin but not as good.

Thin Air is one of the only songs that seems to have life to it. Thin Air, Rival, Of the Girl I like. Soon Forget I like. But most of these songs just don't do much for me.

I think this is why Life Wasted was such a breath of fresh air with the vocal line and chords jumping all over the place and giving some life

Learn how to be comfortable in one sort of headspace for a few minutes. Sounds to me like you need a lot of distractions in the music to enjoy it. Maybe smoke some weed, put on headphones, maybe close your eyes, and just chill out. Try not to think too hard about what you're listening to, just listen. Let the mood sink in. If something is a bit off-putting to you, a little odd sounding, like it doesn't quite fit right, don't immediately dismiss it as an inferior way of doing something, but rather could be an interesting decision that keeps you surprised and engaged. Oh and I'm pretty sure LW has like 2 or 3 chords in the whole song.

Well mikejasnond's post doesn't sound as if he found anything to be odd sounding or off putting. It seems as if it is the opposite actually.
I don't find his point of view that odd , though i like Binaural better than he does, because Pearl Jam's attempt at "different" tend to result somewhat dull despite seeming interesting on paper or a fretboard.
What I'm saying is unconventional decisions aren't necessary interesting or successful at the end.

[mikejasond]

When I hear Light Years live, they do a new guitar line for the intro that has more motion and bounce and I love it, but then we go into the verse and it seems like Stone just keeps playing the same chord over and over and over again too....Same with on the chorus I just keep hearing the same chord again and again and again...

My god. What are you actually listening to? The song you're describing is not Light Years at all.

Maybe your copy has the tracks listed in the wrong order and you've been confusing the songs and titles...

Id need to see a guitar tab but there's a couple particular chords that Stone keeps finding his way back to

Like, maybe D? Since that's the key the song is in.

Maybe. It sounds like they keep changing the bass note but then going back to the same basic chord throughout nearly the entire song, which is an effect I dont really like on this song. I really love the live intro where Eddie or whoever plays the intro but adds a higher note than is present on the studio version which gives it more life. I dont like the way the chords change on the verse even though I like the basic melody.

I just find that transition from the awesome (at least live) intro to the first chord in the verse to be an instantly deflating effect.

Its just weird because there are parts of this song I really like but its on a weirdly measure-by-measure basis. Like Im digging this verse, now Im not, oh this is good, now I dont like it anymore

One time its really prominent is I like "Together but we were...miles apart" (especially the chord change on "we") but not "Every inch between us becomes like it is now" I think its the "TWEEN" where I dont like the chord that goes to, I feel like I ended up in the same place where I was anticipating something different.

Also this is an awesome live version that while I still have the problems with it I think I like it much better than the studio anyways

[mikejasond]

Yeah, that's the part I dont like I think. (Also Im currently judging this by the live version because I really like it especially the second verse...Eddie is so good here)

Its where the song goes "days alone that could've been spent" and "between us becomes like it is now". I hate how the song's momentum just seems to peter out and fall back to where it was. It takes me out of a vibe I was digging.

I like it even less on the studio version where I feel the guitar is hitting more of the same chords and with less bounce than the live version.

[mikejasond]

As for God's dice, on the verses I think its a combination of constantly ending up at that A5 chord at the end of every phrase and mashing on it forever, combined with as somebody mentioned, Eddie's uninteresting melody. Then the chorus is the same.....hit one chord for two bars....skip to another chord....two bars on that....skip back up....two bars on the first chord...switching between literally two chords and hitting them for two measures each.

The verses move for a measure but then we always end up back on that A5 chord

[LoathedVermin72]

I think I get what MJD is getting at here; I was disappointed when I first heard Gods' Dice too, because it sounded so simple compared to everything they'd done before. I eventually fell in love with Matt's fills, which are pretty impressive. But it sounds like he's saying the riffs are too unimaginative, which I could understand.

"Gods' Dice" was easily the least gratifying song for me when I first got "Binaural." Ed's melody isn't particularly gripping, and rhythmically it feels like a pretty run of the mill punky number. But there are interesting things happening in it -- Jeff's chords are very Cobain-esque, in the spirit of the way he would create chord sequences that didn't make logical musical sense by reducing them to power (or "5" chords, as the tabs say, basically taking away everything except the root note and the fifth), thereby freeing them from harmonic constraints and opening up endless chord combinations. There's a live version from 2006 where Eddie forgets to come in on cue and you hear the chords banging away uncluttered for a few seconds, and it really highlights this. The argument that there's no motion in the song just because it hangs on one chord for a few bars strikes me as pretty short-sighted.

Am I wrong in saying the music on this always reminded me of a less snarly Hail Hail (another Jeff song)?

Some of the same devices at play, for sure.

Holy shit, I can't unhear this now

[mikejasond]

Evacuation chords are equally boring....90% of the song is sticking to the same chord for the ENTIRE TIME. The chorus is just the same chord over and over and over and over....


The verse is just a DIFFERENT chord over and over and over again, until there are two extra chords they play for a second before going back to the same one.

The bridges get away from that but they just kinda.....wander aimlessly.....and then we're back.

None of these might have been bad if the album wasn't FULL of this though. If it was the exception and not the rule that'd be a different thing.

Matt and Mike doing good flourishes and work over these things doesn't change it for me.

[mikejasond]

I think I get what MJD is getting at here; I was disappointed when I first heard Gods' Dice too, because it sounded so simple compared to everything they'd done before. I eventually fell in love with Matt's fills, which are pretty impressive. But it sounds like he's saying the riffs are too unimaginative, which I could understand.

"Gods' Dice" was easily the least gratifying song for me when I first got "Binaural." Ed's melody isn't particularly gripping, and rhythmically it feels like a pretty run of the mill punky number. But there are interesting things happening in it -- Jeff's chords are very Cobain-esque, in the spirit of the way he would create chord sequences that didn't make logical musical sense by reducing them to power (or "5" chords, as the tabs say, basically taking away everything except the root note and the fifth), thereby freeing them from harmonic constraints and opening up endless chord combinations. There's a live version from 2006 where Eddie forgets to come in on cue and you hear the chords banging away uncluttered for a few seconds, and it really highlights this. The argument that there's no motion in the song just because it hangs on one chord for a few bars strikes me as pretty short-sighted.

Am I wrong in saying the music on this always reminded me of a less snarly Hail Hail (another Jeff song)?

Some of the same devices at play, for sure.

Holy shit, I can't unhear this now

They are similar, and Hail Hail is not even one of my favorites - I dont like it much - but it is much better IMO. On surface level it has some of the same devices, but it feels much more carefully constructed.

[E.H. Ruddock]

mjd, did you know Hail Hail just won the march madness song tournament here? Out of all the Pearl Jam songs there are, Hail Hail was the winner.

[mikejasond]

mjd, did you know Hail Hail just won the march madness song tournament here? Out of all the Pearl Jam songs there are, Hail Hail was the winner.

I know you guys love it. I dont get it. But I still say its much better than God's Dice.

[E.H. Ruddock]

mjd, did you know Hail Hail just won the march madness song tournament here? Out of all the Pearl Jam songs there are, Hail Hail was the winner.

I know you guys love it. I dont get it. But I still say its much better than God's Dice.

oh, I didn't vote for it.

[chewm]

Evacuation chords are equally boring....90% of the song is sticking to the same chord for the ENTIRE TIME. The chorus is just the same chord over and over and over and over....


The verse is just a DIFFERENT chord over and over and over again, until there are two extra chords they play for a second before going back to the same one.

The bridges get away from that but they just kinda.....wander aimlessly.....and then we're back.

None of these might have been bad if the album wasn't FULL of this though. If it was the exception and not the rule that'd be a different thing.

Matt and Mike doing good flourishes and work over these things doesn't change it for me.

Oh for fuck's sake.

[darth_vedder]

Man, I've always liked God's Dice. An early favorite of mine from Binaural. Initially, it was God's Dice, Insignificance, Parting Ways, and Of The Girl that "got" me. I didn't really care for the rest of the album.

Now, I pretty much love / like the entire album, sans Soon Forget. The "most improved" award goes to Rival. The sleeper for me was SOH. I did not like it at all for like the first 2 years or so. After Riot Act came out, and the inevitable catalog rewind that followed, I got into SOH. It now ranks among top tier PJ for me.

One I'm still not that into, but I don't "hate" anymore is Evacuation. No matter how many times I hear it, and no matter how interesting I find the music, I can't get past the chorus. It grates on my nerves. It's movement upwards in the ranks probably has more to do with my dislike for a lot of the newer material. It's pretty much mid tier for me.

[LoathedVermin72]

Evacuation chords are equally boring....90% of the song is sticking to the same chord for the ENTIRE TIME. The chorus is just the same chord over and over and over and over....


The verse is just a DIFFERENT chord over and over and over again, until there are two extra chords they play for a second before going back to the same one.

The bridges get away from that but they just kinda.....wander aimlessly.....and then we're back.

None of these might have been bad if the album wasn't FULL of this though. If it was the exception and not the rule that'd be a different thing.

Matt and Mike doing good flourishes and work over these things doesn't change it for me.

Oh for fuck's sake.

Yeah, this is completely clueless.

[mikejasond]

How is it clueless?

[LoathedVermin72]

Because Evacuation is one of PJ's most intricate, unusual, and complex compositions. There are more pieces to musical composition than guitar chords.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

The problem is that most people don't know the difference between "aimless" and "unconventional/unfamiliar". Try playing any good album that is even remotely "avant-garde" for the average shmuck and get ready for comments about how it "isn't music" and "goes nowhere".

[darth_vedder]

Because Evacuation is one of PJ's most intricate, unusual, and complex compositions. There are more pieces to musical composition than guitar chords.

never stop jammin'

[mikejasond]

Unusual is not a compliment. It may be if the music is also good, but BY ITSELF it is not a compliment.

Yes there are interesting flourishes happening over the base, but I find the base boring, and the flourishes dont' save it.

Yes on God's Dice, Mike is doing cool guitar fills, Matt is doing cool drum fills, but it is just embellishment over a foundation that I do not enjoy, and those flourishes don't improve the quality to me.

Evacuation might have more going on than JUST the guitar chords but that is the foundation, and to me it is a boring foundation.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[mikejasond]

I honestly think Corduroy is the Pearl Jam song that is simultaneously unique, interesting, and great.

I do like some songs that have very unique unconventional structures, such as Estranged by Guns n Roses or even Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is another good one from Billy Joel.

These aren't unique in the same way that God's Dice is, but in terms of their theatrical structure they are.