Red Mosquito

Musically Sirens is a pretty boring song (but I do like Stone's whale call parts), but Eddie gives a lovely performance, and I like the sentiment. Another song where the sterile production sucks the warmth and authenticity from it, which is doubly a problem here since schmaltz needs to feel real to be powerful. The chorus is fun to sing. I wish I was in my car right now. I like the acoustic transition out of the bridge, but that's a boring solo. The outro is pretty.


Inside Job has some of the same problems. Probably better musically, but Eddie's performance and the lyrics are better here. Mike was really 0-2 in terms of writing a compelling classic rock standard.


Sirens did give us over



whelmed

so we'll always over it that

this is fun. It's been too long since I listened to this album


Okay, Lightning Bolt. This is a frustrating song in some ways. I hadn't listened to it in a long while until recently but I've been on a pearl jam break and easing myself back in. This was a song that, as soon as I put it back on for the first time a few weeks ago I feel IMMEDIATELY back in love with. And it has its flaws, but this is also carefully calibrated to hit all my PJ sweet spots, and I do think, after a rocky start, it just does an incredible job maintaining a consistent pace that manages to feel like it is climbing almost the whole time.

Lyrically I am a big fan of almost all of it other than the chorus (which felt a little lazy, and since he's sticking with water metaphors the rest of the time he should have found something there). It's a song about inspirtation and not being able to control or understand it and Eddie sings the whole thing with a sense of wonder - even during the climax where he's rushing to keep up with the song it is thematically appropriate - chasing something just out of reach that you end up catching despite yourself - a gift from the gods.

The stalker vibe at the start is a little off putting. I do like the crackle the guitar has (which fits with the title - there is an electric feel to the whole song). I like when the piano rolls in. There's a shine to Eddie's voice in the second part of the verse I wish wasn't there (a common issue on this issue) and I wish the drums hit a little harder, but every time the music starts to ramp up here my pulse does go with it. The 'you know you'll never her go part' is not a great start to the chorus (a little vanilla - but the chorus is maybe the weakest part of this song), but once that sawing guitar comes in, I am all on board, and the mini guitar bridge into Mike's micro solo is just aces. Chef's kiss.

The second verse sounds like an REM song. It's perfect. And again, the song manages to pull of this amazing trick where it feels like it just keeps ramping up the whole time. Unthought known was going for the same feel and didn't match it. I like the shaking sound that's attached to matt's parts during the chorus.

The piano and spacey accents throughout are nice touches.

The final verse, again, is top tier inspirtational pearl jam for me. It's my favorite thing they do, and there's been so little of it in the last half of their career. After Given to Fly you only have, what,? Nothing on Binaural, the back half of I am Mine (I think LBC tries for this and fails). Nothing really on S/T (the end of Inside Job is going for it but it doesn't land). Unthought Known and Amongst the Waves try and why I like both of them fine, they are shadows of better versions of this. Force of Nature pulls it off at the parts of the song where it needs to, but L-bolt devotes a whole song to that feeling, and they just go for broke here. The whole final verse and outro is again, chasing something it can't catch, but it owns its magnificent failure. And it sounds like victory in the process.



Arrgghhh - except for that god damned fade out. Single biggest crime BoB as ever committed against Pearl Jam (although if I recall he got Sleeping By Myself on the record so I'll forgive him for that).


Anyway, Lighting Bolt and MYM are two of my very favorite pearl jam songs. I'll hold them up against their best songs on any album - at least in terms of the impact they have on me

Infallible: Usual production caveats. I like the ambition of this song. the music in the verses is fun and interesting and nothing we had really heard from them before, and I like Eddie's prophecy lyrics and delivery.

The chorus is a mixed bag. Going in a poppy direction was an interesting choice and it works thematically in the context of the song. And actually lyrically/thematically you can actually link a song like this to both Sleight of Hand and DotC as a continuum, with SoH anchoring one side and Infallible with the other. But as usual the production isn't capturing the enveloping warmth that we know Eddie's voice has and that this part needs to really work like it wants to.

Not a huge fan of the bridge.



I don't think anything on the back half of the record is going to change this - but with a handful of exceptions there is a lot of good writing and interesting choices (and even solid performances) on this album that just have the humanity stripped out of them - which is a problem as thematically this is a very human album with a lot of personal songs and themes. Yellow Moon might be the one place where the production works in favor of the song.

Man, when was the last time I listened to Pendulum. This is a wonderful piece of atmospheric music that feels suffocated and close when it needs to feel expansive and open. They really nail that feeling when they would open shows with it.

DotC shows the potential that the Ah ha ha ha part at the end of Pendulum had (unrealized), although 'stand back when the spirit comes' is a more intriguing lyric to repeat than 'to and fro the pendulum throws'

Is swallowed whole the song that suffered the most from the production on the record - maybe? It never quite came into its own live, if I recall, so maybe it's not just the production - but it has that Into the Wild vibe that i like, I am a fan of the lyrics, and I like what everyone is playing. But it's meant to be an organic sounding song and the acoustic guitars sound so processed, and Eddie's voice is too front and center here when it needs to be lost in the music. And there also needs to be a bit more variety in the performance - it is a bit flattened out - even the parts that have lift. Mike's solo is fun, not his most memorable work. The transition into the final verse does work well - it is exciting - and I love the quiet ending, which comes out of nowhere.


I think there's a good song here that they just didn't find a way to capture in full

Pendulum live is awesome. I like the studio take too. Best song from the album along with Sirens and Yellow Moon.

Let the Records Play gets a bit too much shit. It's a fun song and I like the swampy blues feel of it - although it is the cleanest swamp I've ever been in (production again). I get why people don't necessarily like the poppy chorus. It works for me, but I hate it in Unemployable, which is basically the same thing. But here is knows it is playful. Unemployable is an utterly humorous song, so it is more jarring to me there.

Of the disposable little rock numbers on recent albums (Supersonic, Big Wave, this, and maybe you can through Mankind on here as well) this one is probably my favorite. Big Wave would be if I could look past the lyrics, but that's really hard for me to do.

I dont think Unemployable deserves to be close to LTRP in any form. Musically and lyrically is so different and better.

Sleeping By Myself is probably my third favorite song on this album, and another one I flat out love. They have nothing in their catalog that really sounds like this. Eddie gives a wonderful performance (I think this is maybe the warmest performance on the record), it shuffles along in such an appealing way. It is trying so hard to be brave (I've described it that way a million times before but I've got no better description) and it's so hard not to root for it. I just want to give it a big hug. It always puts a smile on my face. The only gripe I have is that Mike's solo is too loud.


Having almost finished the album this is probably Mike's overall weakest performance on record. Other than Mind Your Manners and L-bolt (where his best work probably wasn't even included) he doesn't do much memorable, which means you're listening to most of these songs without any punctuation.

VinylGuy wrote:I dont think Unemployable deserves to be close to LTRP in any form. Musically and lyrically is so different and better.

When it came out people took issue with the uh oh oh oh oh chorus as too poppy. I forget if that was the one with the Shania Twain comparisons or if it was some other artist. But it was the same issue people raised with LTRP. They are otherwise very different songs, but they both go in that direction for their chorus

Yellow Moon is another top tier L-bolt song for me. And the sterile production may work in its favor here. It makes the song feel like a painting - like a frozen moment in time. There is a stillness to the song that I found powerful, and it gives it a digntiy it needs so it doesn't feel like it is wallowing in sadness. Really like the lyrics and Eddie's performance. Maybe there could be a bit more variety in the bridge - Eddie stays at one level pretty consistently through many of these songs. I never really noticed it that much until DotC where there is so much more variety in the performances. And like SBM the solo is maybe a little too loud.

But this sounds so good.

Look, I kinda like Future Days. I agree the tinkling piano does it NO favors, and it needs more room to breathe and more of the usual critiques. They're all basically on point. But Eddie gives a heartfelt performance and clearly means all this schmaltzy nonsense and it works for me. Pearl Jam have something like close to 200 songs. There is room in that catalog for a song like this.


The stuff in the background coloring the song is nice - it gives it an autumnal feel that is appropriate for the song. And it's a nice bridge that transitions into well into the final verse.



I used to have no time of day for Around the Bend. What was this lullaby shit doing on my pearl jam album. But I've opened up to it over the years. It's a niche song, and over a career not everything needs to be a grand statement. Some things can just be small and personal and what they are.


Of course that outro piano makes me want to go back and delete everything I just said

I listened to Sirens and Lightning Bolt last night right after listening to DotC a few times. You can really tell the difference in production.

Anyway, Sirens still feels like a decent song, but feels awkward, like it has some of the pieces in place, but sounds flat.

I still dig Lightning Bolt (song) a lot. It soars and I have no real complaints other than this:

I really dig the fade out on the solo at the end. It gives it a never-ending quality to it. I just wish the guitar solo was longer before the fade out starts.

I'm glad I did that. It had been a long time Lightning Bolt does have 4 top tier songs for me (Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt, Sleeping By Myself, and Yellow Moon - in that order), but almost every song on here has something I find appealing and even the weakest songs (for me Getaway and LTRP) have things I like. Other than arguing for the inclusion of Sleeping By Myself he really gets in this album way. There is some strong writing and some interesting choices and new directions that just get flattened by him.


Having not heard the new album but based on the limited descriptions we have thus far I can see how something can have Lightning Bolt as its closest analog and that this be a good thing. If everything on L-bolt sounded as good as DotC we'd all be talking about it in a very different way.

blueviper wrote:I listened to Sirens and Lightning Bolt last night right after listening to DotC a few times. You can really tell the difference in production.

Anyway, Sirens still feels like a decent song, but feels awkward, like it has some of the pieces in place, but sounds flat.

I still dig Lightning Bolt (song) a lot. It soars and I have no real complaints other than this:

I really dig the fade out on the solo at the end. It gives it a never-ending quality to it. I just wish the guitar solo was longer before the fade out starts.

that's an interesting observation. I can see that really working - but you're right. It needs to be longer for that to work. Life Wasted gets a chance to get going before it gets cut off. This one is right at the knees.

stip wrote:Is swallowed whole the song that suffered the most from the production on the record - maybe? It never quite came into its own live, if I recall, so maybe it's not just the production - but it has that Into the Wild vibe that i like, I am a fan of the lyrics, and I like what everyone is playing. But it's meant to be an organic sounding song and the acoustic guitars sound so processed, and Eddie's voice is too front and center here when it needs to be lost in the music. And there also needs to be a bit more variety in the performance - it is a bit flattened out - even the parts that have lift. Mike's solo is fun, not his most memorable work. The transition into the final verse does work well - it is exciting - and I love the quiet ending, which comes out of nowhere.


I think there's a good song here that they just didn't find a way to capture in full

Swallowed whole is weird because I love the soaring verses but then the chorus brings all that tumblingn down. Shouldn’t the chorus soar as well?

I think it could work if the feel was more dynamic than it is - the juxtaposition might be more compelling.

I forgot both Swallowed Hole and Yellow Moon mention death-"what lies beyond the grave might be welcome change", "one life, one grave joins the parade".
Gives the album more weight maybe.

Do I hear the roots of DOTC in the lyrics of Infallible, Getaway, and Mind Your Manners?

It's a familiar theme, although this one seems to end someplace less detached (though not hopeless) in a way we don't always see

Yellow Moon is one of my favorite Vedder performances. That bridge is quintessential pj bridge writing.