Red Mosquito

Of the Earth vs. Hold On vs. Force of Nature

3 misses. Have to go with the Rocky theme.

Of the Earth is a bit of a misfire. I get why they haven't released it. It's overlong, and there are some decent moments, but they never quite come together.


Hold On is gloriously self-serious. It's actually a fun song that I enjoy for what it is, but it works best as a Lost Dog.


Force of Nature has its clunky start, but once it gets going (around the first chorus) it's a fantastic song - I'd rate it 5 stars if not for the rocky beginning. Good music (especially in the second verse where there's some cool stuff happening underneath the muscular riff), great lyrics - Somewhere there's a siren singing a song only he hears. All the strength that you might think would disappear...resolving' is one of my favorite Pearl Jam lyrics, great message, and wonderful outro.


Easy vote for Force of Nature

Force of nature.

Though Hold On acoustic version is better than the full band and eds vocal performance is fantastic.

Force of nature is a great song though.

Force of Nature, as well.

Strat wrote:Force of nature.

Though Hold On acoustic version is better than the full band and eds vocal performance is fantastic.

Force of nature is a great song though.

agreed across the board

Easy vote for Force of Nature, which is a really great, if derivative, PJ tune.

Jeff's bass sounds great on FON.

This is the first really hard matchup for me. I love Of the Earth and Hold On grabbed me on the first listen and never let go. This is tough.

wease wrote:This is the first really hard matchup for me. I love Of the Earth and Hold On grabbed me on the first listen and never let go. This is tough.

Very literal take on Hold On

"Force of Nature" is a great example of Backspacer's production making a song sound more generic and bland than it really is. It never really seemed to take live either (it was always downtuned, at the very least), so it's kind of a song in search of a recording that does it justice. But I still like it a lot as is and would pick it over either of these other two, though I think "Hold On" gets kind of a bad rap.

Ed sounds fantastic on FoN. And I like the production just fine, very crispy and articulated.

KD vs. Trag

Who ya got?

Hold on, i only recently heard the non-lost dogs version which refreshed the song a bit for me.

Of the Earth tends to get a coupla rounds into the tournament then meet its limit. It's worst defeat was against Hail, Hail in 2014 (79 - 6).

Force of Nature made the top 32 in 2017, but Hold On is generally out by round 3.

Jaeti wrote:Force of Nature, as well.

Of the Earth is ridiculously overrated!

it is clearly at the bottom of these three for me

It's hard to muster up the enthusiasm to vote for any of these.

I'll go with Hold On solely for that "put it in my pocket when it should have been framed" part.

This is so close - a nearly 3 way tie.

Of the Earth is not overrated. It is perceived as overrated as a backlash against people really loving it in the 2010-2016 years when nothing much great was coming out and it was a totally different approach than we had been seeing. Now we have the backlash but really it’s amongst hardcore fans. I am not sure your everyday rock fan would ever even have heard of the song. It’s sitting in the dust bin with Last Soldier waiting for a proper release.

It’s also the best song in this matchup.