Animal: That’s a tough one. There are a lot of them. The opening riff (not that it changes, but Animal has a great beginning). But I also really like the hanging spaces during the verses—the way the brief silences make everything else so much louder. The moment where the solo begins is really awesome too. But I also like when the solo kicks in about 1:50 or so. Hmmm, but the bit where the drums are loudest in the mix at the start of the outro is also awesome. Lots to love here
Daughter: Probably the solo. It’s a good ‘un. Nice and clean and simple. I also really like the chorus coming out of the solo where it’s mostly drums. Dave A is pretty awesome top to bottom on this thing. I wonder why they fired him.
Glorified G: When they repeat the main riff coming right out of the bridge, maybe. Nothing obvious here.
Dissident: The opening riff. It gets a bit stale by the end, but it’s pretty great for a while. Or maybe the ‘SHE GAVE HIM AWAY’ delivery right after the bridge.
W.M.A.: The ‘Jesus greets me/looks just like me’ moment. Maybe the ‘all my pieces set me free/human devices set me free’ chanting
(as an aside, the backing vocals on this song are terrible during the ‘police stopped…’ sequence)
Blood: The way it explodes right at the beginning catching you totally unaware after the drone of WMA
RVM: The final 30 seconds or so. One of the most intense moments they’ve ever captured. I think this is my favorite moment on the whole record, actually
Rats: The bass in the intro. Jeff is one of the unsung heroes of this record
Elderly Woman: I just want to scream…hello
Leash: the ‘I am lost, I am no guide’ verse, which is one of my favorites ever
Indifference: ‘I’ll swallow poison…’
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 1:16 am
by Lament
stip wrote:Glorified G: When they repeat the main riff coming right out of the bridge, maybe. Nothing obvious here.
The best moment is when Stone's backing vocals come in. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 2:52 am
by chewm
The whole part from the "saw things" till the end in Rearviewmirror.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 3:45 am
by surfndestroy
WMA - The drum loop. Everything after that is a huge letdown. When Dave comes in on the toms at 1:30 is pure magic.
Go - How it starts off with each member doing a small warm-up. Like they're caged animals, waiting to be let loose.
RVM - At the time, the breakdown at the end of the song. Live, the opening notes as they hold the promise of what's to come.
Small Town - Pretty much every vocal line and Mike's understated accompanying support. This song reminds me of a lot of Ten. A pretty generic song musically that is transported by Eddie and one or two players adding something special.
This is a weird album for me. On Ten, they played to strengths on every song. With Vs, they went places that they can't completely own.
Rats - Stone, Jeff and Dave are great. Mike is lost and Eddie tries to power through what requires a modicum of finesse.
Glorified G - Dave left space for Jeff or Stone to do more, and they don't. I appreciate their stabs to getting a little funkier but they're never all on the same page.
Leash - Up until the vocals kick in. the gang vocals are just all kinds of awful. Dave is an absolute star. I'd hate to hear this done with Matt.
Indifference - Horrible placement right after Leash. I'm ADD and I have a hard time switching from Leash to Indifference. Plus, this is where Hard To Imagine belongs to be. This is HTI not nearly as hot cousin.
Blood - Mike sounds like a ten year old with his first wah. A jarring juxtapositions between the verses and choruses that never fully comes together.
I feel bad for not mentioning Stone, He's pretty amazing. A much better pure rhythm and funk guitarist than he's ever given credit for. He's golden during RVM.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 11:14 pm
by numbers
chewm wrote:The whole part from the "saw things" till the end in Rearviewmirror.
this.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 11:17 pm
by numbers
Although I absolutely love the bridge in Glorified G
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Wed August 06, 2014 11:53 pm
by Norah
the beginning of daughter, probably
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 12:59 am
by bodysnatcher
cutuphalfdead wrote:the beginning of daughter, probably
you mean the "you guys ready?" part, or the actual music?
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 1:03 am
by Norah
bodysnatcher wrote:
cutuphalfdead wrote:the beginning of daughter, probably
you mean the "you guys ready?" part, or the actual music?
all of it
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 1:07 am
by BurtReynolds
numbers wrote:
chewm wrote:The whole part from the "saw things" till the end in Rearviewmirror.
this.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 1:50 pm
by Thejambi
Intro to Go.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 4:13 pm
by lowlight79
Thejambi wrote:Intro to Go.
Has the intro to Go ever been played live? and why would they not just do it and allow jeff to go all bass crazy?
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 4:22 pm
by tommymtcom
lowlight79 wrote:
Thejambi wrote:Intro to Go.
Has the intro to Go ever been played live? and why would they not just do it and allow jeff to go all bass crazy?
I've never understood why they don't play the intro live.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 4:26 pm
by lowlight79
tommymctom wrote:
lowlight79 wrote:
Thejambi wrote:Intro to Go.
Has the intro to Go ever been played live? and why would they not just do it and allow jeff to go all bass crazy?
I've never understood why they don't play the intro live.
I was hoping someone would ask this during the town hall, but since pearl jam is a communist organization, they probably had certain questions hand picked.
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 8:31 pm
by bodysnatcher
a lot of my "best moments" probably gravitate towards Ed, bc he stood out to me the most when this album came out. Saying that, I'd go with:
- the intro bass and first guitar hits of Go
- the general riff of Animal. always loved Ed's growl/bark around in the middle of the song. miss that side of him.. just some sort of pent up emotion ready to burst
- the "shades go down" outro in Daughter, and their ability to have a "soft" song and still manage to pull off a great deal of intensity
- Stone on Glorified G
- Ed coming out of the bridge of Dissident until the end of the song
- the outro chanting of WMA
- Blood's relentless intro; that long ass scream Ed does; Ed's vocal cords on the brink of collapse the entire time
- the end of RVM, obvs
- Jeff's bassline in Rats
- "My God, it's been so long / Never dreamed you'd return" delivery
- the feedback into the intro of Leash, and that distant Ed scream before the drums hit
- the atmosphere and space of Indifference
Re: The Best Moment in X is: Vs. Edition
Posted: Thu August 07, 2014 10:14 pm
by Birds in Hell
lowlight79 wrote:
tommymctom wrote:
lowlight79 wrote:
Thejambi wrote:Intro to Go.
Has the intro to Go ever been played live? and why would they not just do it and allow jeff to go all bass crazy?
I've never understood why they don't play the intro live.
I was hoping someone would ask this during the town hall, but since pearl jam is a communist organization, they probably had certain questions hand picked.
They used to play it, or a version of it, at some of the early 1995 shows with Jack: