Twenty years later and I'm still in love.
It was fun reading this 13 years after I wrote it. Still have the cassette. And the girl.
Cheers, RM
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I’m sitting on the edge of the bed in my girlfriend’s sister’s room, looking down at the lyrics in Binaural’s booklet, and listening to the stereo as Breakerfall, Gods’ Dice and Evacuation blitz by.
Hmmm. I’m digging Breakerfall, but…..
My girlfriend asks what I think of the record so far. I tell her I like it. She leaves. I’m fearful I really don’t.
With the booklet open in my hands, I slide off the bed and shuffle a few steps into her room. Her stereo is finally set up, so we sit on her twin bed, backs to the wall, and listen.
We’ve only been officially dating for six days, but Pearl Jam’s new album is out - she understands.
Big drums. Tentative then authoritative guitar. Light Years.
“No time to be void or save up on life…You got to spend it all.”
This is a beautiful song.
I know of Nothing As It Seems - the darkness, the guitar work - so I really concentrate on the rest of the songs. A few instantly stand out. Thin Air. A song about a new relationship.
“How to be happy and true is the quest we’re taking on together.”
Perfect. My girlfriend approves.
Grievance is a politically-charged rocker and filled with juicy lyrics.
What’s Ed saying?
“Have a, have a drink, drink…..have a drink.”
Haha. Love it.
We are rolling now!
Wait, is that a dog growling?
Yes, I believe it us. Rival is interesting. We’ll have to go back to that one.
My girlfriend gets up to get a drink, my eyes are glued to the Sleight of Hand lyrics.
The song slowly develops but the music and lyrics have me hooked.
“It was like a book he read in his sleep….endlessly….
Sometimes he hid in his radio, watching others pull into their homes
While he was drifting…”
This is a really good album.
Soon Forget is funny, witty, smart. Excellent. My girlfriend slips back onto the bed, laughs and says she really likes that one.
Cool.
Right from the opening chords Parting Ways feels like it’s going to be this grand song. Turns out, the lyrics are minimal, but written to depict a very tangible scene.
“Standing, like a statue, a chin of stone, a heart of clay, hey.”
A masterpiece.
I was just getting into a relationship, and here is this song about the inevitable destruction of another.
The song rattled me for awhile because I was so happy with my girlfriend and yet I knew relationships sometimes dissolve. There’s no way I wanted that to happen.
I love this record.
I knew nothing of leaks. I did not know the tracklisting. Heck, I just learned to use e-mail a few years before.
Binaural was all new. The album arrived with no pretense of greatness, no expectations, no reviews, no nothing.
I just graduated from college and days later- after going with two friends to Sam Goody (no Binaural in stock) then to The Wiz (lots of Binaural) - here is this album, filled with potential.
Each listen turned into a discovery.
I love the production. I can feel this album.
Ed’s vocals? Hypnotizing at times.
And these lyrics. Whoa, this is writing. The imagery, the story-telling, the detail.
After the first listen at my girlfriend’s, I had to drive to work. My car at the time (white Dodge Neon) had no CD player. So, even though I would be late to work, I stopped at The Wiz and bought Binaural on tape. I couldn’t wait five hours before my next listen. The cassette was calling.
My car now has a CD and cassette player. The Binaural cassette sits patiently in the player, always ready to go.
* listens to Binaural *
