Red Mosquito

old thread archived here

Buggy wrote:This is a multi-part series for each album. We'll move on to the next album when it seems like it's been discussed enough. I'd like to reiterate that the aim of these discussions is to hear opinions on what you think is the single most significant flaw for the album being discussed. We're not looking for general album bashing, but rather a critical look at the single biggest weakness for each record.

Example of a poor post:
There are so many things that suck on this album. Track 4, 8 and 9 are terrible and the lyrics for such and such a song a really bad. Not only that, but the cover is stupid.

Like I said, we're not looking for general album bashing. What I suggest is to go give a listen to the album being discussed. For some of us, it's been a while listening to these older albums all the way through, and it helps you think and take that critical view before you post. Try and be insightful and give good reasons why you believe the flaw you're pointing out is the biggest flaw of the album.

Yield is a tale of two albums for me. It's high spots can match the high spots in the catalog. Given To Fly is arguably the last 5 star anthem they've written. DTE is one of their best songs, period. Brain of J is excellent. I think (personally) wishlist is criminally underrated by many people. ATY is good. Push Me/Pull me is interesting (although I also feel like it is trying to be interesting, which undercuts it). But most of the remaining songs all have some flaw that trip up the song for me.

In some cases its the lyrics (Lowlight, Pilate, No Way--the lyrics to the chorus and bridge ruin the song for me), in others a particularly grating chorus (Pilate, MFC) undercutting strong verses. But my biggest problems are In Hiding and Faithful--two beloved songs that have never done anything for me. They've always felt an unfortunate combination of anthem by numbers without the heart of Given to Fly, or somewhat incomplete--like they are sketches waiting to be filled out. There are other problems too. I think the lyrics are pretty weak for In Hiding. The chorus doesn't do it for me with faithful. Basically the complaints people have about a song like amongst the waves is what I've always heard when I heard these two songs.

The end result is that half of Yield is excellent and half of it is a disappointment. My issue with Yield isn't a problem with the album as much as it is the songs that ended up getting attached to it.

I also have an irrational hatred of red dot.

Otherwise I like the sound and feel of the record. It's not my favorite set of Eddie vocals but he's good. His writing on this album is usually pretty strong (excepting In Hiding). I like the return to form focus on big set piece anthems. I just don't think they executed consistently.

Yield's recently sidled up my personal rankings. Brain of J, Faithfull, No Way, Given to Fly, Wishlist, Do the Evolution, In Hiding and All Those Yesterdays are all great songs.

However, the album comes to a grinding halt with Red Dot and MFC. Red Dot is one of those "listen to once" songs, and MFC is one of "Ed's driving songs" which are just too plodding and boring for me (I'm on the record with my disdain for Rearviewmirror, Green Disease is essentially the same song as MFC).

Other than that low point (Pilate and Push me, Pull Me aren't great songs, but they're not bad, Lowlight has grown on me) Yield is pretty universally great. At the moment, it's probably my second favourite album after No Code (though ask me on another day and I might say Vitalogy).

I've always really liked Yield. Its low points for me are In Hiding and Lowlight. I've just never liked In Hiding that much at all. And Lowlight is just kinda boring most of the time. There are instances when I don't mind listening to it and do, in fact, enjoy it. But those times aren't as often as other songs on the album.

I swallow my face just to keep from biting.

This thread makes little sense.

In all seriousness, I don't know. I guess MFC feels a little slight in comparison to what surrounds it? Like much of their first decade's work, there's really not any issues significant enough to hinder the record.

i surfaced the north when my pen wasn't writing

I thought the line was "I surf laced."

cutuphalfdead wrote:i surfaced the north when my pen wasn't writing

*surflaced

holy shit that picture just got funnier

I never noticed that. Man alive.

cutuphalfdead wrote:holy shit that picture just got funnier

yeah. I felt bad laughing at those, but now it's okay

bodysnatcher wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:i surfaced the north when my pen wasn't writing

*surflaced

That guy is Yield's biggest flaw

That guy died, Jorge.

Well I'm glad.

This album might have my favourite intro 1-2-3 punch of any album. If anything my attention wanders a bit in the second half, which isn't as cohesive as the first.

The second half died, harmless.

Yield is a good album, but not a great one. For most bands, this would be a high water mark, but for PJ it was a step backwards, their first. Whereas the previous three albums had, in some regards, topped each other (or at least spoke to one another), this was the first album where PJ seemed to be out of new ideas. In some ways it’s the more logical follow-up to Ten. But given that it was sandwiched between two of the group’s more experimental, boundary-pushing albums, it’s a head scratcher.

The production is pretty big and commercial. Not to the extremes of Ten, but a tasteful variation on that style. Lots of echo, big choruses, and songs that went down easy on the first listen. It’s a much more satisfying blueprint of the kind of records they make today. The two big rockers (Brain of J, DTE) were lesser versions of the type of thing the band did so easily on Vitalogy. The two chest-beating anthems (Faithfull, In Hiding) were lesser versions of the Ten era. The two quasi-experimental numbers (Pilate, Push Me, Pull Me) harkened to the weirder moments of No Code/Vitalogy, but should have been left on the cutting-room floor. Wishlist was a meandering track that collapsed under the weight of Vedder’s worst lyrics to date. Low Light was pleasant but forgettable. All Those Yesterdays and MFC are the two songs that sounded somewhat fresh but they weren’t centerpiece material. Which leaves us with the album’s fatal flaw: Given to Fly.

When your leadoff single is a blatant Zeppelin ripoff, folks, you’ve run out of ideas. I know people like this song, and it’s an okay live number (and better be because they play it at basically every show), but it’s the sound of a band that’s run out of creative gas. And ultimately that’s the fatal flaw of the album. There’s really nothing new here. It’s the sound of a band retreating. After three albums that doggedly pushed in new directions, even when that meant alienating fans, PJ blinked.