Good story, cono

That's such a moving story. I went through something like that, only it was the icy streets of Chicago. So glad that you made it through. I'll never hear this album in the same way again.

I was/am in the same boat. Just going through crap in my life where I felt I needed an album of new music to latch onto to help pull me through. Binaural was it. I latched on knowing it didn't have the depth that it wanted to, that overall it was an unresolved album. But that was okay as I was getting to the point where I knew I was going to have lots of unresolved relationships in my life.

I thought the 'binaural' experiment was pretty much a flop but that's okay. The production just didn't come anywhere near to capturing the energy of the songs. They pretty much all seem better live. I liked the way the able kicked off and the rockers. Other songs get close to really good but haven't aged that well, such as Thin Air. Inconsistency was becoming the norm for the 3rd album in a row. Some great lyrics from Ed (Light Years, Grievance, Insignificance) and some trash (Evacuation's chorus). I think Grievance and Insignificance are great politically cahrged rockers that have stood the test of time.

Thought then and still think now that Evacuation is as bad as an album track can get for PJ. That chorus grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. Soon Forgot would have been a neat b-side but how it got placed on the album I'll never know. I'm not into album leaks so never cared that Sad wasn't on it. I would have been happier with Soon Forgot just not being on, it didn't need to be replaced.

It was a definite departure after Yield and seemed so dark and murky in comparison. I still listen to it on hikes, especially when it's a bit gloomy and wet on the trails. But it sure isn't a fun summer album like it's predecessor was. I rate the album better than No Code and Riot Act. I can appreciate what it's trying to achieve even though it falls short where as I think No Code and Riot Act are just messes.

P.S. I remember telling the girl I was seeing at the time that "We (my son and I) are but stones and your love makes us stars". And just loved the feeling her tears left on my neck.

I remember reading a suggestion left by someone on this board saying that Soon Forget would make a great hidden track at the end instead of Writer's block...and i have to agree.

With the correct track listing Binaural would be my favourite album - it would be deadly. The fact it had so much potential is a little upsetting, but it's still probably in my top 3 for sure.

Edit: And Cono, you may have just saved Evacuation for me..i'd never even thought through those lyrics you quoted until now - they're beautiful. I'm glad they affected you so much and helped you out man.

It's great that some people have such intimate Binaural-related stories.
Guess I wasn't the only one.

:binaural:

I fully endorse this idea.

Same here. I still don't like the song though.

One of the most moving experiences i've had with a record has actually been Binaural...this wasn't from a first listen, so sorry if this isn't meant for the thread, it just seems appropriate to be left in here.

My best friend of many years, and at that time girlfriend had left to live in Australia (other side of the world) as Binaural had just about started. After seeing her to the door i went upstairs and Light years was playing (painfully coincidental, i know) and i cried for the first time in about 3 years - head on a pillow, i just wailed. Every line of that song just hit me so much more powerfully than any piece of music ever had - man did i need that song.

'With every breath - awakened regreats,
blank pages and days alone that could have been spent
together but we were miles apart
every inch between us becomes light years now.'

Those words really make you appreciate the importance of love...they could easily be seen as a curse - wasted oppurtunities etc, but to me it helped me reflect so much on everything i was lucky enough to have gone through before. And the idea of 'wherever we might go' seemed so hopeful to me.

Those are some of my favorite lyrics by anyone.

1. Nothing as it seems was the song that made me a fan. I'll never forget the first time I heard it on the radio.

2. There's only one thing that I remember about first hearing the album. You should know... about 12 years ago, I lost my best friend because of a malignant brain tumour. His death changed my entire life, my personality, everything. When I first heard Light Years, I felt every line, every word, every note, every little piece of that music and I made a really strong connection like I don't have with any other PJ song except maybe Sad. Light Years = Gregory's song (my friend's name). Light Years... aaaaaaaaah. I think I listened to it about 10 times in a row that day. And I really don't like to talk about this actually...

This is my Binaural story.

*hug*

I think this thread attributes to how powerful music really can be.

I have forgotten my first time on this one. This was during my down period. To the best of my recollection, I didn't like it very much. Over time I've grown to love it, but Binaural and Riot act both left me feeling very let down after the first listen.

there are some great stories in this thread, which makes me realize that I don't have any deeply personal Pearl Jam experiences. The music has been an important constant in my life for 16 years (outside of my family only two friends and the Simpsons has been with me longer) and the music is a fundamental part of my identity, but there are no moments like the ones you descibe where the music spoke to me as anything other than really great music

I can't decide if this makes me sad or not

Dude, I barely remember yesterday.... how can you remember all that chin? Nice stories guys.

I just recalled another first for me, and Binaural...

I had listened to the album, ALOT the first few days i had it... at home and work...
then one day, i was feeling down (energy wise) so i laid down, and for whatever strange reason... i had Binaural on REALLY LOUD...
and i remember falling asleep / waking up over the course of the hour as it played... but sometime during Soon Forget / Parting Ways I must have fallen totally asleep...

Then I awaken and jump out of bed to what sounded like some strange sound from out of this world... and I remember i was dreaming something... like being chased? or something scary... and my rooms filled with this clinking noise...

This my friends, was my first listen to WRITERS BLOCK
and I still laugh every time I hear it now... and how the first time I had heard it, it scared the SHIT out of me...
obviously, I had always just hit stop as soon as Parting Ways was over, and never knew it was there...

What you just wrote is deeply personal.

maybe, but in that 'athiesm is a religion' kind of way

this may be my favorite thread ever...

yes, I wrote the header post, but the rest of the stories/experiences have been enjoyable to read.

That's the most powerful part of the song for me, as well.

I think I mentioned in my original post that the song at first reminded me of a friend I missed, but that it really hit me almost a year later when that same friend died. "Days alone that could have been spent together but we were miles apart." That line breaks my heart to this day.

My "first time" (taking a cue from DFrank) spans about 6 months. Freshmen in college, dating this unbelievable girl, first love, head over heels, yada yada yada. She lived on the 2nd floor of the campus-apartments. Being stupid, I got the idea to jump off it onto the ground below. Being 6'2, it's not that far. No problem landing, fun, silly, whatever people do when they're young. She however, being 5'5 and wearing a pair of elevanted sandals didn't have such an easy landing. Sprained her ankle really bad, had to go to the hospital. Last time I spoke with her, she said she still feels pain when she runs. She was supposed to receive a big year-end award on campus the next day, and shamefully had to walk up on crutches, trying to deflect the "how'd it happen" questions because of the idiocy. I felt pretty guilty about it and drove home to my parents house--her roommates took her to the hospital, she was mad at me. I spent the night at my folks and the next day, upon waking stopped at the new mega-mall they'd opened outside the neighborhood 6 months prior. Stopped in to the record shop and picked up Binaural, thinking the 45-min+ drive would alot the time I'd need. And what I heard, well, I was disappointed. Breakherfall, God's Dice, and Evacuation were not good on the ears. They sounded generic and bland, and Evacuation even harsh. Light Years sounded good, as did NAIS. Thin Air was good on the novelty of the sentiment, but didn't really leave me wanting more. Insignificance I thought was awesome. Of the Girl, rather skippable, Grievance-- really great + challenging, and then I got back to campus quicker than I thought. I had to go to class, so I gave it to my friend. When I returned, he was humming Light Years everywhere we went. There were a few songs I liked, but I was pretty disappointed by it, in the way a lot of people probably were by No Code. I didn't listen very much to it.

That summer, my girlfriend was working at a summer camp, with no cellular phone and basically we'd pre-arranged to not communicate because of the amount of work it would take her to make a call distracting her from her counselor duties. On top of that, right b4 she left campus, I was catching the break-up vibe. That always makes you try to cling, which makes the other step further away. Not sure why she didn't break up with me before leaving, but she didn't, and I myself had a busy summer, so the time went by, listening to a LOT of Light Years that summer-- it made me ache, and still can put me in a place of hopeful longing. But Parting Ways was the kicker, and it's melancholic atmosphere...

Literally, when I drove up to her place for our last dinner together, that happened to be the song that was playing, and it made me pre-depressed to what I pretty much knew was inevitable, but which she delayed until the middle of September, after having attended my brothers wedding as the date of the best-man, getting to meet all the family, smiling in photos and consequently convincing me things were just great, a little turbulence, but behind us. She dumped me like 4 days later, that sucked. Took it really bad. And not really sure who or what I was doing musically, I was in a band at that time, so was probably focused on our stuff a lot, but I don't recall much Binaural. Around the Thanksgiving break, her and I started to make amends and get, seemingly, back in the right places. Over the break I travelled to see good friends in Tennessee and had some nice transcendent feelings on the top of the mountains there overlooking the city. The phone calls with my ex were so good, I really had a lot of breakthroughs. I hadn't purcahsed any of the bootlegs, but when I left Tennesse to visit my brother in Chicago, he was out of town. His wife picked me up, and we made a Target run. I then purchased four or five shows, while she shopped. And that's when Binaural finally made sense. I got home, and put them on-- literally every song sounded so good. I loved Of the Girl opening. Breakherfall was solid, God's Dice good, even Evacuation-- for the EXACT same batch of lines Cono quoted, though for different reasons-- the shift in music caught my ears and I loved the melody of the sound.

My brother and his wife are earlybirds and I'm a nightowl, so I spent many a long evenign listening to the shows, journaling, and working through my demons in their basement. I emerged and flew back home, probably with the hope of getting back together aiding the emergence and transformation, but I felt good, really good. Upon arriving, I went and cut all my hair off and bought some decent respectable looking clothes. About two weeks later, it was definitively over with the girl, but it was at that point that I realized I had grown and had gotten over her, because her absence and the loss didn't scare or hinder me from being who and what I wanted to, who and what I was becoming, and still am.

Today, for some reason, the lyric in Leash, "It took myself to find a home, a home within myself" has been on repeat, and it's deeply resonating. Having read the multiple quoted Binaural lyrics in this thread, it really reminds me of what I've forgotten about Ed, how great of a lyricist he is. I get frustrated because he'll have entire verses that are just shit, and most of Riot Act is an aberration lyrically, which makes me just knock him down many ranks. But reading the stuff here, he shines when he chooses, and thats the majority of the time. Great lyrics. Great album, that now would be my favorite if they hadn't made it suffer from the way it was recorded and the way it was sequenced. I can put my version of Binaural on most any day of the week and fucking JAM it. Same for Touring Band 2000. When I saw them at The Vic last week, the majority of the set possessed the groove and mood found on Binaural and Riot Act-- its a little heavy, a little severe, deep, resonant, and sounded so fucking good. Thanks, goodnight nurse.

1. Of the Girl
2. Insignificance
3. Sad
4. Evacuation
5. Rival
6. Grievance
7. Light Years
8. Nothing as it Seems
9. Fatal
10. Other Side
11. Sleight of Hand
12. Parting Ways (sans W.B.)
(secret track: Soon Forget)
(Other Side was Binaural, then reworked and rerecorded for Riot Act; In the Moonlight and Education I dig but don't feel like they have a good place on the album; glad they were lost dogs, imho)