Gritting my teeth but still will acknowledge Angus for the inspiration of this...

What are moments in PJ's studio work that are brilliant, beautiful, and bold??

So far:

Pilate- the couplet during the bridge ("stunned by my own reflection...")
Present Tense- the acoustic guitar coming into the song on the 2nd verse
Down- the breakdown at the end to half-time

I'd add:

Unemployable- lead guitar near the end of the song in the 3rd chorus

my favorite moments

The outros of Alive and I am Mine

the breakdown at the end of porch, especially from the "I know when I would not ever touch you..." part

the middle solo in wishlist

Black - I wish someday you'll have a beautiful life....

I second the outro from Alive...

The "choir" part in Do the Evolution

There are several more...

Anytime the band manages to use silence effectively, like the middle of "Insignificance." I'm trying to think of more.

/end thread

I like the suggestions made in the first post...i think this thread should steer toward the underappreciated highlights...or the less stated highlights...the subtle little touches that make you get a little tingley. Or give you a bit of a stiffy. That's why i liked Ike's first 3 examples - we all know about the Alive solo, the last Black vocal etc etc..

I'm going to put forward to feedback noises in Given To Fly on 2:45 and 2:53 =)

On top of that i also like the 'Three crooked hearts' repeat just as Smile is fading out.

Also those weird noises in the back of some Binaural recordings - the chains/shackles in Sleight Of Hand...the coins in Of The Girl...the keys in Fatal. Yum!

The dog in "Rival."

Woof!

By the way, after looking at my previous post again...fuck it...post ALL the higlights, obvious or whatever - it's just great to have them in a place, and they're fun to read.

To add a few more:

- "PROGRESS, TASTE IT, INVEST IT ALL" in Grievance...the way that kicks in before you're ready for it is imense. So powerful...in fact this could be one of my favourite. Such a clever idea, and it just sounds huge.- The Breath Bridge climax...
- The Release outro wails..
- Eddie's delivery on 'for i'm not my former' and 'i just wanna scream hello' in Small Town..
- That guitar part that sounds like a siren on the fade out of No Way (i think it's No Way...definitely a Yield recording). Mike is the master of this...i think he also does a similar thing in the Severed Hand bridge and the outro to Evacuation.
- And how about those guitars in the No Way bridge. The tones and production make that section sound beautiful.

agreed.

i like the various Binaural oddities, but I'm not sure if one stands out. maybe the jingle bells on Insignificance

agree wtih Given to Fly, that songs ripe-- I also like the outtro lead.

- Jack Irons' drum rolls after "the name i'm letting go" in Brain Of J
- the whole descending instrumental part after "whisper through a megaphone" (NAIS)
- Mike's guitar coming out of nowhere at the end of Parachutes
...

All of Immortality

The end of the break down/solo in Porch. The part just before Eddie comes in again is freakin' sweet.

Same with Immortality, when the 'chaos' reigns just before Eddies sings the song title.

The 'drifting away' section of parting ways

the riffs in 'you are' during the lines 'Keeping us close, so close.....'

Jeff's descending bass-line during the Tremor Christ intro...

Jeff's sliding, melancholic bass part during the Not For You outro...

I've always loved the odd little feedback intro to Better Man...

The higher, echoed guitar that kicks in during Pry, To when Ed starts chanting "P-R-I-V-A-C-Y!!!"

(guess Vitalogy had a lot of these, hey?...)

The opening, contemplative guitar notes in Sometimes...

The way the whole band, but especially Ed's poor vocal chords, just ATTACK the last half of Do The Evolution...so much throat-ripping goodness...

Everything about Push Me, Pull Me...the garbled hint of Happy When I'm Crying, a big bang and then awesomeness...

Since you mentioned studio, I'll put this here...

I'd been thinking a lot lately about this band's studio work. I really wish they'd make more use of a studio setting. You can credit them with a lot of things, but taking advantage of the creative potential of a recording studio isn't one of them. Generally they offer up what are essentially the live performance arrangement with the occasional decoration of some outside sound (ie the loop that leads in Inside Job).

That said, they have some highlights to their studio output that is worth mentioning....

1. Yield

This record is full of well thought out presentation. The guitar tones and turns are a big part of that, but they really allowed themselves to not just be a live band playing in a studio this time. The dry dirt on Ed's voice in DTE (overloading the mic pre perhaps? It gets worse when he gets louder, so I'd assume there is some purposeful peaking going on in the mix) reminds me of Lennon's continual requests to "make it so I don't sound like me." Similarly, the booming delay of In Hiding's chorus always makes me think of him saying "make me sound like the Dalhi Lama on a mountaintop."

There is an abundance of tube technology going on, making this record sound warm and full. Clearly, Brendan's notoriously perfect microphone and preamp selection are in full force. Where he clearly tried some unusual pairings to give No Code it's sparkling-yet-low fi sound (even the guitars sound like he used drum overhead mics on them), he's using direct high end gear throughout this disc. Whatever they did to get that bass sound, I wish they had done on the last album too.

There is more experimentation of sounds going on (PMPM, No Way) and a willingness to try new things. The fact that these smaller experiments went so well probably encouraged them to look to something bigger (binaural recording) for the next disc. That album, too, saw a lot of little additions to the sound of it. They were, in my humble opinion, more often uninspired/uninspiring (the dog!).

2. Vitalogy

Vitalogy reminds me a lot of the white album...as strange as it is direct, and both made by bands on the verge of collapse. Both bands are trying to push their sound towards its most chaotic, collision-prone tendencies. Experiments aren't always thought out, but the band seems to delight in them in a way they don't always with the completed songs. In both cases they help make the product entire something more. And anyway, how does one not compare foxymophandlemama to revolution??

A lot of 60's style stuff going on. The panned vocals at the end of Tremor Christ could be simple consol muting, or (given the sound of it) it may well be old fashioned tape cutting. LOTS of mic bleed, which was a given back then but is very rare today. More overdubbing and odd instrument play than other Pearl Jam records, too.

-

No Code has maybe the most distinctive sound, and it has a good share of experimentation to it, but with that record it's really the songwriting that has changed so vastly. Those would be stranger-than-usual songs even with Yield's production on them. Interesting that these three records tend to fair so well with fans...

I think PJ must be a hard band to produce. I miss some clarity in many of their records i wish the vocals would be recorded and/or mixed better as they too often tend to be buried in the mix.
I think as O'Brien learned how to wok with them very well they changed producer. Binaural has a disappointing sound compared to Yield. I don't care about ornaments but they use non ornament details which almost get lost in the mix. I think this deconcentrates you from the song instead of adding effectively something interesting to it. I think elaborate arrangements have to go hand in hand with production if not all you got is a mess.
A think i really like is Eddie's use of harmonies instead of just making double vocals as many singers do.

agreed.

Who You Are is a textbook case of this

Also Rival is a good example. I don't think the song could exists without it.

Speaking about doubled vocals the overtones at the end of Arc are amazing too. For a few moments the lead vocal sounds like there are 2 vocal tracks.

Depends on what you mean.



The vocals are usually very well mic'd, and seem to be very nicely EQ'd as well. The exception would be the last record, where it seems like they used a mic with a bit of high end and the result is to lose some deep end and make him sound a bit abrasive when he gets louder.



Again curious as to what you mean.



I like that, too. But I usually can't stand the way the harmonies are mixed. There's such a rich history of harmony production that is clear and moving, and it's a drag to me that his are often relegated to being half-buried and slightly muffled.