on riot act? that was a really good direction for them. they shoud've kept going down that path. For their first dabbling into such things, they really used it well.

that is all.

I agree!

I felt like after Yield going through Binaural and Riot Act that the band was going in this direction where while not throwing out all their rock conventions they'd be always pushing boundaries of their creativity. Binaural saw them dive into this new recording technique, even if they did pussy out at the end. And Riot Act like you say saw them experiment with a drum machine and vocoder while at the same time recording the album live for the most part and making what Matt Cameron described as "the anti-pro tools record". And from there we went to Self Titled? Really?

great but not so great.

I love You Are. It's one of my favorites on Riot Act (which isn't saying much).

i wouldn't be surprised nor upset if the next stuff they do is more like binaural than anything else. i think that batch of songs (b-sides included) were a good place for them musically.

I would be VERY (and pleasantly) surprised.

i hate You Are with a passion. this song embodies, for me, all the things they did wrong on RA. i'm not sure this thread's about that song specifically but it reminded me of that unfortunate episode in the life of Pearl Jam.

You are is only an OK Pearl Jam song, but it really is the type of approach they should be taking IMHO.

i hear ya.
i usually like it when PJ wanders away from its comfort zone but i'll take Ament-experimental over Cameron-experimental any day. SoH, Push Me Pull Me, Help Help, Nothing as it Seems and Army Reserve all show a wide musical scope that fits the band's abilities. Matt's worst moments as a songwriter make the band sound awkward. i really love his contributions on the band's last 2 albums though.

I agree with the Ament experimentations and those songs you listed, but I don't think that takes away from You Are.

You Are is alright. I dont love it, but I dont dislike it(the list of PJ songs I dislike is probably like 4 songs out of their entire catalog though.) I happen to be one of those people that really likes Riot Act. I cant rank it above alot of the other albums, but I do love Riot Act and the direction they went with that album. Ed was so ahead of the times with the stuff he was writing about on that album.

Cane you expand on that?

Sure. Green Disease and Bushleaguer are the biggest examples of it to me. Green Disease is about the consumption of wealth at the expense of the wellbeing of others, which is a big hot-button issue now. It wasnt at the time the song was written, while people were getting away with the shit that caused what we are dealing with now, but EV was writing about it then. Obviously I dont have to get into what Bushleaguer is about, and it's content is a somewhat popularly held belief now, but it was FAR from that when the song was written. After reviewing the tracklisting for Riot Act I think I kind of overstated what I said earlier, but as I thought about it, there was some of this on Binaural too, so it evens out.

1/2 Full = Avatar

Fair enough. I forget that it was 2002 when RA came out.

Fucking eight years ago...it's unreal. Seems like half that time.

Brilliant post.

Was writing about Greed and Corruption in America really ahead of it's time in 2002?

Reid brings up a compelling point.