frank, i just started reading this thread about half an hour ago. and its intense, dude. no code has always been in my top 3 albums (usually its neck and neck with yield for my favorite), so i have spent more time with it than most of pearl jam's albums, or for that matter, most albums in general. but these write-ups you have been doing are incredible, especially how you link the songs together. that is important for a lot of people, since no code is usually regarded as being somehwat disjointed. this has allowed me to look at some of my favorite songs from a somewhat different point of view... and i hope it leads a few people to realize how excellent this album is.

cant wait for the present tense edition.

Does anyone think that putting polls on these album tour threads would be a good idea? Would a before tour poll and an after tour poll be possible?

I suppose it is possible. What would you want the poll to ask?


oh, and welcome back

Thanks stip, it's good to be home, and welcome back yourself.

I'm not sure that it's even a good idea. I'll think about it some more.

what's up with this frank? don't let us down right before Present Tense!!

Frank's in hiding

I think that Frank has probably abandoned this thread, but I didn't want to let it die without some mention being made about PRESENT TENSE. I can't treat it with the same kind of depth that Frank has done on the previous songs, but I do feel that in many ways PRESENT TENSE is where all of the songs that come before it lead. The previous nine tracks have all dealt with the examination of oneself, one's life and one's interactions with others. PT is the end of the road. It is the blueprint for putting the past in context and moving forward. In many ways, No Code ends here. The remaining songs are a bonus.

It begins quietly enough, with that distinctive intro, the ringing deep tones anchoring the celestial high notes. The vocal is quiet and subdued, fitting the questioning nature of the lyrics. Asking us first to take a lesson from the natural world,

"Do you see the way that tree bends?
Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun's rays
A lesson to be applied,"

then take a look at ourselves and our place in the world,

"Have you ideas on how this life ends?
Checked your hands and studied the lines."

Then the song asks the question,

"Have you the belief that the road ahead, ascends off into the light?"

The answer of course is that it

"Makes much more sense, to live in the present tense."

With that the song builds to an exhilarating climax before decelerating with a series of repeated, otherworldly guitar arppeggios and returning to the opening guitar figure. It's almost like going an a journey and being returned safe and sound to your front door.

There are guitars all over the place on this song. They blend into one smooth, cohesive listening unit that has almost a symphonic feel. A couple of violins, a cello, maybe a bassoon to take over the main theme might have been very nice. I really love this song, and it's astonishing to me how well they pull it off live.

I really like the message of present tense, and the music is terrific. But for whatever reason I've never really gotten into the lyrics. they feel a bit heavy handed to me. But I also think I'm the only one who feels this way

I do really love the "you can come to terms and realize you're the only one who can/cannot forgive yourself" lyric

They really pull this song off live...The dynamics are just intense - from that sparse opening chorus, to the climatic ending. It's probably my favourite PJ song live, i felt so fortunate to hear it at Wembley.

I've always felt this should be the song to close No Code. As has been said - it's the end of the journey, the final realisation, and it follows up and concludes themes hinted and touched upon throughout the album (Sometimes, Who You Are, In My Tree, the outro to Red Mosquito etc etc).

Sonically, the piece also does a great job in reflecting the lyrics and the state of the narrator: the verses are ponderings..and the outro seems to represent a cleansing of self - with the music solemnly extinguishing as the narrator's perspective becomes clearer and more focussed. The young novice from Sometimes, In My Tree, Off He Goes etc finally finds his footing.

i think frank stopped posting to avoid having to defend the mess that is the rest of no code after present tense

I'm going to have to post something on that masterpiece known as MANKIND.

frank has said his goodbye's to rm...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68737&p=1966908&hilit=#p1966908

I'm really curious about what Frank would have said about the inclusion of MANKIND on No Code. For me it works as satire, and it's a fun tune, but the transition from PRESENT TENSE to MANKIND feels uncomfortable. Equally uncomfortable, is the transition from MANKIND to I'M OPEN.

There are several things that make these transitions so jarring. First, the style of the arrangements is so different. PRESENT TENSE is pretty complex, and every tone in the mix is crystal clear. MANKIND has no subtle flourishes, and the sound is murky. Second, the transition from that remarkable vocal performance from Eddie, to Stone's voice. Overall, it feels like a foreigner on the album. But it might have worked better in a different position.

It seems like it would be a fun live tune, but Stone doesn't seem able to deliver live.

I'm Open

In honour of DirtyFrank i'm going to post some thoughts on I'm Open, and follow on from the previous posts regarding Present tense and Mankind...

As pointed out, the triplet of Present Tense/Mankind/I'm Open is particularly uncomfortble. Personally, a transition of Present Tense into I'm Open would have been a much more suitable running order for two reasons.

Firstly, thematically the two go hand in hand. Starting with the music - the fade out of Present Tense into the opening drone of I'm Open is much more easier on the ears than PT into Mankind. Both songs rely on layers which add an atmosphere to the songs and consequently reflects on the complexity of the subjects being portrayed. As so much of No Code results in being, these two tracks become a musical documentation of Ed's character - it's perhaps not as straight forward as we might have thought, and so we hear expressions from Eddie from all angles - a spoken narrative which attempts to explain, low vocal drones, and breaking harmonys scattered int he back drop. Lyrically, PT and I'm open also connect and that leads to my second point...

As Frank has proved so strongly through this walk through, there is a strong link between the songs on No Code. From each song we learn of another fragment of the character...whether it is through the singer questioning/musing, trying to make sense of existence or fighting battles - the story ends through the PT/I'm Open pairing. No Code is the maturation of a soul, and the journey is summarised up to this point through I'm open's first verse:

A man lies in his bed in a room with no door
He waits, hoping for a presence or something, anything to enter
After spending half his life searching
He still felt as blank as the ceiling at which he stared
He is alive, but feels absolutely nothing, so is he?

Waiting...searching and feeling nothing. The second verse carries on in similar vein:

When he was six, he believed that the moon overhead followed him
By nine, he deciphered the illusion, trading magic for fact, no trade-backs
So this is what it's like to be an adult?
If he only knew now what he knew then

This shows naivity and fragility, and though shown through this story of a child, it can of course be seen as a parallel to what Eddie may have been feeling from this era. What is also interesting is how these two verses bring forward previous themes in the earlier No Code songs - giving the album a sensse of cohesion that can at first be easily missed. 'So this is what it's like to be an adult?' This is the climatic part in the album where the realisation is made clear, and the following line reiterates this: 'If he only knew now what he knew then' - this is an idea presented through the end of Red Mosquito where this notion is foreshadowed. In this respect, No Code is almost cyclic in it's nature, the themes presented at the start reoccur and are present towards the end, though perhaps more resolved.

The end of I'm Open and No Code (i see Around the Bend as a kind of encore to the journey) presents hope with the character escaping through a dream. Whilst it could be seen as a defeat - with the character having to abandon their true self in order to escape, i see it more as a change in vision and perspective - through a fresh lens and an evaluation of self it becomes possible to make a little bit more sense of everything, and sometimes that's all that is needed.

Lying sideways atop crumpled sheets and no covers he decides to dream.
Dream up a new self for himself.

Very nice analysis. It may be a part of the process of growing up. Abandoning dreams, accepting the reality of day to day life, and learning how to find meaning in it all.

Just of the sake of completion, I'm putting Frank's analysis of AROUND THE BEND here:

Picture this: a father sitting in a dark room, holding his peaceful infant child and watching the child as he/she falls asleep. The feeling of absenteeism weighs heavy on his conscience, but it doesn't detract from the indescribable love he has for his brood. During this moment, the world disappears. There is no past or perils of parenthood, just the precious present and the future as the father sings the child a lullaby. This is Around the Bend.

The lyrics are fairly straightforward, but that's okay they paint a lovely picture and are able to stir up an emotional response, at least for me. Twenty-eight years ago, I was that child and the narrator was my father. And someday, I'll be the narrator. Sure, it's a lullaby, but on the periphery is a song about the bond between parent and child.

Surely there are members of this board for which the song just does not work. I would hypothesize that the song's music can be directly attributed to this; either you like it or you don't. The country-ish style musical backing is unlike anything Pearl Jam had ever done before, and for a band that was one of the most popular "rock" bands in the world just a few years before, this must have come as quite a shock to many. Hell, it shocked me the first time I heard it as well. But I found that after repeated listens, you can forget that it's Pearl Jam and just appreciate the beauty of the melody. It's soft and it's gentle, as a lullaby should be.

Around the Bend works extremely well as the closing song on No Code. The introspection of many of the songs ends with a number that inspires some sort of hope: "There's a sun around the bend." This was new ground for the band; consider the previous album closers of Release, Indifference and Immortality. Three pretty grim songs, no? No Code is an album that showcased a new, more mature Pearl Jam, reflected perfectly by having Around the Bend as its coda.

We can only escape the shackles of humanity by hoping that our children never have to bear them. And when you're sitting in a dark room, holding your child close and breathing in its innocence, that notion seems not only plausible but pretty damn concrete.

My favorite verse:

"All the evenings close like this
All these moments that I've missed
Please forgive me, won't you, dear?
Please forgive and let me share...
With... you... around the bend"

I'd have to agree with a lot of what has been said in here re: the later tracks. IMO, the end of the album would work far batter if we just got rid of Mankind altogether and made it a B-side. With that out of the way, PT > I'm Open > Around the Bend makes for a nice closing trilogy, I think.

iceage said all that needs to be said about I'm Open and why it should follow PT. They would work together.

And while the sonic connection doesn't hold with I'm open > Around the Bend, i still always liked the way the songs played off each other.

I'm Open is a song from an adult point of view, remembering what childhood (and the painful process of leaving it) was like. Though there are undercurrents of bitterness (So this is what it's like to be an adult), there's no hostility about childhood. Indeed, the "I'm open" refrain seems to me to be a plea for that self to come back: I'm open to believing in those things I used to believe in again. "Come in."

Of course, as Eddie points out, "No tradebacks." We can't ever really go back. Around the Bend is an acceptance of this fact, I think. It's a lullabye, a song sung from a father (or a mother, I suppose) to a child. Without explicitly recalling anything from "I'm open," the innocence of the lost child in I'm Open and the innocence of the subject being sung to in Around the bend is clear.

If the person singing the songs is the same, then reconciliation of lost childhood as come via parenthood. You may never get your childhood back - but through children, you get to relive it anyway.

I can fully understand not "getting" Around the Bend; it's about as "not Pearl jam" as it gets. But if you can put that aside, it's a really pretty little song, and a lovely, calm way to close the album.

I'm not as convinced of the cohesion of No Code as Frank was, but it does seem to me to be an album that is (broadly) dealing with maturity; both the difficulty in getting there, and adjusting to it once you suddenly realize you;ve arrived. To that extent, PT > I'm Open > Around the Bend are an almost perfect trilogy to close with. If only we could lose Mankind.

Yeah, this is the cohesion that i see through the album. I think a large reason for this is that fact Ed is ALL over it. It's essentially The Thoughts and Mind of Eddie Vedder.

I love the feel of Around The Bend, i think it's the perfect calming after I'm Open. I also love the lyric - 'There's a sun around the bend'. So hopeful. In terms of the recording of it, it's something i'd like to hear more of from PJ. It's slightly similar to the Binaural style recordings, like Fatal/Of The Girl. You can picture all of the guys just set up in a room and playing it live (much like the image on the inside of the No Code album). You can hear Eddie breating in the pauses, his lips closing after sentences, giving the band cues when to change to the chorus - it's really intimate. The piano is also a really nice addition. I'm not so sure if it's a necessary part of whatever concept we feel the need to try and explain and show through our analysis...but it's definitely a pretty little song to end the album, and i'm glad it's there. Not like that bastard Mankind *shakes fist*

Hey people.

Sorry about the delays - between a hectic summer personally and some problems on RM, this thread has taken forever to be fully realized. I see that some of you have posted your own reviews of the 4 remaining songs, which I have not read yet. I still plan on finishing this thread very soon. I'm putting my final thoughts together for Present Tense. I'll go back and read SLH's Present Tense and the I'm Open review after I finish with my own. I don't want to be repetitious, but I also don't want someone else's opinion shaping my original opinion for this thread. I am, however, happy to see that there are some devoted fans of No Code. I've never loved the album more than I do at this very moment.

Frank, it's so nice that you're back. We were lost without you.