EVACUATION

The sirens scream wanton attention
Time to take heed and change direction
Time to take stock and make omissions

Evacuation.... Evacuation...

Time to take leave of formal functions
Time to plant seeds of reconstruction
No time, this time, to feign reluctance

It's like you're waiting for a diamond shore to wash your way
Bets put aside, you're evil
Let's crawl into your face
A vision, vague or not, raising a frightful wake-you-up

Time for... Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation...
Evacuation...

Evacuation... Evacuation...

There was a solemn man who watched his twilight disappear
(In the sand)
Altered by a fallen eagle, a warning sign..
(Sign)
He sensed worry could be strength, with a plan he said

Time for...Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation...
Evacuation...

Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation...
Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation... Evacuation...

I think that this might be the most disliked full album cut in Pearl Jam’s catalogue. I would like to look at why this might be while still giving the song the fairest assessment that I can. This is one of the three short songs that open Binaural. All are very high energy, but it is mostly negative energy. BREAKERFALL is about a woman unable to love. GODS’ DICE tells us that our fates hinge on a pair of celestial dice. And EVACUATION is an urgent call to change course. The sharp focus in the content of all three songs perhaps narrows the opening perspective of the album too much.

I think that the goal of EVACUATION is spelled out in the opening line:

The sirens scream wanton attention.

The song is a call to action, a very urgent one, and it’s meant to sound like a siren. I think that it does this very successfully. This may be the key to why this song gets so little love. Most people find the sound of sirens obtrusive and not particularly enjoyable. The fact that EVACUATION mimics that effect so successfully probably has something to do why so many fans are put off by it.

There are a couple of things that I really like about it. The drum cadence in the intro and the choruses reminds me more of drum and bugle core cadences than what I might expect from a rock tune. It suits the concept of the song. The cadence sounds vaguely martial without really sounding like a military cadence. Very appropriate for a siren. I also really like the guitar and drum fills that punctuate the vocal lines in the verses. And I like the first bridge a lot. As a counter weight to that, I really dislike the second bridge, and although the underlying chords are very nicely resolved, the vocal melody in the verses is never really resolved. It makes the melody feel unfinished. This was probably intentional in keeping with the siren analogy, but not satisfying to me musically.

The lyrics are all excellent. The word e-vac-u-a-tion, with its internal cadence perfectly mirrors the drum cadence. The iambic meter is strictly enforced, but the ideas are clearly expressed.

In the end I think that these three songs were an interesting experiment but placed at the beginning of the album narrow the scope when it should be broadening. Although I believe that EVACUATION was a worthy experiment. 2 stars.

i really do love this fucking song. The guitars, the bass, the drums, the vocal lines, the lyrics, the delivery. fucking awesome. unique and badass. fuck you, haters.

Five stars, without a doubt.

I was so disappointed upon first listen to Binaural, I felt like I couldn't connect with anything I was hearing at all; it felt like a completely different band than the one which made Yield and in many ways it was. It was probably intensified by my losing all interest in Pearl Jam and not listening to them at all from 1999 or so to 2004 so the change seemed all the more galling*.

Evacuation, however, was the anchor that brought me back. It felt then, and still does now, like an organic progression from where they'd previously been whilst still sounding like nothing they'd done before. Too much of the rest of the record left me cold and disinterested, I must've listened to this one song about 20 times that first day I spun Binaural - I didn't want to feel disconnected to a new (to me) Pearl Jam record, I had to feel like there was something for me to hang on to.

My opinion of the rest of the songs on Binaural has grown in leaps and bounds since then (mainly through hearing the live versions) but I still feel it's a failure as a record. The performances still sound neutered and the production ill-fitting, it's a real shame as it contains the most solid set of songs the band has produced in this decade (Riot Act is a much more satisfying record despite the songs being of an overall lower standard).

I can't comprehend the level of hate for this song at all. I'd be really interested to hear WHY people feel so strongly about it, I want to hear justification of what exactly is wrong with this song as it just baffles me.

I find the music constantly inventive and surprising (it never sounds as if it was written in an less-common time signature just for the sake of showing they can do it) and the chorus completely infectious - it just sounds so celebratory, like there's nothing more joyous in the world than just to fuckin' RUN FOR IT, find something better, anyplace but here.

In short, I fucking love this song.

SLH916, I loved your post. Thanks for choosing this song.

* In this period I kind of fell in with an "indier-than-thou" crowd and felt a huge amount of pressure to only listen to things approved by Pitchfork, heh. Basically I spent three years really depressed and only being able to listen to Smog and Cat Power.

5 stars. this is actually my personal favorite song and i'll tell you why (copy paste from First time i heard binaural thread with minor edits)

In the winter in '02/'03 I came out of a bad break-up and didn't sleep much at all. so one cold cold night I got my Discman and decided to go with Binaural to play in it. i went outside and it was snowing lightly as i strolled through the cold dark night with the street lights flickering and the dirty snow that had been laying there for a few days reflecting pretty much how i felt at the time. I basically had decided not to come back home when i went outside. It meaning either just keep on walking and see where it brings me or just finishing it all.

So i walked thru the small town i lived in and ended up at my old elementary school's playground. i laid down right in the middle of it and just stared into the void while the soft snow landed on me. Now mind you, at this time my english is basically as good as that i can have a basic conversation. I didn't really understand 60% or so of PJ's lyrics, but what i did get up to that point had made me become obsessed with them.

So here i'm lying freezing my ass off just thinking, yet not thinking at all as all of the sudden i "get" the lyrics that are coming through my headphones.

There was a solemn man who watched his twilight disappear
Altered by a fallen eagle, a warning sign..
He sensed worry could be strength, with a plan he said
Time for...
Evacuation!

that was it.

Those words just meant everything i was looking for at the time in every way possible. i needed to get all these fucked up thoughts out of my head + i needed something new, i was tired of the town i lived in.

The repetition of the word Evacuation was perfect. every time Ed sang it again it reinforced the change i was going thru at that very same moment.

i broke down and just laid there listening to the rest of the record until the batteries died somewhere in the middle of Writer's Block.

i walked home and it started snowing a bit harder with the new clean snow covering the old dirty snow that had been laying there for days as if it was telling me that my new found, clearer self had finally overcome the troubled me.

so to sum up, this song pretty much saved me.

I am a fan of this song.

3 stars.

I like this thread so far!



PS: I think it's a huge disappointment that Pearl Jam have basically abandoned this song live. Have they second-guessed themselves after reading the page-upon-page of the baseless negativity directed at this song? I really hope not.

Both of my favourite songs from Binaural & Riot Act, Evacuation & Ghost, have been gathering dust for 5 years now (both last performed in 2003 if I'm not wrong) which doesn't bode well for the future but I'm always hopeful. To hear both of those songs at the one show would be a dream come true (add Unemployable from S/T and I think I'd have to go home to get a new pair of pants).

Ghost was on the setlist for the Poland show last year but not played so I guess it's some comfort that they haven't forgotten it altogether.

Love this song. SLH, I wish you posted more in Other Bands. I really enjoy reading whenever you analyze music, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on a broader collection.

Worst song on Binaural.

I've always liked the music in evacuation. It's abrasive, but as SLH said it fits with the mood of the song so it works. And the first verse is actually pretty promising and Eddie's vocals are decent. Not great, but decent.

I'm not a die hard evacuation hater but I'm also not a fan of the song, and that's mostly's eddie's fault.

The bridges are each a bit of a mess. The first one has this truly terrible set of lyrics

Bets put aside, you're evil
Let's crawl into your face

and the rest of it isn't that great. The second bridge has some intriguing moments and a strong final line, but the melody just isn't very good.


And of course there is the chorus--Evacuation is just not a fun word to sing over and over agian--it ends up sounding petulant instead of urgent.

So in the end this is a 2 star song for me, but I'd take it over thin air, gods dice, and probably soon forget and of the girl for what it's worth

This is the song that turned me off of Matt's songwriting. You can usually tell a Matt Cameron-penned song with PJ because the damn things are so disjointed, and not in a good way. Some people like and appreciate that, obviously, but I can't... the only song of his I like is You Are, and even that one isn't a universal favorite by any means.

If you want to hear a siren sound done right, listen to R.E.M.'s Leave.

Thanks. That's so nice of you. I do post in OB, but I don't think that many people listen to the same things that I do.

that's basically my opinion right there, save for that i think You Are, for all its merits as the band trying out new stuff, sucks. i much better like Unemployable.
for Evacuation, for me, it's the materialization of the band trying and not succeeding at a more complex rythmic approach. the drums are great, that's for sure, the structure is interresting, but the main riff is cliché, the vocal melody is uninspired at best. i mean should i struggle to like a PJ song? is this the goal a PJ fan should have? i don't think so. i'll state this modestly even if i may come off as a pretentious asshole to some Evacuation lovers, but i wouldn't allow myself to release a song like this. it definitely needed more work. those points additionned, i never felt the need to look at the lyrics seriously, my interrest is lost way before this step. and on this song in particular, i feel that Matt's drumming doesn't gel with the band at all. on records, i think he only found his place in the band on S/T.
on the bright side, i like the chorus moderately and i love the outro. i also appreciate the fact that this song may have saved cono's life
1 star.

See, I hate Unemployable and, much like Evacuation, disliked it from the very beginning. It also sticks out like a sore thumb on S/T, but I'll concede its placement may have something to do with that. I have to admit to cringing a bit every time I see someone praise Unemployable... I may very well like it less than Evacuation.

I will agree, though, that Matt finally fit in on S/T. Yeah, his lone song on the album I do not like, but there are so many other places on the album where he stands out, in a good way, that hadn't been heard on the previous two albums.

oops

I know that Ed has said previously that this is a song about needing to make a change, but in the interest of the overriding power of the listener I've always interpreted this song as being about manipulation of the public by those in power, for the following reasons:

1. An evacuation is a withdrawal, an abandoning of a place. So for what Ed is aiming at, a call to arms, I don't like the image. But as a track about the misguiding deception of the American people it works a lot better, since such events frequently involve the abandoning of some essential element of our political or moral philosophy.

2. This lyric:
Altered by a fallen eagle, a warning sign.
He sensed worry could be strength, with a plan he said, "Time for evacuation."

An eagle being a heavily used image by the United States as a symbol of freedom and strength, the person in question decides to supplant these losses with worry. Add to this that evacuation is a term that invokes panic, uncertainty, and is a dubious thing to include in a plan.

3. The entire "your evil" line. It's just awful if taken at face value, but supplanting Ed's honesty with a manipulative character, it works much better. Almost becomes sagacious, even.

4. It helps it match up better with the other politics in the record, I feel. You already have an enthralling rallying cry in Grievance, and a glimpse into the ethos of an undeserving casualty (Insignificance), but more often than not it takes that manipulation by political figures on one side or another to allow a conflict to reach the point of those songs needing to exist. Having that deception appear early in Binaural gives them greater weight, in my humble opinion.

When I first heard the song, I was was torn because it seemed like it could be about what I now choose to associate it with, or the rallying cry it was really meant to be. I preferred my vision of it to Ed's then, and even more so post-2001.



I'd kind of figured, for a few reasons. Firstly, the threads you do post in on OB are generally about jazz records. Second, your knowledge of some styles that not a lot of people on the board are familiar with. Finally, sometimes it seems to me that you find excitement in something Pearl Jam does in a song that is neither uncommon nor remarkable in modern pop music. I don't mean that as an insult by any measure, and I've already stated that I love your posts, but sometimes I get curious if there isn't a bunch of music out there that is doing this stuff you like and maybe you haven't heard it?


Oops. One of these posts is gonna have to go.

3.5, closer to 4 stars. Love the version on Touring Band 2000.

nice write up but i still hate the song

Probably one of the weakest songs to be placed on an album. It's ok live, so I'll give it two stars.

That was a really good analysis of the lyrics McP. I actually think that the lyrics are outstanding. That cadence isn't an easy one to write for, and although the song is in a standard 4-count, Matt designed the percussion in such a way that fitting in the vocal line wasn't trivial. And the poetic meter is strictly preserved. I like the first bridge a lot. I like the melody, the lyrics and the two measures of drum and guitar fills at the end of each vocal line. But I think that the lyrics don't really make sense until you've heard them sung.


Most definitely.

5 Stars

Awesome song.

Didn't hit me until I heard it live, San Diego 2000.

Really like listening to the studio version now, my affinity for it having developed as it has.