SOMETIMES

No Code is commonly perceived as the album where Pearl Jam “changed.” The case isn’t that difficult to make either. The week of release, it sold 2/5ths the amount that Vitalogy sold. Its total sales tally to a third of Vitalogy’s. The album contains not even one radio staple, instead delivers many diverse styles of music never heard performed previously by the band. The first track in contrast to Once, Go, and Last Exit is written by Eddie, and, is quiet.

Sometimes begins with a lone guitar plucking middle tones through reverb at a medium pace, creating a sound that looks like bubbles boiling in a pot. A second higher-toned, reverb laden guitar joins in after one measure, giving the effect of the water getting hotter, with more bubbles. The drums come next soft, along with the bass, sustained notes played on an upright which permit long held sliding sounds. This effect is mild resemblance to carnival progressions. Ed’s first lyrics on No Code:

Large fingers pushing paint
You're god and you've got big hands
The colors blend... the challenges you give man

The scene: Ed is observing god finger paint. Yet, there is a certain resignation, evident in Ed’s phrasing of the lines. He notices the size of god’s hands, which implicitly suggests an awareness of something larger than oneself, relative to himself. He isn’t hesitant either to identify god by name. He describes simply an observation of god's blending of the colors, which inspires a comment about the obstacles he’s been given by god, then blending the “me” into “man,” to simultaneously acknowledge that all men are presented with obstacles. He is given to introspective pondering,

the stringed instruments drop out except Ed’s guitar, and an interlude of sorts follows, before the second verse. A cymbal tries to syncopate the notes and muffled, unrecognizable sounds accentuate the room’s atmosphere. The other instruments return with Ed’s voice:

Seek my part... devote myself
My small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf

A gentle response to his reflection upon men’s challenges, possibly to god-- a stream of conscious self-description of a humble searching for and commitment to his role in life despite of the hurdles faced. And again, proceeding from these words, stated recognition of the commonness of that experience. The boiling pot overflows musically. Through these admissions of similarity, honest descriptions of fallibility surface:

Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all
Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god

Nodding to his credits, and failings, the outgrowth of vetted commitment is juxtaposed as independent of perfection. The music drops out for Ed to proclaim his last line. Despite intimating prior prayers of supplication, and all the more, witnessing Perfection’s coloring, he concludes, telling of not relying upon god, but upon himself, sometimes. The ambiguity of penitence stands unanswered next to honest confessions of the totality of his actions. The music comes back hushedly playing a progression of resolution, allowing the sentiment to linger, for a while longer before fading.

That last paragraph was a dousey....you put more effort into this write up than the band put into the song you reviewed.

Excellent write-up, Mr. Turner. You know how I feel about this song and why it's their best opener.

5 stars.

:waits for poll:
very good writeup, gave me a totally new way to look at the song
and i agree that its a great opener 4.5 stars

3.5 stars.

Nice write up. I like your description of the music as water slowly boiling. I also really liked Frank's description of the song as a prayer from his no code tour

It's late and I'm tired so I'll probably add more to this later. Sometimes is in the Sleight of Hand category for me. I can appreciate it as art, understand what they were trying to do, and think they were succesful. But I never really have an urge to listen to it. So it gets 3 stars (also the opener I like the least. I think it is a better song than breakerfall but I'd rather listen to that one)

great lyrics.

they remind me of roger waters' writing style. which ain't half bad.

really nice vibe to the whole song but there are better even on this album so 4 stars

Great Opener -> 4 Stars

Ike, that was a great write-up. I also liked the boiling analogy. It describes perfectly the ii7 to I chord tension-resolution created by the opening guitar figure.

I just love this tune. I've probably listened to it more that all of the other tunes on No Code combined. The opening is so calm, yet unsettling at the same time. I love the high, sparkling guitar melodies that continually accent the song, seemingly out of nowhere sometimes. There's some introspection here, but there's also humour and real humility. The atmospheric effects add tremendously. The thunder following the "challenges you give man" line. The rain in the outro. I love the outro with the very simple guitar melody doubled two octaves below on bass. It's really beautiful. And of course, my favorite line is:

Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god .

It's both thoughtful and humorous.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there even one single solid guitar chord in this tune? 4 stars.

3 stars.

I have read this excellent write-up as well as frank's in his No Code tour and yet this song still seems to have a significance to most other people that it is completely lacking for me.

I like the song, it's quiet and pretty and nice. It's a great show opener. I don't like it as an album opener. For me, it just seems like it never goes anywhere. I can understand and appreciate that that was the point, but this one is still just lacking something.

I understand that feeling.

I think it's a noble and worthy attempt, which earns it a star; it is a really good song. Honestly, it's remarkable that they followed-up their "3rd consecutive album that sold 4+ million" with an album with Sometimes as an opener.

How many stars did you give it, Ike?

Dont forget who picked it in the tourney, Isaaaac.

Beautiful song. It is currently my alarm. It's a pretty nice song to wake up to.

when I first heard the song I expected that the end would continue to build kinda like Tremor Christ into one of Eddie's growl screams and it never did....I was baffled....after three albums of power vocals I was pretty confused....I've since come to appreciate the song and the album it is on quite a bit.

5 stars. maybe their best opener for both an album and a concert

It's one of those songs for me that is kind of hard to define my feelings for it. Its a beautiful song. The lyrics are very nice and I appreciate the shift it represents for the band and Ed especially. But at the same time, I never really go out of my way to listen to it. If I do hear it, it doesn't stay in my head for very long. It is the perfect way to open up No Code however, and is a very pretty song in its own right.

3.5 stars. 4 on somedays.

Sounds like a good song to NOT wake up to, if you ask me. The crashing chord that opens Hail Hail, now that shit will wake you up.

i LOVE how the very last drum fill at the very end of sometimes as its fading out...goes directly into Hail Hail. its almost a drum intro to hail hail...