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 Post subject: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:21 pm 
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The purpose of these threads is to take the time and go back and listen to the Pearl Jam albums you remember but haven't sat down with in a long time. What did you think? Is it what you remembered? Give the album a spin and talk about it.









Part I: Ten
Part II: Vs.
Part III: Vitalogy
Part IV: No Code

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:24 pm 
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I remember being immensely excited for Yield. I didn't like No Code compared to the other records, and I had heard Brain of J, Given To Fly, and DTE already, and loved them both. Since these ended up being 3 of my 4 favorite songs on the record that initial excitement didn't hold up over the long term. I actually bought a copy of this on tape to listen to on the drive back to my dorm after buying it. I played it constantly, as I've always done with new Pearl Jam records, but after a while I still had some of the same doubts I had about No Code (and I've had with every record since). I KNEW that Ten, Vs, Vitalogy were great albums, and I could only assume that other fans of rock music would love them. Not loving them just didn't make sense to me. I still pushed Yield on people like I did all their music, but there was almost something apologetic about it now--I felt like i was proselytizing more than sharing.

it's been a while since I listened to Yield front to back. This will be fun

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:30 pm 
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The thing I have with these songs that I don't have with anything else (PJ or no PJ), is that for example when Faithfull stops, in my head I already hear the No Way intro. MFC not followed by Lowlight feels wrong. … I'll gladly listen to this again tonight and post about some of the little things that make this such an amazing album.


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:40 pm 
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Great start to brain of J. Jack's drum intro is my favorite moment of his in the whole catalog. I'm not a fan of his drumming but it fits well here--he's a sloppy sounding drummer and this is a sloppy sounding song. Eddie has a little more bite here than he did on No Code--and the louder, frenzied singing sounds more melodic here than it did on songs like Habit or Lukin. Great riff, great solo. The stuff being played behind it the riff is pretty good--but kinda hard to make out. A lot of the details get lost in the cacophony. It's a cool effect on the album but i'd love to hear a clean version of this some day just to hear what's going on. The lyrics aren't that special but there are some striking lines and the chorus is good, although once again I'm sure had this came out today it would get a hard time.

Since sometimes didn't do much for me it was nice to see another stellar opener. The cool hollow echo sounding thing at the end is a neat transition into faithful


Guys, I'm sorry, but I think faithful is kind of a boring song. The fuzzy chiming riff is okay but it feels incomplete--it doesn't have the atmosophere of songs like nothingman, betterman, present tense (granted those are slower songs) that would really enable the basic riff to carry the song unaccompanied by another guitar.

Lyrically the verses are quite good. The 'we're faithful, we all believe, we believe it' feels alternatley juvenile and pedantic. This is like a fisher price 'my first atheism' song. REM had already written undertow, a far superior song about this stuff, and so perhaps unfairly I couldn't help comparing the two. It's too bad, because if the chorus was less prominent I would like this more--the verses are good (other than the M.Y.T.H. part. Boxes of fear is a little heavy handed too--actually as this plays out the second verse has a really nice sentiment but it isn't all that artfully phrased)

Eddie has a little bit of the nasal quality from No Code here that i don't like, which also hurts.

The same thing is going on with the music--the way it all kinda blends together into this wall of sound--sometimes i like that approach (like on brain of J) but I wish I could hear the distinct elements--the end result of the noise isn't as compelling as Brain of J here. It sounds like there is some piano at parts (during the chorus, especially). It would be really interesting to hear it more prominently. Maybei t's just the guitars.

Musically parts of this remind me of Force of Nature--I never noticed that before.


Strong transition into No Way. This is a very well sequenced record.

I love the playful slow burn to the start. This song is Not For You in a good mood. Actually the music in here is really good. Way more interesting than No Way. They both have the same fuzzy warmth to it, but while faithful sounds threadbare underneath it No Way is rich and inviting. Nasal Eddie here but since it's a more playful song I don't mind, and the vocal melody is pretty good.

No Way has undergone something of a renaissance with me in recent years (kinda like Who You Are) as I've started to think of it as more of a song that's mocking itself. Having said that, the chorus is still hideous (I'm not trying to make a difference, no way--sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it--so does that stupid angel lyric) and in general I think Jeff and Stone are poor lyricists, especially next to Vedder, who while not one of the all time greats, is still good. There's a part of me that probably resents all PJ songs not written by Eddie (lyrically).

So I like that one more each time I hear it, but there's still something holding me back from it--almost certainly the chorus and bridge/outro lyrics. Unfortunately since songs climax in these moments that's a problem.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:44 pm 
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stip wrote:
I had heard Brain of J, Given To Fly, and DTE already, and loved them both.


Wait, which two did you like?

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:51 pm 
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another great transition from No Way to Given To Fly. The start to GTF is everything Faithful and In Hiding wanted to be but weren't. You have one guitar carrying the opening, but you have this hazy mysterious atmosphere here that's missing in the other two. Eddie sounds like he's singing from a secret place that gives it some tension, and the build into the faster verse sounds like it is moving much faster than it is--it's a wonderful trick of the music. Eddie doesn't soar quite as high as he might have if this song was on Ten, and it has that middle period scorched quality to his vocals I don't often like, but it still sounds great

That guitar part stone plays under Mike's riff at 2: 20 is pretty cool. The last verse (from 'he still gives his love') is one of the best in the catalog, and 'a human being that was given to fly' is one of the more evocative lyrics he ever penned. Great outro too. Most of their outros usually serve as climaxes. This one feels like a conclusion. It's a nice change of pace.


I love wishlist. The simple gentle melody, the way they so effectively color it. Plus almost all of eddie's individual lyrics are worth fixating on, which they need to be, since this song is a background for the poetry of the verses. Eddie sounds good (not great but good--but then again I'm not a huge fan of his vocals in this period compared to what comes before and after). They've never matched this one live, I don't think.

I love those deep notes played at the end of each verse that they talk about in SVT. Mike's solo here is one of my favorites of all time, and the 'I wish I was the verb to trust and never let you down' is such a wonderfully clumsy romantic sentiment.


Pilate: musically this is an interesting song--I like how it sounds like water gently circling down a drain--at least until the toilet flush chorus. Actually I don't mind the chorus that much, since I don't like the lyrics in the verses either. Pilate sounds like a song that is trying to be deep without saying anything in particular. But maybe that's my Jeff bias. Since I had no real love of the verse lyrics the 'like pilate i have a dog' chorus doesn't really ruin anything. I still prefer it to what's in No Way.

the bridge is nice but it's hardly a high point in the catalog like some people make it out to be--although lyrically it is the strongest part of the song.

Pilate, No Way, Get Right, and Who You Are should be on an EP of songs where I really like the music but get tripped on the lyrics.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:51 pm 
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theplatypus wrote:
stip wrote:
I had heard Brain of J, Given To Fly, and DTE already, and loved them both.


Wait, which two did you like?


all, excuse me

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:00 pm 
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Granted it's coming down from a louder song, but the transition from Pilate into DTE manages to be loud without being unpleasant--this is what they should have gone with on No Code with Sometimes into Hail hail.

DTE used to be a top 5 pj song for me. If it isn't anymore it's just because I played it out. What a tremendous song. A great funky riff, wonderful little asides in the song (like the first musical transition, the hallelujah bridge), and Eddie seethes with a playful sort of disgust that we don't really see again until Comatose (which has no play in it). Some of the lyrics are misses, but they never trip up the sentiment.

I wish matt was the drummer on this instead of Jack. The drums should be getting hit harder than they are. I kinda wish the guitars were louder too--especially towards the end when they get really sharp. I would love to hear this song remixed like BoB remixed the Ten songs on RVM. It may not work, but I'd like to hear him try


I fucking hate red dot. There are very very few moments in PJ's catalog that I hate. But I hate this one. I don't like steel drums to begin with, but this is just a stupid interlude that puts out the fire at the end of DTE, and it's not like the next song was low light and needed a cooldown. The transition into MFC works just fine.


MFC has cooled for me over the years, but I love the way the song sounds exactly like someone gunning an old engine during the start (and how they build onto it going from the first chorus into the great second verse. But the chorus sucks (a number of weak choruses on this record for me) and it drops this from a 4 star song to a 3 star song for me. Good outro.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:03 pm 
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stip wrote:
I KNEW that Ten, Vs, Vitalogy were great albums, and I could only assume that other fans of rock music would love them. Not loving them just didn't make sense to me. I still pushed Yield on people like I did all their music, but there was almost something apologetic about it now--I felt like i was proselytizing more than sharing.


I absolutely felt the same way. But there came a point in time where the sort of people I found myself recommending music to weren't just radio-bred rock fans, and that's when I found myself a lot more comfortable recommending No Code, Yield, etc.--albums that would give the impression of Pearl Jam as not just a rock band. (Of course, that's all academic--regardless of the approach, I don't think I've ever really been that successful at selling someone on becoming a Pearl Jam fan.)

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:09 pm 
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Lowlight is a fairly pretty song as long as I don't pay close attention to the nonsensical lyrics. But unlike who you are, no way, etc. this is a song that is trying to say something deep and meaningful and (I think) fails to do so. I think it fails the poetry test. There's simply no way I would ever quote any of these lyrics to anyone as an example of good stand alone writing, or even song writing. I have no real issue with the sentiments, which are nice. Just the execution. These lyrics would have ruined nothingman, too. Nice solo (I kinda forgot about it). The discordant piano is a cool effect running through the song.

Actually listening to this Eddie's vocal performance isn't all that special. Kind of monotonous. I feel the same way about thin air--like he sings other people's love songs from the same plateau.


In Hiding has the faithful problem for me, reversing the chorus/verses. A decent starting riff but it's not enough to actually carry the verses the same way the main guitar parts in GTF and Present Tense. I don't think Eddie sounds that great in the verses, and these lyrics have a number of weak spots with nothing particularly great. I like the piano at the start of the second verse. I do really like the lyrics in the pre chorus, and they make the 'I'm In Hiding" part of the song feel earned in a way the verses don't. I don't like how Eddie sounds when he sings it though, not on the record (too much no code in it). I think this may be one of only 2-3 Pearl Jam songs I think are always better live.

The music never really gets that interesting on this one. It's a sturdy 'anthem by numbers'. Pearl Jam has never really written a bad song of this type, but they've written a few average ones and that's how I feel about In Hiding.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:34 pm 
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I'm looking forward to listening to this in full later; like No Code, I've heard individual songs but burned myself out on the whole album, so I haven't listened straight through for a year or more. I'm sure I'm going to pretty much be the opposite of stip, as I haven't had a bad experience with this album yet.

The next few months is when I think Yield works best for me; when spring is finally shaking off winter after months of cold and being cooped up inside.


Last edited by digster on Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:39 pm 
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stip wrote:
Having said that, the chorus is still hideous (I'm not trying to make a difference, no way--sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it--so does that stupid angel lyric) and in general I think Jeff and Stone are poor lyricists, especially next to Vedder, who while not one of the all time greats, is still good. There's a part of me that probably resents all PJ songs not written by Eddie (lyrically).


I guess it's a different discussion, but I find it interesting cause you were bringing up critical and the general public's reactions differing from the boards when it comes to Backspacer; I've never seen anyone care about this kind of things outside the boards. I've seen plenty of people talking PJ, saying things like, "my favorite lyrics are Alive, Nothing As It Seems, All Those Yesterdays and Corduroy," without caring or even realizing there should be a differentiation. People just don't give it any thought, which I always found interesting, cause it's a big deal for some when it comes to the middle albums when it comes to this board. Even on synergy there's not much focus placed on it.


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:45 pm 
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Yield always sounded at least as scattershot as No Code to me, maybe more so. i'll check it out again later

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:48 pm 
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Yield, in terms of it's sound and music, holds together for me better than any of their albums barring Ten. Not that those albums are the best, but you can easily pick out the sound of that album. Thematically and lyrically, Vitalogy, Ten, and maybe Riot Act seem more unified.


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:13 pm 
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This album has lots of good indivdual songs, but i really dislike it as an album for some reason.


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:29 pm 
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Yield is in my top 3 of all time favorite PJ albums. What makes Yield so wonderful.. (you'd have to have lived in this era to know what I mean) is that there were questions about if Pearl Jam had made their best albums due to the overwhelmingly negative response to No Code. When Yield came out and I listened to it front to back, I was so ecstatic. For the record, No Code is probably number 3 on my list. I LOVE No Code, but at the time (1996) everyone wondered if the decline had started. How bad was Yield going to be etc etc.

Yield was a VERY important album and pushed them on to the next stage of their careers. And what followed Yield was pure joy: Binaural.

ANd I will save that for another thread.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:36 pm 
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stip wrote:
Great start to brain of J. Jack's drum intro is my favorite moment of his in the whole catalog. I'm not a fan of his drumming but it fits well here--he's a sloppy sounding drummer and this is a sloppy sounding song. Eddie has a little more bite here than he did on No Code--and the louder, frenzied singing sounds more melodic here than it did on songs like Habit or Lukin. Great riff, great solo. The stuff being played behind it the riff is pretty good--but kinda hard to make out. A lot of the details get lost in the cacophony. It's a cool effect on the album but i'd love to hear a clean version of this some day just to hear what's going on. The lyrics aren't that special but there are some striking lines and the chorus is good, although once again I'm sure had this came out today it would get a hard time.

Since sometimes didn't do much for me it was nice to see another stellar opener. The cool hollow echo sounding thing at the end is a neat transition into faithful

.



I disagree with you (shocker) about Jack being sloppy. He was PJ's most graceful and creative drummer, hands down. Having said that, I do agree that BOJ may be one of his finer performances with PJ. Now that I think about it, In My Tree and Brain Of J may be Jack's best work with the band.


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:42 pm 
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Oceans wrote:
Yield is in my top 3 of all time favorite PJ albums. What makes Yield so wonderful.. (you'd have to have lived in this era to know what I mean) is that there were questions about if Pearl Jam had made their best albums due to the overwhelmingly negative response to No Code. When Yield came out and I listened to it front to back, I was so ecstatic. For the record, No Code is probably number 3 on my list. I LOVE No Code, but at the time (1996) everyone wondered if the decline had started. How bad was Yield going to be etc etc.

Yield was a VERY important album and pushed them on to the next stage of their careers. And what followed Yield was pure joy: Binaural.

ANd I will save that for another thread.


I've been doing a little analysis of your post and correct me if I'm wrong but, I have figured it out as follows:

1. Binaural : "what followed Yield was pure joy"
2. Yield : "Yield is in my top 3 of all time favourite PJ albums"
3. No Code : "No Code is probably number 3 on my list"


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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:44 pm 
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Angus wrote:
Oceans wrote:
Yield is in my top 3 of all time favorite PJ albums. What makes Yield so wonderful.. (you'd have to have lived in this era to know what I mean) is that there were questions about if Pearl Jam had made their best albums due to the overwhelmingly negative response to No Code. When Yield came out and I listened to it front to back, I was so ecstatic. For the record, No Code is probably number 3 on my list. I LOVE No Code, but at the time (1996) everyone wondered if the decline had started. How bad was Yield going to be etc etc.

Yield was a VERY important album and pushed them on to the next stage of their careers. And what followed Yield was pure joy: Binaural.

ANd I will save that for another thread.


I've been doing a little analysis of your post and correct me if I'm wrong but, I have figured it out as follows:

1. Binaural : "what followed Yield was pure joy"
2. Yield : "Yield is in my top 3 of all time favourite PJ albums"
3. No Code : "No Code is probably number 3 on my list"

ha, excellent deduction.

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 Post subject: Re: Let's Actually Listen To The Albums: Yield
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:46 pm 
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Things I never picked up on till today: Jack and Jeff on the studio cut of Leatherman. I never really paid attention to what they were doing but they're having a ton of fun with it.

That's about the only thing I'm not crazy about with Matt. I love the raw skill he brings to the table, I love that he's able to go the distance for the longer shows; it's just I can't always count on him to bring something that'll keep me riveted. Jack was great at making beats that were never intrusive but always took you a bit by surprise, and you learn new things each time you hear them. To be fair, PJ may not be writing the kind of songs where that's required.


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