man, you're so wrong about WWS and Army Reserve

Wasted Reprise: Good stuff. Does it serve a thematic purpose? I'm not sure. The second half of this record is so all over the place that I don't really even know what I'm supposed to be feeling by now.

Army Reserve: There's an interesting use of both first and third person in the lyrics for this one, and it somehow works. This is one where I feel like Ed does get who he's writing about, and that makes all the difference. Is that because Echols contributed to the lyrics here? What exactly was his contribution? This is an interesting track musically, and could be even more so (production issues again). This is maybe the only one that wouldn't totally benefit from the Yield treatment. It needs a Binaural or Riot Act vibe. Also, the song feels unfinished. I like the first two verses and I like the outro, but something is missing. it's like we go verse-chorus-verse-chorus and then ... hmm. well, ... what if we just ... yeah ... and fade out ...

Come Back: I loved this song when the album first came out. I think it could be greatly improved if they just approached it with a slightly different feel. Imagine the song done with the tone of Yellow Ledbetter. Wistful but not totally unhappy. Reminiscent but not heart-broken. As it is, I still enjoy the lyrics and I appreciate the Motown lift they're trying to pull off. Even in this style, i think people would appreciate this more if it just sounded nicer. This and Parachutes are the two biggest victims of the way this record sounds.

Inside Job: I'm with Stip here. I love the build and I enjoy it again toward the end. it's the middle that's lacking. I can forgive a lot of the (admittedly painful) lyrics, but it's actually the "run into the rain" part that pushes me over the edge into intolerance. That lyric is so reminiscent of Love Reign O'er Me that it really draws your attention to the way in which this is just Pearl Jam trying to do epic The Who. But this song still has enough that I like about it that i enjoy it live; I especially enjoyed it as an opener.

Do we have a name for the twinkling at the end? It's pretty, but is maybe the most unnecessary addition to the end of any album I've ever heard. What's the thinking there?

not as big of a problem for me as Unemployable, but still there. I'm sure he tried to make Army Reserve more meaningful, but it comes across as bad melodrama for me. i can't get past it.

I think WWS works because it's supposed to be impersonal. It's a snapshot from the morning paper. The song's headspace is that of the government official (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld?) who knows nothing of this personal tragedy, or worse yet everyone who tacitly accepts such impersonal tragedy in the name of and unjust war.

Army Reserve is a little melodramatic. What's funny is that the most cliche parts of the song are the lines about not connecting with the teenage boy ("the empty chair where dad sits/how loud can silence get?"). That's what Ed built his legacy from is being able to talk about that disconnect powerfully. But in this song the best parts are the wife/husband sense of loss and the ironic "father is risking his life for our freedom" line.

I'm pretty sure (though not positive) that Echols wrote the lyrics to the chorus.

I was wondering if that was the case. It would explain the third person verse / first person chorus variance, and the way the chorus is so abstract compared to the verses.

I'm pretty sure it was written out of context; I think it was something Echols wrote on his own which Eddie then asked to use. I could be remembering this completely wrong, however.

that sounds familiar.

Looks like lightning in my child's eye is one of my favorite lines in a Pearl Jam song. And we've talked in the Tom Waits thread about lines that don't read as much being raised to poetry by the delivery...I love the way he betrays himself in the "I'm not frantic" line.

Mine too

A statement like this is every bit as presumptuous as you're accusing Ed of being in "Unemployable." Ed was almost 27 when Ten came out; he's hardly been a rich celebrity forever. The idea that he couldn't have encountered dozens of people like this, or in fact been one of these people at one point in time, seems fairly absurd. I'll agree that "Unemployable"'s lyrics make a few tactless suppositions about the character, but the song on the whole is not out of line with the theme of societal moral collapse that runs through many of the other songs on the record.

i used to be a crustacean in an underwater nation

I don't think (at least for me) that Eddie can't write about these situations. Just that he doesn't do it that well here. There are plenty of songs he's written, even songs kind of similar (Sleight Of Hand springs to mind) that are really evocative and make me feel like I'm learning about a chracter rather than a caricature.

Seeing as I lost my job the day before Avocado came out, Unemployable REALLY hit struck a chord with me. Still my favorite track from the album.

Unemployable and Parachutes are good, but you can shitcan the rest. It's bottom of the barrel stuff by Pearl Jam standards.

Fixed for you.

I'll love Inside Job enough for the rest of you.

Yeah, sorry dude. I think it's one of the most hated PJ songs around these parts. I'm indifferent on it...but if I had to choose if I like it or not, I'd say no. On a 1 to 5 star scale, I'd give it 2 maybe 2.5 stars.

Parachutes is the best song on this record. Easily.