The car on the left looks like a mobile phone.

Spot on. I reckon if the next one's very different, that old adage that the last album always sounds better after the new one, will be completely justified.

I've always said that and got made a cunt of here for suggesting it, so I really hope it does. Though this logic didn't apply to S/T in any big way for me, once Backspacer arrived. I mean I like it a little more than i did but not much. Gonna play it now on shuffle and see what it does.

Love that crunchy guitar sound on WWS.

I love the first half of S/T. It really unravels on the second half for me. That opinion is fairly stuck now. It's nice to have a definitive feeling about that album, because for a long time I was umming and erring about everything on it. I just think the second half suffers from too many boring songs, and maybe if the rockers on the front of the album were separated and distributed more evenly throughout, the more boring numbers would serve as 'breathers'. As it is they're just a bit boring because there's too many of them next door to one another.

PJ almost always frontloads their records and in this instance it does a huge disservice to the whole. It could have been a far more interesting record had it been broken up and sequenced with more thought.

Yup.

pretty much. The first half is one of the strongest A-sides in their catalog, but the b-side is one of their weakest.


Dime---there is of course no guarantee you will suddenly love a record just because it is no longer new. It may just be an album you won't like. But it is easier to appreciate a record for what it is when it isn't a stand in for the band's present and future. And if it is a band that you normally love you'll probably find a lot to like since it's still the same musicians writing and performing who wrote and performed everything else you care about.

R.E.M.'s around the sun was a rough record when it was their current release since it was full of minor songs, few real standout tracks, and some genuinely bad songs, something basically that had never happened before with them. But once Accelerate came out and Around the Sun was just an album, and not R.E.M., a number of the charms on those middiling songs (make it all okay, electron blue, ascent of man, etc.) revealed themselves since I was no longer angry at them for not being as good as the standout tracks on Automatic for the People

I don't know. I think S/T is pretty consistent. Some songs up front that I'd cut and some songs down the stretch that I'd cut. I certainly don't think the second half of S/T is as bad (in comparison to their respective first halves) as No Code or Riot Act or Backspacer. And I LOVE all those second sides.

S/T annoys me. I just gave up after Parachutes right now. I'd just love to get to a place where I stop comparing records to past efforts. It's art and while we're gonna enjoy certain records more than others, making it a horserace cheapens all of it in a way. After the fugged up theme of Riot Act I can see why the writing and production on S/T were necessary at the time, i just wish I enjoyed it more than I do. Backspacer is like 2 alka seltzer after a hangover in that regard. The next step is going to be really interesting with any luck.

Even Ten goes a bit floppy on the second half. So regardless of which second halves you prefer, it seems to be the case that all of their albums suffer from that problem.

This being the case, I think I'm going to listen to the next album backwards.

I love Self-Titled. It's really solid IMO. And, it's varied in a lot of places where, say, Backspacer, is the same. No two songs are exactly alike. I mean, you could make the argument of similarity between Worldwide Suicide and Life Wasted, or Gone and Inside Job, but those similarities are superficial.

A while ago, when there was the thread on wether or not ST could be put together as a concept album, I re-tracklisted mine, and I like that version way better. Through that experiment, I appreciated... and enjoyed... it a lot more. Other than Wasted Reprise, which isnt really even a song, the weakest part of the album for me, IMO, is Army Reserve, which is still a good song.

Fuck, Pearl Jam, you're good.

Surely you could make *that* argument about any album you liked. Apples and oranges. I don't care about variety much, I just want every song to hold my attention, and S/T contains too many songs which either make my mind wonder, or just make me laugh for how trite and sentimental they are. I really wish I didn't feel like that.



I agree that Army Reserve is a low point, as are a few others. But I wouldn't agree that it's still good. It's a low point and pretty mediocre. I kinda like Wasted Reprise, and wish PJ did more of these interludes. They make really good live intros into other / heavier songs.

come back and the reprise are really the only songs after parachutes that I like (but I like come back a lot and it was fun to see pearl jam write that kind of song, even though the production on S/T was not necessarily the best place for it). But that first block of songs is so strong that the album still ends up ranking in the top half of their catalog (or maybe at the top of the second half)

Weirdly, I'd be really interested to find out what Brendan O'Brien did with Come Back... O'Brien with his Backspacer cap on.

Harmless, I really dont mind the sentimental-ness. Eddie feels things very strongly, and I never read his words and thing "wow, that's forced". And it very rarely feels overly personal in a way that I, as a listener, feel like I'm eavesdropping... it's personal, but it's also intrapersonal.

I'm gonna try something... forgive me and/or indulge me:

TEN
A: 4.20
B: 4.12
.08 difference in favor of Side One

VS
A: 4.00
B: 4.33
.33 difference in favor of Side Two

Vitalogy
A: 4.29
B: 4.14
.15 difference in favor of Side One

No Code
A: 4.34
B: 3.29
1.05 difference in favor of Side One

Yield
A: 4.00
B: 3.86
.14 difference in favor of Side One

Binaural
A: 3.71
B: 4.34
.63 difference in favor of Side Two

Riot Act
A: 3.86
B: 3.38
.48 difference in favor of Side One

S/T
A: 4.00
B: 3.75
.25 difference in favor of Side One

Backspacer
A: 4.00
B: 3.83
.17 difference in favor of Side One

2 of 9 w/ a stronger Side Two (VS and Binaural).
7 of 9 w/ a stronger Side One.

Ten has the lowest difference between sides, making it, numerically, the most consistent.
No Code has the biggest difference, making it, numerically, the least consistent.
Binaural has the biggest difference in favor of Side Two
No Code has the biggest difference in favor of Side One

Of course, this is all based on a scale of 0-5, and this is just my humble opinion.

If I were to rank these according to my own numerical consistency it would go:
1. Ten (most consistent from beginning to end)
2. Yield
3. Vitalogy
4. Backspacer
5. S/T
6. VS
7. Riot Act
8. Binaural
9. No Code (least consistent)

Obviously, none of this factors in the intangibles, the pieces as a whole, the album experience, as it were.

In order of preference:
1. Vitalogy
2. Ten
3. Riot Act
4. Yield
5. Backspacer
6. VS
7. No Code
8. S/T
9. Binaural

I'm really not a numbers guy, so don't understand half of what you did there. But for the results, kudos, even if I wouldn't agree with your rankings.

Are you the guy from that video in the pj20 dvd??