I agree 100%.. I love Binaural, the energy and the sound, but it's unfocused and even tho I love Evacuation and God's Dice, they just don't fit.. Everything else I'd say is pretty good as far as flow goes.. Ten is a different story, I think the songs sound much better performed live than the studio album..

Riot Act kind of feels the same way as Binaural for me, I love the sound, and all the songs, but it's unfocused too.. I'm gonna make a 2 cd Binaural Riot Act mix and try to rearrange the tracklistings to make it flow better.

Vs. is like falling off a playground face first into the gravel.. but in a good way.

I think it's pretty hard to say riot act is the best pearl jam album because a lot of fans have known the other albums for years and have set that as their favourite album, and its pretty to let go and just say the lastest is their favourite. Cause I'm pretty sure Riot act is loved by the majority of pearl jam fans, but its quite hard for it to take the number one spot because of the fact that its new.


P.S. Im drunk, and I didnt proofread.

I loved Riot Act and found it was a step in the right direction after my least favorite album: Binaural

Funny thing is that I have gone back to listen to Binaural the last little bit and I am appreciating it a bit more. Maybe Riot Act will be like that to those who arent liking it now.

You can consider me one of them.

I liked Riot Act when it came out, but it was my first "new" Pearl Jam album experience. With the next album, I'll be a little bit less fan-boy about it.

I agree. Many of the Binaural songs - like Of The Girl, Parting Ways, Sleight of Hand and NAIS - I prefer to hear from the album rather than live. And headphones & Binaural is truly a "match made in heaven"!

binaural is easily my least favorite.
no code is by far my most favorite.

IMO the problem with Riot Act is that there are too many songs that are good but have some weak parts that in the end ruin(relatively speaking) the song. This basically results in an album that is pretty average.

This is my take on the album:

The album starts out great with Can't Keep, Save You and LBC.

Then you hit 2 'problem songs'. I think it's the chorus that keeps me from really liking Cropduster, I like parts of the song but overall I consider it average to mediocre. Then there's Ghost, a song I would really like but is ruined by the "away away" backing vocals.

I Am Mine - one of the best songs on the album, and one that I wish was a little longer.

Thumbing My Way - a song I initially really liked, but one that I now find extremely boring. It completely kills the momentum of the album and I now only enjoy it when I am drunk.

You Are - one of the highlights for me.

Get Right - starts off pretty good and then descends into mediocrity with a terrible chorus. Another lots of good parts, ruined by a few bad parts.

Green Disease, a nice up tempo rocker.

Help, Help - I know most don't like this song but it's actually one of my favorites and I'm not sure I understand why others don't like it.

Bushleaguer - quite simple, the spoken word parts(the second verse in particular, the first works) hold the song back, musically its great.

1/2 Full - Great song but totally out of place on the album. It just doesn't fit even though its one of the best tracks.

Arc - Filler, doesn't affect my opinion on RA one way or the other.

All or None - Best track on the album.

That's my take anyway. I don't hate Riot Act, but I rarely get the urge to listen to it.

I think it's funny to hear how some pearl jam fans say they don't like Ten because of the production and all of that...but 9 out of 10 of those fans probably wouldn't think that if PJ themselves hadn't mentioned it.

Ten is a great albums...full of great songs...and while Pearl Jam may have grown away from the big anthems that made Ten and Vs., it hardly means that Ten is their worst album because of production quality.

People that say an album is bad simply because of what they cite as production quality need to get an opinion of their own.

I don't think Riot Act is their worst album...but more of their weakest due in part to the reason above. Someone said that a song was ruined by a specific part being weak and, therefore, bringing down the overall quality of the song...and I have to say that I agree

I like riot act far better than Binaural

yorue right. we must be insane if we dont like Ten.

i dont like it. yes the production sucks, ive always thought that. its not what pearl jam is. and th songs? kidn of suck to. once is greatbut childish, stuck ina period in time. alive and black and porch are amazing obviously.
even flow is trashont he album. and release is one of the best songs ever.

just not their best album, one of their weakest. sorry id ont like it. but i guess im just a blind sheep.

whatever.

i dont understand what you guys mean about bad production value on Ten, are you refering to the song itself or the way the studio and engineers worked on the songs. because the reason Ten is not my favorite album is because i think a lot of the osngs are a bit corny, the three most popular on Ten Evenflow, Alive and Jeremy are my least faovrite on the album because i think they are a bit cheesy

i love ten , I love Riot act. Cropduster is what does it for me. Ghost is equally good. Fortunately I find the harmony in the chorus sublime. I thought Gossard could have showed up a little more though. all or none was classic though.

I think Riot act gets weak towards the end of the album, songs like bushleager, get right, arc, help, help and 1/2 full bring the allbum down for me, all or none is great and the fact that it is after these tracks, just kills the mood and I don't enjoy the song, same with help, help, I do like the song, but its mixed in with songs that kinda drag it down.

I believe Riot Act Is truely an underrated album. It has some really meaningful songs on there but just doesn't get enough respect in the pj comunity. But, then again, maybe it just isn't old enough yet to be respected as much as the older pj stuff. I love Riot Act tho.

riot act is my favorite. sometimes i forget, and go back to thinking vs. is my favorite, but then i throw riot act on for a spin and there are no songs i want to skip at all. with that said, i really appreciate riot act for another reason. when binaural came out, i couldn't stand it. i just thought it was really poorly recorded (never heard it with headphones), i thought the songs were pretty weak, etc. after i fell in love with riot act, i went back and listened to binaural again, and it finally hit me. i think binaural is tied with vs. for my 2nd fav PJ album.

just my $0.02

It's always cool to see how different fans like different albums the best.

Are you mental?

Go, Animal, Daughter, WMA, RVM, Indifference.

Seriously an album with them on is PJ's worst work?

Surely Ten is clearly their best album. Album sales are clearly higher than all the others. 15 million people aren't all idiots.

Like someone mentioned earlier, Riot Act is unfocused so you end up with some songs being favorites while others are disliked. Binaural seems to have that problem with many fans as well.