I was listening to severed hand today and I think that would have my vote. It's got a cool, albiet soemwhat recylced riff, a great build, strong lyrics, a really cool chorus, and a good outro. All the pieces are there for it to be a 5 star song, but it ends up sounding thin and frayed when it really needs to be a strong, muscular number.

Alot of stuff off Avocado IMO, Comatose is the big one for me. I would have loved for them to really punk that song out in production. It's hard for me to explain how I would have done it differently, but it's in my head. A bit faster, I dont know if theres overdubbing on it but it seems like it to me and I would have removed that. Actually bring it alot closer to the way they do it live, just a clean tight performance.

Agreed about the S/T comment. I think Parachutes is the big one for me.

Parachutes, absolutely. It's a really good song that is rendered almost unlistenable on the album.

i always felt like Breakerfall is horribly overdone.

LBC.

Wish they'd rerecord that one. Brendan's involvement helps.... Eddie seems to sound better with his production.

Speed of Sound. A simple sparse demo was ruined by the instrumentation. The keys and drums don't fit. They should've found a way to advance Eddie's demo without going overboard like they did.

Agreed. The drums definitely sound out of place.

Come Back, Parachutes

I'll agree with Comatose. This is such a badass song live when they open it up, but the album version is pretty unlistenable. Some better production and this would be a great play-the-drums-on-your-steering-wheel song.

I actually really like how "off" the drums sound on Speed of Sound. They conjure up imagery of the delay in sight/sound that you hear when something is moving faster than the speed of sound. I wish the band did more recording like this.

Come Back above all.

I've got much more of a problem with how The End turned out - that definitely should've just been just guitar and vocal, sparse as all hell. The saccharine arrangement deflates what by all rights should've been a classic album closer - the strings sound so soft and mushy, very ill-fitting.

Binaural, S/T and Backspacer all sound dreadful, though for different reasons.

It's so fucking weird, it can't be THAT HARD to "produce" Pearl Jam - they sound great live, so just record that. Get them in a good room, good mics, good tunes and record it to tape. No Pro Tools editing by Ed to make catchy singles, no digital fuckery to get everything perfectly in sync and in tune - just rock 'n' roll. Like Vs., for goodness sake.

Grievance

Tchad Blake castrated that song.
Should have just taken the Letterman performance and stuck that on the record.

They did that. it's called Binaural.

I prefer the studio version of Comatose, whcih is a top 20 and maybe a top 10 song for me. It's just seething with an angry, dismissive contempt, which is perfect for the subject matter of the song and the studio recording nails that perfectly. I wouldn't change a thing.

Wrong. Mike in the other room, with a recorder in a trash can? You can barely hear his brilliance on that record. Come on Dime!

How great could Breakerfall have sounded?

Oh I know but the Binaural process involves recording the room, not the direct line in feed from amps. I agree it could have sounded amazing on some songs (breakerfall, grievance, and some others) but the production works for Sleight of hand and some others too.


I think Comatose sounds fine by the way. Most, in fact nearly all of S/T would benefit from reproduction.

Actually, the "record us live" record was Riot Act.

Riot Act is definitely one of the best sounding records of theirs. it sound slike them. Big warm, powerful and present.