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
Part V: Binaural
[url=http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94457[/url]Part VI: Riot Act[/url]

I'm looking forward to this one. I haven't listened to S/T start to finish in a long time, and I especially haven't done it after just listening to Riot Act. I think S/T, more than any other PJ album in their catalog, is a direct response to the sound (and themes) of the one before it. Where there was a hazy disconnect and apathy to Riot Act, there is an abrasive immediacy to S/T. In both cases there are songs where it works great, and songs where it is not doing the song justice. But more than any other album pairing these are two sides of the same sonic coin.

Well yeah, one is sonicly amazing and the other one sounds like shit.

Listening with headphones, which makes for a better listening experience.


Terrible opening lyric (the rest is pretty good, with some very nice sections), but this song was a breath of fresh air after the passivity of Riot Act. I love the slashing the guitars and the way the notes hang in the air while the song starts and stops. it reminds me of animal in that way. Eddie has terrific energy in this. I like how Eddie's voice crackles, and the parts where he goes low have a reflective foreboding quality to them. The chorus is catchy without feeling cheap, probably because of how ragged Eddie sounds. I greatly prefer survivor Eddie to apathy Eddie. The outro solo is one of my favorites in Mike's catalog. He's not necessarily doing anything new, but he's playing his heart out. This rocks 10x harder than anything on Riot Act. It had been 6 years since Grievance and 8 years since Brain of J and DTE. Man I needed this. But the song holds up for me. This is one of my favorites in the entire catalog.

Fucking pointless fadeout.


I love how danceable WWS is at the start. This song makes me want to move like few others in the catalog. One of Eddie's more touching stories, and he does a good job mixing the anger, heartbreak, and disbelief in the vocals. Another really catchy chorus. Pretty good use of the three guitars in this one. I love the grinding music in the pre chorus. Eddie sings the word suicide really well. The way he screams Waaaayyy coming out of the chorus, and then the rumbling guitar and the bass/drum groove is one of my favorite moments on the record. Such a good song.


Comatose may still be a top 5 pearl jam song. This song captures the disgust and contempt I had/have for Bush and for the parts of the country that enable people like him. I don't like the pop/punk moments in the catalog, but this song just seethes along perfectly. Excellent lyrics. I wonder how DTE would have sounded sung like this. I like the grated echo he gives his voice during the chorus. great quick solo by mike. This and WWS do a really excellent job making songs that are otherwise just full of contempt sound almost festive.


This remains one of my absolute favorite 3 run song blocks in the entire catalog. I'd give each one 5 stars. I'm not sure there is another block of 3 songs in a row i'd say that about.

This was a top 5 PJ song for me for a long time.

They're trying to do very different things. Neither is fully successful. S/T has a few strong songs hurt by marginal production (Marker, Severed Hand, Parachutes, Come Back) and Riot Act is full of fairly mediocre songs that are well produced.

OK....

For my complaints about some of the rock songs on the last two albums, I think the first 3 songs are probably the high point of S/T. I think Life Wasted is a cool one; I don't why, but it reminds me a bit of Soundgarden. It's a good return to some of their emphasis on riffs while being a bit of a move forward.

Worldwide Suicide: I wouldn't call this song danceable, although the riff Stone (or Mike?) plays in the last verse that sounds like rapid-fire morse code sure is. It happens in Severed Hand, too, and it's my favorite part of both songs. I'm not really a fan of the chorus; how everyone talks about Evacuation's chorus is how I feel about this one. It's this really anthemic, tight song and then splat. Other than that, it's a good one, albeit the weakest of the first three.

Comatose: my fav of the first 3. I mean, it's one of their most overt punk knockoffs (this is PJ straight up doing punk, as opposed to trying to fit their punk influences into a broader thing), but it's fun and a rager. I like Eddie's vocal take on it, but I feel like it deserved better production. All three of these songs did; the studio versions are crap in comparison to some of the early 2006 versions, before they hit the acceleration on them too much.

Severed Hand: big stumbling block. PJ on autopilot. Not a fan of the melody or lyrics here, and the recycled Porch riff takes me out of it too much. This sounds like a song that a band with less talent that wanted to rip off PJ would write.

The beginning of severed hand is an interesting idea, and Pearl Jam never really experimented with these kinds of epic builds like they do here and on inside job, but at this point the harsh sound that worked well on the first 3 songs fails. this should sound much richer and fuller than it does, and instead it sounds tinny, almost anemic. The main riff is great. possibly because it sounds a lot like porch, but that's a great well to go back to you. But the 'got some kicks/take your pick/you'll see dragons' parts need to sound much deeper than they do. It sounds too much like the music is cutting out. I like how eddie sounds on the 'have no fear but for falling down' but the rest of the song he should be hitting harder than he is. Actually it may be the music more than him. I love the part that (mike?) plays during the second verse.

I like the bridge. I used to love the outro just because I was starved for songs like this, but it hasn't aged as well. it seems to wander a bit aimlessly without the frenzied sense of purpose that the life wasted solo has. I kind of like the falling into a well sound that starts the outro

this is a good song, but this could have/should have been a great song if it sounded like Go.


Marker has the same problem. It's like someone rubbed the song down with sandpaper before it started. The main riff doesn't sound as muscular as they wanted to, and given the U2 vibe they're trying to establish in this one (the chorus) it's too harsh.

I loved this chorus when the record came out, but now that i've had it for a long time the production stripped it of its beauty. The chiming sounds in this song need to be clearer and cleaner than they are. I like what Matt is doing throughout. A little preachy but the lyrics in here are good.

I'm not sure that the bridge makes sense in here. The third verse feels a lot more urgent. I never really noticed what Mike is playing over Stone in this one (or stone over mike). it's pretty cool

Boom is used really well in the outro. It's too bad that the magic is muted. This song should sound like a song from Yield

Again, these songs have the balls riot act doesn't, but the production neuters this one and severed hand.


Parachutes took some getting used to but it's one of my favorite songs on the album now. It's a beautiful off kilter melody, some nice lyrics (the parachutes metaphor works), and there is a compelling subtle tension in the song--like it wants to be beautiful but there's something slightly wrong. I like the stuff Mike is doing to color the song in (he's doing a lot of good stuff on these songs that's sometimes hard to notice--I'm glad I'm wearing the headphones). I like the transition from the 'parachutes have opened now' into the second part of the song.

I'm not sure that i like what they did with Eddie's voice in this one. I like the wail that kind of opens up out of nowhere at the end of the song 'war...'

Again the production kinda robs this one of some of its impact. I'm not sure what I want it to sound like, but not like this.

Man, this is a REALLY top heavy record. 3 great songs and three good songs that could have been great. I'm not sure any PJ album collapses in the second half like this. The only thing that comes close for me is the first half of Binaural (but this is worse)


I don't have any real issues with the production on Comatose, Digster, but I agree it could have sounded even better. Since this actually is a scrappy little punk number the production doesn't ruin it, but that doesn't make it good.

The quality of the songs themselves are completely subjective. The quality of the production is at least partially objective.

Sure. I'm not going to give Adam Kasper any praise for his work on this one. The best you can say is that some songs can survive what he did here.

True. I still love listening to Parachutes. But man, that song really needed a warmer, less harsh production to it.

The problem with the album for me is not that the songs sound scrappy; it sounds artifical. Scrappy would have been good, I think; those first three songs needed a set up the mics, turn them up high, and bang them out (and I'm someone who thinks that sometimes PJ should take more time on performances than they do). I don't know how they actually recorded the album, but it definitely feels like they recorded this piece by piece as opposed to going for live tracks.

Life Wasted is a solid start. i dont know what a stupid riff is or why i should hate it, so to me its pretty cool. Ed's voice is a little harsh, but the jam is pretty badass. i think it should have switched places with Severed Hand on the album.

WWS. funny how hilariously slow this sounds. even Ed's voice sounds like someone slowed it down. i really dont like this song and hate Ed's political writing at this point. it sounds so artificial. if i could ignore the lyrics, this sounds so much better live. this album sounds so fucking thin.

Comatose. this is more like it. PJ is probably a little too old to pull this off fully, but they've only lost a little.

Severed Hand: old school PJ rawk and still fucking awesome. haters can eat my cock. does everything right.

Marker in the Sand: can't really get up or down on this one much. the verses are kinda cool, but the chorus dives headlong into blandness. its ok, nothing i'd care to hear again. Ed's kinda squeeling at this point.

Parachutes is kinda nice. a solid little experiment that they'll probably never touch again. Ed doesn't quite fit in here, but whatev.

and on to the lesser half.

Marker In The Sand - what is a running theme on this album, a cool musical verse undercut by a WTF? chorus. I don't dislike the music to either the verse or chorus, and I get what they're trying to do with the transition, but it just doesn't work to me. I get taken out of the song everytime it happens. That being said, I like the instrumental bridge and especially how it goes back into the main verse (Matt's doing something cool there, in how he relies on toms in the earlier verse but drives a more relentless beat with the snare in the last verse). Some of the lyrics are good, but it feels like an awesome idea in theory that doesn't work that well in execution, but it's a weighty subject for a three minute song, and credit to Eddie for trying to capture it.

Parachutes - maybe my favorite song here. Not sure though. But damn, does this song get sunk by production. Probably the biggest offender here of how a good song got sunk by poor mixing/mastering. I can only wonder how could this would have sounded had it been during the Riot Act sessions. I noticed Stone brings the best songs this time around (Life Wasted, Comatose, Parachutes), which is interesting cause he'll bring some of my least favorite songs in the next album.

Unemployable - it's a good song, not a great one; it feels a little short, but again, I like that they're trying to do something a little new. The Shania Twain oh-whoa-oh never bothered me at all; it's a fun pop hook, and it feels far more natural than The Fixer's chorus, for example. I can usually give or take guitar solos, but I feel like their needed to be something else after the bridge.

The more I listen, the more annoying the production is, cause some of the songs here are pretty good. They deserved better.

Big Wave - this song doesn't do much of anything for me. I feel like it's going for the herky-jerky back and forth of something like Evacuation, but it doesn't pull me in in the way that song does. Eddie doesn't really give me a melody or lyric to hook me. Ah well.

Gone - this is the second song in PJ on autopilot for the album. It's not my least favorite PJ song, but there are few that I find more boring. I don't know what could have helped this one, if anything. I guess there's just not much to say, IMO. It starts, it's there for four minutes and it's over.

Top heavy is right; there's only one stinker in the first seven tracks, although pretty much all the songs have some significant problems. Then it drops off alot.

Unemployable always reminded me of a Bruce Springsteen song. The riff has a real blue collar feel to it. I like the lyrics here, but I really don't like how Eddie sounds on this. I'm not sure where this sheen came from, but it doesn't do him justice, especially in tandem with his ragged vocals. The uh oh oh oh part still kinda makes me cringe a little bit. This song needs a climax. I'm already kinda bored of it and it's still got a minute left. The end when he gets low and almost whispery is kinda cool, actually. probably the best part of the song, but hardly worth the price of admission.

Interesting, someone coughs at the end of it.

No one likes big wave very much so it's no wonder speeno loves it. It's fun for what it is, but my god does this song scream b-side. Eddie really uses the metaphor of homes on this one as his dominant image on S/T, so maybe he had to use this one to get the rest of his wave metaphors in. The riff is pretty cool, but the subject matters leaves me feeling disinvested from it. Good energy from Eddie too, but again, is this REALLY how you feel when you surf? It doesn't sound very relaxing. I kinda like the outro.



I didn't like the Gone demo very much. I am just not a big fan of the song. They already had two perfectly good road songs with RVM and MFC. I guess those didn't really have the class element that this one did. Still, the verses are just boring. This didn't need more than Jeff and Eddie. The guitar parts make this sound too crowded. Eddie's performance is pretty good, but the song he's performing isn't anything special. the lyrics may be a little preachy (eddie's political songs often are) but they're decent. I have no problem with the gas in my tank lyric.

I really liked the chorus when this song first hit. It reminded me of the classic soaring pearl jam chorus that we hadn't really had since In Hiding and Given To Fly (In Hiding especially). But it wore pretty thin pretty quickly, especially since the chorus itself doesn't have much weight to it, and the liberation doesn't really feel earned.

I like how the song winds itself down in the last 15 seconds or so. Still this disappoints. Some of this is the basic structure--it's just not a very good song. I wonder if Riot Act production would have helped.


I really like the Reprise. it reminds me of something Tom Waits might have done. Eddie sounds so delicate and sad and uncertain and vulnerable with these undertones of conviction. I wonder if this would have been better or off with a warmer/richer sound.

This is the only other PJ record (besides Ten) I'd like to hear re-recorded.

Unemployable: more Ed trying to identify with the common man and only coming up with boring stereotypes. Sorry Ed, you haven't been common for a long time, and you aren't Bruce. otherwise, a bland adult contemporary mess and signals the death knell for all PJ midtempo songs. there will be no more GTFs.

Big Wave: not the worse song i've ever heard. the lyrics are pretty cool for a stupid surf song, except the GOT ME A BIG WAVE crap. i hate to admit it, but this song isn't that awful. the outro stuff is neato. much better at goofy pop than The Fixer at least. maybe my expectations have just been ground to dust...

Does anyone know?

only if it is in a bag, surrounded by one or more other cocks.

Stone did do good work on this one. I had forgotten. I really didn't care much for his contributions on Backspacer