I was one lucky bastard today. I was invited to go to a Sony/BMG records meeting in which 6 of the new PJ songs were played for staff. I'm not excactly sure how to describe what I heard, and I didn't take notes but I will try to describe as much as possible.

1st off, crapshoot IS comatose. As the songs were played each song title was mentioned for the song was played. The last song I heard was Comatose, when it came on I instantly recognized it. Straight up 100%, and it was fucking raw as shit, almost like they recorded it in one take. Even had a little banter at the end of one of the guys saying something like "that was pretty good" or something like that. The one main thing I remember about it was how huge that openning riff sounded.

These are the rest of the songs they played (i think in this order, I could be wrong about the first two names)...

Inside Job
Life Wasted
Worldwide Suicide
Unemployable
Parachutes
Comatose

edit - looks like i heard Severred Hand, not Inside Job.


I came in the room and the first song was already started, and I remember thinking that if this was pearl jam, they are finally back. Im pretty sure it was inside job, but dont quote me.

Dont remember much of the 1st and 2nd tracks other than they just sounded flat out great. Just really upbeat and hard hitting. And ed sounded really energetic, FINALLY.

Ok, Worldwide Suicide. Let me jsut say that they picked the worst fucking 15 seconds of the song to preview on the radio. This song blew my socks off. You will all realize wednesday, this song is fucking sick.

Unemployable was also great, I think it may have been a tad bit slower than the other tracks, but i dont remember for sure. I only heard these songs once after all.

Parachutes, wow. This was a more acoustic song, almost a ballad. It reminded me a bit of Light Years as far as the tempo goes. And, you may be interested to know that this was the only song that I heard any organ/Boom. There was a little solo a ways in, but I didnt notice any other organ.


Overall, I'm really happy to say that they FINALLY have captured the way they sound live, in the studio. And, Ed sounding energetic as fuck was really exciting. I see why Mike early on was saying that this sounded more like VS. This album is going to be big, I dont know about Green Day big, but its going to sell better than the previous two records did, hands down.

As one of the reps said in the meeting "its good to know we have a pearl jam record we can actually get behind". Also, I guess the radio station feedback was really great, since I guess they have the track and have heard it, but cant play it. They even mentioned the Indy leak last week.

One sad note, I heard not a single Mike solo anywhere. Hopefully this will be fixed once we hear the rest of the album.

sounds good. cant wait.

i hate you.

thanks for sharing I'm relieved that crapshoot is there and that WWS lives up to the hype.

After all that's happened the last few days I want to believe you ... hum ... but ...

did you get up when crapshoot came on and start slamming?

this guy is legit.

Okay, thanks I didn't know. You're one lucky man!

is it like vitalogy then?

One way I would describe it, is think of what do the evolution sounds like live, in the last two tours. I dunno, its just different.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

groetjes,
Mirella (and thanks)

Different and good! And no worries on the solos, they are there..

I think I just peed a little.

this is crazy, crazy good

I honestly wanna believe you! But are we just supposed to believe that you were randomly invited to a Sony/BMG meeting, for no reason? Sorry to be a party pooper but i'm gonna need a bit more than that.

This is very nice to hear.

i'm just lucky I peed right before I went online.

If you speak the truth (and you better be) ..... Thanks!!!

Great feedback, you are helping us get excited for the album. Your write up was great, and because of it, I want MORE! Please keep on giving us any more impressions that come to mind. I know you can't give detail cause you only listened once, but some things I want to know.

As far as sound, how can you define it? Through band interviews, we've heard "like Vs." and a "little experimental" and "concentrating on the art of rock", etc, etc. Is it all of the above? I gotta be honest, and I hate laying down expectations, but something I desire is for the band to put it all together --- meaning, I think the early albums had the best energy but lacked in true songcraft, while the middle albums had songcraft and more interesting ideas but less of that live energy, and the last album to be sort of a summation of their all of their previous albums, for better and worse. Do you feel on this listen, that they put it all together, like old school PJ energy, combined with the good songcraft and fresh ideas of the later years?

Anyway, I don't want to sound ungrateful for your review, cause it's the most exciting thing I've read all day (assuming your are legit), but keep on bringing it. And before we sound like unsatiable wolves (which we probably are, thanks for the write up.

On another note, I've never been a Mike solo fanatic, for me it only works when I am at the show and nowhere else. I like LEADS that complement the songs, he's can be really good at that. so, I won't be crushed if it's morfe leads and less solos (cause we get solos live and he goes off a few times in RA, so I prefer to go with less and more collaborative leads instead of taking over the songs).

He mentioned it earlier in the week in another thread.

I work at a record store, and talk to the Sony/BMG reps all the time, they knew I love PJ, and I asked one of them a week ago if they had gotten anything on the new record, the guy said no, but he was going to be in a meeting with label reps where they are previewing the record. he then invited me to go.