TEN - Why so much shit?!

soclose

jeffbr wrote:

A lot of the hate toward Ten is often from the kids in their teens and twenties who discovered PJ during No Code or Yield.

Interesting thought. I'm in my mid twenties now, and I got into Pearl Jam in 1996/97 in my early teens. The thing is, the first album I bought was Ten.

It just happens that No Code and Yield are the albums that held up the best for me. I don't dislike Ten, but as someone who doesn't listen to much hard rock the sound of the album isn't all that appealing to me these days.

IGotShit76

Ten is awesome for sure.
The only problem that bugs me is the production. I can't explain but I don't like so much the sound if you compare it to other albums.
I really would like to hear it remastered.

DesignVHL

Wow! This news is a first for me! Are there really snobby little fans who think that? How dumb...I mean hell to each our own - no reason to judge another fan because they love ten over no-code or yeild or avocado...geez!

If it weren't for TEN....well who knows! TEN got me into PJ in the first place and it has and always will be one of my top TEN Albums of all time!

mickeyrat

Isn't funny how the great bands first albums become the least respected after time and jelling within a group?


I think back to Zep 1. What must people have thought when this came out . "WHO IS THAT! ROCKIN"I think the same holds true for PJ. Any band with staying power obviously grow and evolve their "sound" and we grow with them.

Having been a fan from the beginning of radio play TEN holds a special place for me as most first albums do.

catefrances

i measure all subsequent pj releases by TEN. tis my fave and unless pj pull something truly extraordinary out of the bag, it will remain so.

Alive_268

In subsequent years, band members have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the album's mixing turned out. In 2001, Ament said, "I'd love to remix Ten. Ed, for sure, would agree with me...It wouldn't be like changing performances; just pull some of the reverb off it."[3] In 2006, Vedder said, "I can listen to the early records [except] the first record...it's just the sound of the record. It was kind of mixed in a way that was...it was kind of produced."[4] In 2002, Gossard said, "It was 'over-rocked', we were novices in the studio and spent too long recording, doing different takes, and killing the vibe and overdubbing tons of guitar. There's a lot of reverb on the record".

I'm sure that Ten will be re-released, probably in 2011 as a 20th anniversary edition

tvismyfriend

Ten is my favorite album, but it's the one I listen to the least.

Thoughts_Arrive

Fans shouldn't be made to feel like morons for liking Ten.
It is a free world, we all have different tastes.
Do what you feel, like what you like, have a mind of your own.

Going back to the album itself, it sounds over produced maybe because the band members were ''seasoned'' musicians who came from previous bands, so hence that lack of rawnessness about Ten.

If any of you have their rearviewmirror greatest hits 91-03 compilation and have heard the remix of Alive, what do you think?
I prefer it to the original on Ten, however I prefer the version of Even Flow on Ten to the one on this compilation.

I would love to see Ten remastered/remixed to give each song a more punchier sound with some reverb taken off, to make the music seem more ''to the front'' rather than distant, if that makes sense.

The only BOB remixes on their greatest hits I like are Alive, Black & Jeremy.
If they remaster/mix Ten I'd love to see these version on their.
Keep Even Flow and Once the same but make the sound more punchier and clean.

My 2 cents....

the wolf

love it, but dont listen much anymore. face it, i listened to it non stop for 4 years when it first came out!!

i agree the production is crap. but hey, it is what it is.......a classic.

listen to it as a whole less than any other record now. but still love it, reminds me of a time........................AH !

catefrances

i wonder how much peoples dislike for TEN is a result of ed's voicing its 'imperfections'?

the wolf

catefrances wrote:

i wonder how much peoples dislike for TEN is a result of ed's voicing its 'imperfections'?

i would bet a lot. lol

catefrances

the wolf wrote:

i would bet a lot. lol

i always put it down to 'sour grapes' or something. like TEN was such a huge thing for pj and ed had to regain a little cred by denouncing its 'shinyness'. much the same the way nevermind is. TEN always sounded just fine to me.

SENROCK

pirlo21 wrote:

So what is it? Snobbery? Elitism?

yes.
people are chumps that frown upon TEN! It played a huge part in alot of peoples lives. For some of us, it got us thru formative years and it brings back alot of memories. Theres always something special about the first love. It never fades away! And EVENFLOW is the shizznit from that day til now and beyond!

SENROCK

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

Fans shouldn't be made to feel like morons for liking Ten.
It is a free world, we all have different tastes.
Do what you feel, like what you like, have a mind of your own.

Going back to the album itself, it sounds over produced maybe because the band members were ''seasoned'' musicians who came from previous bands, so hence that lack of rawnessness about Ten.

If any of you have their rearviewmirror greatest hits 91-03 compilation and have heard the remix of Alive, what do you think?
I prefer it to the original on Ten, however I prefer the version of Even Flow on Ten to the one on this compilation.

I would love to see Ten remastered/remixed to give each song a more punchier sound with some reverb taken off, to make the music seem more ''to the front'' rather than distant, if that makes sense.

The only BOB remixes on their greatest hits I like are Alive, Black & Jeremy.
If they remaster/mix Ten I'd love to see these version on their.
Keep Even Flow and Once the same but make the sound more punchier and clean.

My 2 cents....

DIG the name! And dig your 2 cents. I love ANY version of EVENFLOW, even the tampon one and....the ones where cameron kills it with a drum solo but i will ALWAYS love the TEN version. I do however LOVE the greatest hits version simply because of the WAHHH!!!

Thoughts_Arrive

Thanks for digging my name & 2 cents lol

youngster

I think re-mixing it would be a bad idea. It's like when a director adds or deletes scenes from a movie 20 years after it was released (Star Wars, ET etc... ) It was made the way it was meant at the time. Ten sounds great to most PJ fans I know, in 1991 it must have sounded good or they wouldn't have released it. It's PJ's most profitable album and what put them on the map/ Leave well enough alone and worry about the upcoming album. I'm sure BOB will make it as good as Yield if not better.

Urohawk

I also think the hate comes from this idea that the band has matured, evolved, and somehow moved beyond Ten. They have, but one must remember evolution is a process. Ten was just a step along the way. It wasn't something the band abandoned because it sucked and they opted to move onto something else. They changed slowly over time.

That being said I still prefer the raw energy of 1991 PJ with pissed off at the world Eddie rather than the 2008 midly disgruntled folk song writing Eddie. I do appreciate both, but PJ seemed to have a more subtle message from Ten. Lyrically the songs are far less interpretive these days. I find the more modern songs more obvious and less open to my own personal interpretation.

CitizenRick

Ten is legendary! Any PJ fan that say's they truly don't like it is suffering from profound elitism. It's the album that made Pearl Jam...Pearl Jam.

Yes...maybe it needs to be remixed...but the only reason we say that is because they got the chance to do seven more albums with three other producers to compare it to. The success of Ten allowed for that to happen.

The "hits" from Ten will forever live on in pop culture. Long after some of us are gone.

pjamaholic

pirlo21 wrote:

Is it just me, or does Ten got a raw deal on here? It's like you're not a 'real' fan if you like Ten.
It's as though you're only a real fan if you love No Code!

What is it about Ten that some people don't like?! Don't get me wrong, it's not even my personal favourite Pearl Jam album but I can appreciate Ten for the master piece it is.

I know it'll forever be associated with the whole 'rise of grunge' and the 'Seattle scene' thing. I know it sold to the masses, had massive hit singles and that Pearl Jam were MTV's darlings for a while. But that doesn't make it a bad album.

As for the 'popular', 'hit' singles, nobody can tell me that Even Flow, Alive, Black and Jeremy aren't great songs. C'mon, they're classics.
Add Once, Why Go?, Oceans, Garden, Porch, Deep and, of coures Release and you've got an incredible album.
Hell, on the European version we even had Wash, Dirty Frank and Alive (live) as bonus tracks!!!

So what is it? Snobbery? Elitism? Or am I just wrong, and that Ten just isn't all that?!

Great post. I haven't bothered to read everyones replies, but what you say makes sense. Those songs are classics, my 2 favourites being Why Go and Deep and I dont give a shit who doesn't like them, I love them, absolutely love them! Ten is a great album and always will be. I've got 2 copies of it, one of them being the European version you're talking about and I still listen to Ten from time to time. I dont care who's a "real fan" or not, or who thinks what about what album, I like most things Pearl Jam have come up with and dont spend much time on this board knocking their music. So what if Ten "sold to the masses", it's what got Pearl Jam known, isn't it? My kids are always complaining about how none of their friends know much about or appreciate Pearl Jam and I said it's because they're a non commercial group who care more about the environment and what they can do to make the world a better place, than making money (for themselves) and catering to the masses. I'm proud of my 2 girls because although they're typical teenagers and like some of the crap that's coming out nowadays, they still like Pearl Jam too.

hrd2imgn

anyone who thinks Ten sucks is an idiot