Why is Allmusic's review of Yield so bad?

Murderers.

'Perhaps shaken up by the chilly reception to the adventurous No Code, Pearl Jam returned to straight-ahead hard rock on their fifth album, Yield. There remain a few weird flourishes scattered throughout the album, from the spoken word "Push Me, Pull Me" to the untitled Eastern instrumental bonus track, but overall, Yield is the most direct record the group has made since Ten. That doesn't mean it's the best. Pearl Jam have trouble coming up with truly undeniable hard rock hooks, and Eddie Vedder remains at his most compelling on folk-tinged, meditative numbers like "Low Light," "In Hiding," and "All Those Yesterdays." They also fall prey to their habit of dividing the record into rock and ballad sides, which makes Yield a little exhausting, even at its concise length. It also emphasizes the relative lack of exceptional material. Yield is more consistent than Vitalogy and No Code, but it doesn't have songs that reach the highs of "Better Man," "Corduroy," or "Who You Are." Ironically, the album doesn't rock hard enough -- "Do the Evolution" and "Brain of J." have garage potential, but there's more bite and distortion on Vedder's voice than there is on the guitars. It's hard to view Yield as a disaster, since Pearl Jam's conviction still rings true, but it's frustrating that journeyman tendencies have replaced the desperate, searching confusion that was the most appealing element of the band's music.'

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xtfibka9kakx


Blasphemy I tell you.

tdub

Murderers wrote:

'Perhaps shaken up by the chilly reception to the adventurous No Code, Pearl Jam returned to straight-ahead hard rock on their fifth album, Yield. There remain a few weird flourishes scattered throughout the album, from the spoken word "Push Me, Pull Me" to the untitled Eastern instrumental bonus track, but overall, Yield is the most direct record the group has made since Ten. That doesn't mean it's the best. Pearl Jam have trouble coming up with truly undeniable hard rock hooks, and Eddie Vedder remains at his most compelling on folk-tinged, meditative numbers like "Low Light," "In Hiding," and "All Those Yesterdays." They also fall prey to their habit of dividing the record into rock and ballad sides, which makes Yield a little exhausting, even at its concise length. It also emphasizes the relative lack of exceptional material. Yield is more consistent than Vitalogy and No Code, but it doesn't have songs that reach the highs of "Better Man," "Corduroy," or "Who You Are." Ironically, the album doesn't rock hard enough -- "Do the Evolution" and "Brain of J." have garage potential, but there's more bite and distortion on Vedder's voice than there is on the guitars. It's hard to view Yield as a disaster, since Pearl Jam's conviction still rings true, but it's frustrating that journeyman tendencies have replaced the desperate, searching confusion that was the most appealing element of the band's music.'

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xtfibka9kakx


Blasphemy I tell you.

The person that wrote this review is the same type of person that would give Daughtry props and probably proclaim that the next American Idol is a genius.

Unfortunately, writing catching 'hooks' is what destroys the art form in many respects. In my opinion, PJ is genius in writing songs that have a memorable melody without it becoming irratating after 10 or 15 listens. Quite the opposite of Nickelback, etc - other bands that make money from doing such. The author of this album review I'm sure would give Nickelback's album a good review. Which is worth the same as a pile of shit.

hopethatuchoke

Wow. This is 10 years old isn't it? Get over it. The guy didn't like it.

Its Evolution Baby

I think he has a point on Brain of J and DTE. The live versions of those songs are so much better. I don't know what they were thinking when they recorded those in the studio. Even the Single Video Theory versions of both of these songs are both better then the Yield versions.

Murderers.

hopethatuchoke wrote:

Wow. This is 10 years old isn't it? Get over it. The guy didn't like it.

Wow, what's your problem? I was only mentioning it.

fuck

hopethatuchoke wrote:

Wow. This is 10 years old isn't it? Get over it. The guy didn't like it.

who licked the icing off your cupcake?

restlesssoul

Murderers wrote:

Wow, what's your problem? I was only mentioning it.

hes hopethatuchoke! thats his problem, always a slicer of urine is he, a real piss cutter.

edit: yield is good.

hopethatuchoke

Murderers wrote:

Wow, what's your problem? I was only mentioning it.

You had a little red meanie face with the post. That would indicate that you were angry with it. Maybe I misinterpreted the red meanie?

hopethatuchoke

restlesssoul wrote:

hes hopethatuchoke! thats his problem, always a slicer of urine is he, a real piss cutter.

edit: yield is good.

and fwiw....yield is the best

G-force

Its Evolution Baby wrote:

I think he has a point on Brain of J and DTE. The live versions of those songs are so much better. I don't know what they were thinking when they recorded those in the studio. Even the Single Video Theory versions of both of these songs are both better then the Yield versions.

Great points. In my personal opinion that album has aged well as it has had time to mature and new life has been breathed into those tunes via their live versions. A decade later I believe that is a reasonable review. Some of my favorite PJ songs are on there- but the album as a whole is far from my favorite.

Murderers.

hopethatuchoke wrote:

You had a little red meanie face with the post. That would indicate that you were angry with it. Maybe I misinterpreted the red meanie?

I didn't actually mean to put that on. I must have clicked on it by accident. Ahwell.

pjsteelerfan

Not everyone likes good music.

hopethatuchoke

Murderers wrote:

I didn't actually mean to put that on. I must have clicked on it by accident. Ahwell.

S'all good. No worries.

Bathgate66

that they haven't seen the light yet,.....

Bangers_n_mash

In the immortal words of Derek Zoolander: "Let me answer your question with another question...", why is my review of allmusic so bad?

The answer is this review of Yield. :magnum:

SVRDhand13

because All Music sucks. Just use Metacritic.com to get a feel for what all of the reviewers are saying.

AM gives good reveiws to shit emo bands- thats tellin ya something.

muppet

Apart from Yield, the website have pretty much given good reviews of the rest of the Pearl Jam albums.

danny

Murderers wrote:

'Perhaps shaken up by the chilly reception to the adventurous No Code, Pearl Jam returned to straight-ahead hard rock on their fifth album, Yield. There remain a few weird flourishes scattered throughout the album, from the spoken word "Push Me, Pull Me" to the untitled Eastern instrumental bonus track, but overall, Yield is the most direct record the group has made since Ten. That doesn't mean it's the best. Pearl Jam have trouble coming up with truly undeniable hard rock hooks, and Eddie Vedder remains at his most compelling on folk-tinged, meditative numbers like "Low Light," "In Hiding," and "All Those Yesterdays." They also fall prey to their habit of dividing the record into rock and ballad sides, which makes Yield a little exhausting, even at its concise length. It also emphasizes the relative lack of exceptional material. Yield is more consistent than Vitalogy and No Code, but it doesn't have songs that reach the highs of "Better Man," "Corduroy," or "Who You Are." Ironically, the album doesn't rock hard enough -- "Do the Evolution" and "Brain of J." have garage potential, but there's more bite and distortion on Vedder's voice than there is on the guitars. It's hard to view Yield as a disaster, since Pearl Jam's conviction still rings true, but it's frustrating that journeyman tendencies have replaced the desperate, searching confusion that was the most appealing element of the band's music.'

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xtfibka9kakx


Blasphemy I tell you.

what a bunch of muppets!

et21

I read this actually just a few weeks ago and was a bit stunned. I can understand if critics would diss Binaural or No Code or something, those are albums that aren't directed towards the masses and take a while to get in to, but Yield always seemed to me their cleanest record. The record that I couldn't really imagine anyone not really giving a good review. It doesn't have to be the BEST album, but it just seems like one of those records where critics would be giving it major props and all because it is so accessible (at least compared some of the other stuff). Most of the other reviews of Yield have been really positive. This guy just didn't like it, I guess.

Maybe he just doesn't like the positive vibes from this record? Maybe he thinks PJ is supposed to be all dark and stuff. If this would be released by another band, he probably might have given it better rating.

Oh, and I would have to say.. those 'journeyman tendencies" are one of the very reasons I love this band today! One of my favorite elements. But, I can see how at the time the change might have been hard to handle. No Code was such a shock to many people. It really has taken years to see the bigger piciture when it comes to their evolution.