Saying "NO!" to Brendan O'Brien

mca47

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

fox_mulderX

mca47 wrote:

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

Pearl Jam doesn't need a keyboardist, or an organ. Fact.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

fox_mulderX wrote:

mca47 wrote:

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

Pearl Jam doesn't need a keyboardist, or an organ. Fact.

THIS

javis el errante

I read what the OP wrote and the only thing I could come up with is that if I ever had a band, who on earth would I say no to the preson who produce ACDC's Black Ice, all STP albums and Vs. Vitalogy, No Code and Yield? I really liked Backspacer, I still do, but many people don't like it as much, I wonder if that people who don't like BS are the same people who don't like Binaural (Tchad Blake) and/or Riot Act (Adam Kasper).

mca47

fox_mulderX wrote:

mca47 wrote:

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

Pearl Jam doesn't need a keyboardist, or an organ. Fact.

Fact: They don't need one.
Fact: Most rock bands sound better with key support.

Boom is ok at best. I'd take an upgrade though...

Dr. Delight

It's comical that after 3 songs, people are proclaiming the new album to be the Titanic.

mca47

Dr. Delight wrote:

It's comical that after 3 songs, people are proclaiming the new album to be the Titanic.

Agreed! BIGTIME :fp: factor!

People are dumb.

:wave:

primussucks

Dr. Delight wrote:

It's comical that after 3 songs, people are proclaiming the new album to be the Titanic.

exactly my thoughts!

Tboz51

october22 wrote:

People are going to shit on me for saying this but after both of the new songs debuted at Wrigley, my brother and I turned to each other and cringed. I leaned over to him and asked "what the hell happened to our band?"

I hate saying this but I'm afraid LB may be the nail in the coffin for Pearl Jam for me personally. If I'm right, I still hope other people love it.

Nothing can ever take away the music they've given us in years passed but in my opinion, Riot Act is the last "real" pearl jam album. I liked S/T but something changed during that record that I don't see them ever recovering from. They've lost that mysterious otherworldly quality they once had and the fault lies squarely with Ed. He's lost his point of view. He doesn't have the internal compass he once had. This happens to a lot of artists. Output changes as life moves on. Just so happens that the direction (or lack of it imo) that Ed is taking his song writing makes me want to blow my fucking brains out.

Honestly, I hope no one agrees with me. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I just don't know where else to go to express how I feel. Sorry to be a downer.

Well said

ForceofNature101

The new material sounds great. Best stuff they have done in a decade IMO


Seriously, I listen to the title tune from the album Lightning Bolt from Wrigley and wonder what the hell people are hearing that is different from me because I hear a really cool tune with a killer vocal melody.

I understand the love for the early material, I do find myself listening to Vs. and its surrounding albums the most, but the new material sounds much more developed than the majority of Backspacer


But I will of course wait for the entire album before commending or bashing O'Brien

antelope

primussucks wrote:

Dr. Delight wrote:

It's comical that after 3 songs, people are proclaiming the new album to be the Titanic.

exactly my thoughts!

I've been thinking the same thing. They've literally played only 1/4 of the songs from the full album. And only one we've been able to listen to fully produced, as it will be heard on Lightning Bolt.

You may like all, some, or none of the new songs, but there are still 9 whole songs you (presumably) haven't heard yet in any form. We should wait until we hear at least a few more songs before making judgments, no? Or how about waiting until we hear the album in its entirety? But then again, what would we talk about...

minifastcar

I really like that BOB song they played at Wrigley. I thought the keyboard was nice.

Soulfire42

Dr. Delight wrote:

It's comical that after 3 songs, people are proclaiming the new album to be the Titanic.

Nope, it could surprise the hell out of me. It's just very much looking like a continuation of the heavy-ham-handed softness of a producer who, I would say, had a large role in ruining the band's last album.

As to the person who asked if I'm the same type of person who dislikes Binaural, etc. Nope, I quite like most of Binaural. Riot Act has some stuff I like, some I don't but I'm not calling out the producer on it. I can't seem to get many people to understand this isn't about mellow music. Weak songs can be fast, slow, heavy or soft. It's about a producer adding cheez whiz elements all over the place on studio efforts and now live performances of Pearl Jam. It's not a yearning for Pearl Jam of 20 years ago or anything like that. It's a yearning for production that lets the band's own music be the focus and about finding a producer who doesn't want to be an extra band member. It's about having a producer who understands his role is to produce the music of the band, not to feature himself with the band and even perform with them in place of their existing keyboardist. The more I look at this, the more I see a confused relationship and blurred boundaries that are having a detrimental impact on the music we're being delivered.

Another person asked how I could be sure the cheez whiz was the product of BOB. To be honest, I don't think all of it is. I think Ed's lyrics are suffering a bit lately from some cheez too. But that's not what my particular grievance in this post is about. I don't doubt that BOB is better on the keys than Boom. However, BOB is not a band member and is becoming more recognizable on Pearl Jam tracks lately to me than say Jeff. That's pretty screwed up if you ask me. I see that some here get what I'm trying to get across and agree and some either don't get what I'm talking about or like the cheez whiz, so I probably don't have much more to say on this particular matter.

If you can't hear the cheez whiz all over Backspacer and now on a song like Future Days, I really don't know what else to say to you. For those of us who can hear the cheez whiz, what I'm saying is that I was really stoked to not hear ANY of it on Mind Your Manners and then it came roaring back in as BOB came out on stage and performed Future Days. Anticipation and excitement instantly transformed to cringing and "dread." Will I be able to get over a shitty Pearl Jam album or more ham-fisted production from BOB? Sure. Do I want to have to? Nope.

Maybe this will help get my point across and maybe not... Vampires didn't sparkle until Twilight. Pearl Jam didn't tinkle until BOB made them.

PJ_Soul

fox_mulderX wrote:

mca47 wrote:

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

Pearl Jam doesn't need a keyboardist, or an organ. Fact.

As a piano player, I disagree. :nono: I love songs with heavy keyboards/piano/organ, as long as it's done well.

Suzyntheq

I think BOB has gone ok with some ordinary songs on Backspacer. You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.

fox_mulderX

PJ_Soul wrote:

fox_mulderX wrote:

mca47 wrote:

I really enjoyed the new song!

Fact is, BOB is a far superior keyboardist than Boom.

Pearl Jam doesn't need a keyboardist, or an organ. Fact.

As a piano player, I disagree. :nono: I love songs with heavy keyboards/piano/organ, as long as it's done well.

As a former piano player, I disagree. There's a time and place for everything, and an organ during Even Flow is just nonsense. Crazy Mary was ruined, and let's not forget about Black. I think one of the main reasons why I have such a hard time enjoying Riot Act is because of Boom. To this day, I never understood the point of his addition to the band. Nothing against him, I just don't like Pearl Jam sounding like The Phantom of the Opera.

-Buru-

Soulfire42 wrote:

If you can't hear the cheez whiz all over Backspacer and now on a song like Future Days, I really don't know what else to say to you. For those of us who can hear the cheez whiz, what I'm saying is that I was really stoked to not hear ANY of it on Mind Your Manners and then it came roaring back in as BOB came out on stage and performed Future Days. Anticipation and excitement instantly transformed to cringing and "dread." Will I be able to get over a shitty Pearl Jam album or more ham-fisted production from BOB? Sure. Do I want to have to? Nope.

Borrowing your expression, I hear the cheez whiz, and it is strong in Future Days.

Lately, I am liking/loving individual songs in Pearl Jam albums, but not loving them as a whole. And I have a feeling this is how I will feel about Lightning Bolt as well.

Bugs29

BOB makes suggestions. It's up to the band to accept or decline those suggestions. By accepting his suggestions the band is willingly taking his direction. If you dont like their recent music then blame the band, not the producer whose only making suggestions.

Bugs29

october22 wrote:

Funny to me how some people think it's an argument for faster or harder or angrier... It's not about any of that!

It's about cool vs not cool. It's very simple.

I don't give a fuck if Ed sings about butterflies so long as it ends up being a cool song. Saying it's not 1992 anymore is a copout. Are people asking radiohead to remake their first albums? Not anymore, because radiohead has always remained fucking cool (and have gone through a much greater evolution than PJ and written far more "love songs"). That's what I want from a rock band. I need you to be fucking cooler than I am and realize that the Fixer is embarrassing without having to hear it from me. You should already know it. You can have as many kids and wives as you want but it's still your job to write cool shit. Having a wife and kids shouldn't be an excuse for making corny song writing choices.

That's how I see it anyway.

Yeah, it's one thing to evolve, it's another to do it well. It's expected they were bound to evolve. The problem seems that as individuals they are evolving into different directions, and i think they're not combining their new interests seamlessly. It seems a bit forced and loose. Some of the music is good but it's clearly not an evolution where they all share a similar vision. Thats the way it seems to me anyway. I still love amongst the waves and unthought known, but the evolution is struggling a bit.

Ty

Brendan's work speaks for itself.

I do think they should record a full album in one sitting with Rick Rubin though.