Don't let it off the hook. It's pretty bad. Not to say there aren't good songs, but when listening as a whole it all just runs together b/c it's so similar sounding.
Or perhaps they are trying to make it sound more authentically AIC?
But it doesn't because there's no juxtaposition between the voices, that's my point. To me it seems like Duvall is kind of in the background on the newer stuff, not really given the opportunity to let his vocals soar like Layne did, and it's making for some pretty boring songs.
Yeah its true. Phantom Limb is a fantastic track, which is the only track he really has full lead vocal duties. Having said that, i really like stuff like Lab Monkey, Scalpel, Choke, Breath On A Window, Voices, Pretty Done....its a pretty damn solid album, I think. I dont really get why people are hating on it so much.
I do. I was SO disappointed at first. I loved BGWTB and couldn't believe how much of a let down this was. That said, I hadn't listened to every track all the way through, and only gave it 1 or 2 spins. I came back to it and gave it another, very thorough chance. It slowly grew on me until it hit me how awesome it is. Some of these songs are so powerful, now I think it surpasses BGWTB, and is actually more interesting to me. Breath On a Window, Phantom Limb, Low Ceiling, Scalpel....there are only maybe 2 or 3 clunkers.
The problem with TDPDH is that it's not immediate, and people have short attention spans. If you give it a real chance, it's one hell of a grower.
24 years old, mid-life crisis
nowadays hits you when you're young
I was very pleased with all 3 albums. I hate to even choose between them, but if I must I would put Soundgarden first, as I feel that this was a truly excellent comeback, and I am so happy to see the band back and creating.
Then probably Lightning Bolt, which I feel is yet another solid entry in the PJ catalogue, nothing unexpected, but that's because they are not a band I expect the unexpected from, I expect solid rock albums.
Finally AiC, again great album, but some of the songs are just too long and repetitive. They are all good songs, but a few of them could do with being half the length. As mentioned above though, it is a grower, I have listened 50+ times now and I like it a lot more than I did the first time.
I need to give King Animal another spin. I really did like it, but it came across as a very good album, not a great one and maybe a little too safe (but I guess I would expect that from a comeback album). However 'Rowing' is a great song.
LB has been in heavy rotation recently for obvious reasons and I am really liking it. Might be hard to see which I like better because LB takes more chances, but KA is harder.
Dinosaurs I've only given one listen to and it was okay. However I saw AiC in August and they still put on a great show with DuVall so I am not hating the new line up.
King Animal easily. Still great a year later. Half of Lightning Bolt is throw away. I'd happily take another soundgarden album over Pearl Jam right now. I feel their next album could be even better than KA but with Pearl Jam I'm not so sure. The AiC album was very disappointing, I liked Black Gives Way to Blue but this album is just boring bar two songs.
So:
KA
LB
TDPDBH
I just couldn't say it better! My thoughts EXACTLY.
PJ * 2010 * Belfast * 2012 * Manchester 1 * Manchester 2 * Berlin 1 * Berlin 2 * 2014 * Amsterdam 1 * Amsterdam 2 * Berlin * Leeds * Milton Keynes * EV * 2012 * Manchester * London 1 * London 2 * 2017 * Dublin * Cork *
Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.
But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.
There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.
Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.
And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.
While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.
So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.
And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!
Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.
But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.
There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.
Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.
And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.
While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.
So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.
And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!
Taree is my favourite song off that album.
King Animal has been an underrated release in my mind- it fits as the next album Soundgarden should have released.
Too bad their show at the QE in Van sounded so bad.
Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.
But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.
There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.
Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.
And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.
While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.
So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.
And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!
Bones Of Birds is amazing, don't know what you're on! Taree and Attrition kind of sneaked up on me and I really enjoy them now after thinking they were justs so so. And I still love that break down in Black Saturday, I could listen to it for ages
I'll agree with you on Halfway There though, utterly pointless addition to the record, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and I can't believe they didn't have any other songs that they could have used.
King Animal is definitely a progression from Down on The Upside and Soundgarden picked back up right where they left off. I don't think there is one bad song on that album. Bones of Birds and Taree are two of the better tracks and I don't even mind Halfway There.
Lightning Bolt on the other hand is a progression from Backspacer and not in a good way. Backspacer is not that great of an album and to continue something similar but more mellow and adult contemporary is going in the wrong direction. After the long wait, I was so disappointed in Lightning Bolt. I really thought they would have shifted away from Backspacer.
While TDPDH is a small step backwards from BGWTB, it is still a solid album and I find that I like it more every time I listen to it.
For me, King Animal is so far ahead of the other two in practically every aspect, that there is not even a comparison to be made. It has songs of pure quality that sit comfortably with the band's previous output, which can not be said at all for the other two. A Thousand Days Before I would happily put among my favourite Soundgarden tracks of all time.
Lighting Bolt was a massive let down, a huge disappointment for me and, like Of the Aggie said, a really bad progression from Backspacer. It is completely underwhelming, middle-of-the-road rock. There is nothing on the album of any substance whatsoever. I'm genuinely despondent about what has happened to Pearl Jam since Avocado, for me they have become a touring nostalgia act, which I never thought would happen.
For me, King Animal is so far ahead of the other two in practically every aspect, that there is not even a comparison to be made. It has songs of pure quality that sit comfortably with the band's previous output, which can not be said at all for the other two. A Thousand Days Before I would happily put among my favourite Soundgarden tracks of all time.
Lighting Bolt was a massive let down, a huge disappointment for me and, like Of the Aggie said, a really bad progression from Backspacer. It is completely underwhelming, middle-of-the-road rock. There is nothing on the album of any substance whatsoever. I'm genuinely despondent about what has happened to Pearl Jam since Avocado, for me they have become a touring nostalgia act, which I never thought would happen.
I thoroughly disagree.
I much prefer Pearl Jam to Soundgarden for starters.
I also like Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. I like the change of style with Backspacer and the variety it brings to the catalogue. The Fixer is excellent in particular and great fun live too. I've no issue with PJ whatsoever.
And I'm really looking forward to hearing Getaway, Sirens and several others live.
I saw Soundgarden a couple of months ago and was quite underwhelmed. It was much better than Hyde Park last year, which bordered on ridiculous. But I still enjoyed Cornell at the Roundhouse in 2007 a hell of a lot more.
And I saw Alice In Chains a couple of weeks ago. Was the fourth and most likely last time.
I don't really hear the comparisons between Backspacer and Lightning Bolt as a whole. Backspacer is basically worthless. There are a few songs there that sound like they put any effort into at all. I don't think Lightning Bolt is among their best work, but it seems that Stone and Jeff were pretty displeased with how little was put into BS artistically and made efforts to amend that with LB. Outside of the "Ed solo" tracks, none of those would fit with the m.o. of Backspacer.
Lightning Bolt and Future Days could easily have been on Backspacer.
And why do you think Jeff and Stone feel that way?
I think for Lightning Bolt to fit in with Backspacer it would need to be simplified and lose some of the layering.
Displeased is probably the wrong word, but they seem to have stepped it up a notch on a creative level for LB. Stuff like Pendulum, Infallible, Let the Records Play, and Yellow Moon shows quite a bit more artistry than anything on Backspacer. Or take something like Sirens, which is really basic and uninteresting thing on the surface....Stone draws you in with the atmospheric stuff and takes a pretty bland power ballad and adds quite a bit with some reverbed sparse playing and Bigsby wobbles.
I really like Sirens. I think it's an excellent track that has nods to Pink Floyd. The lyrics are poignant, personal and open. Great song.
I don't see Lightning Bolt as akin to Backspacer though. It's darker and deeper. But the change of mood with Backspacer is very nice. I like the fact there's a more upbeat and cheerful than usual PJ album. I enjoyed the tour and like most of the songs live. Just Breathe I like on the album, but I heard it too many times live. Unthought Known, Got Some, The Fixer and Amongst The Waves are particular favourites live.
The post G W Bush mood of it is great.
I rate that above King Animal as well. Comfortably.
Vanishing Point. For me it stays true to the Mudhoney Seattle sound we have grown to love. There is not a single song I skip over when listening to the MP3 of it. The vinyl I have of it I love I was lucky to get the clear Smokey vinyl. This is my favorite record of theirs so far. But I seem to say that after every Mudhoney release.
Lightning Bolt. It's a good album I could do with out Sirens for me that song is Just Breathe all over again. With out Sirens I think this would be number one.
King Animal. I don't know what it is but for some reason I can not get into this album. I have listened to it many times and still it is spun the least among the three.
Comments
I've listened to it several times and just can't get into it.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
Hollow is alright. But the album never seems to really spark into life.
BGWTB is much better.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I do. I was SO disappointed at first. I loved BGWTB and couldn't believe how much of a let down this was. That said, I hadn't listened to every track all the way through, and only gave it 1 or 2 spins. I came back to it and gave it another, very thorough chance. It slowly grew on me until it hit me how awesome it is. Some of these songs are so powerful, now I think it surpasses BGWTB, and is actually more interesting to me. Breath On a Window, Phantom Limb, Low Ceiling, Scalpel....there are only maybe 2 or 3 clunkers.
The problem with TDPDH is that it's not immediate, and people have short attention spans. If you give it a real chance, it's one hell of a grower.
nowadays hits you when you're young
Then probably Lightning Bolt, which I feel is yet another solid entry in the PJ catalogue, nothing unexpected, but that's because they are not a band I expect the unexpected from, I expect solid rock albums.
Finally AiC, again great album, but some of the songs are just too long and repetitive. They are all good songs, but a few of them could do with being half the length. As mentioned above though, it is a grower, I have listened 50+ times now and I like it a lot more than I did the first time.
Wasn't sure it would be better than King Animal, but turns out it is.
King Animal is better than I expected too.
Halfway There is crap though.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
LB has been in heavy rotation recently for obvious reasons and I am really liking it. Might be hard to see which I like better because LB takes more chances, but KA is harder.
Dinosaurs I've only given one listen to and it was okay. However I saw AiC in August and they still put on a great show with DuVall so I am not hating the new line up.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
At the moment I would go. LB > KA >> Devil (But I never heard that one..)
Would also be interesting in hearing comparisons between LB, KA, Wasting Light (Foo Fighters), and I'm With You (RHCP).
2010: 5/20 NY, 5/21 NY ... 2011: 6/21 EV NY, 9/3 WI, 9/4 WI ... 2012: 9/2 PA, 9/22 GA ... 2013: 10/18 NY, 10/19 NY, 10/21 PA, 10/22 PA, 10/27 MD
2015: 9/23 NY, 9/26 NY ... 2016: 4/28 PA, 4/29 PA, 5/1 NY, 5/2 NY, 6/11 TN, 8/7 MA, 11/4 TOTD PA, 11/5 TOTD PA ... 2018: 8/10 WA
2022: 9/14 NJ ... 2024: 5/28 WA, 9/7 PA, 9/9 PA ---- http://imgur.com/a/nk0s7
Wasting Light is alright.
I would probably go:
LB
KA
WL
TDPDH
IWY
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I just couldn't say it better! My thoughts EXACTLY.
EV * 2012 * Manchester * London 1 * London 2 * 2017 * Dublin * Cork *
But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.
There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.
Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.
And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.
While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.
So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.
And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
Taree is my favourite song off that album.
King Animal has been an underrated release in my mind- it fits as the next album Soundgarden should have released.
Too bad their show at the QE in Van sounded so bad.
Bones Of Birds is amazing, don't know what you're on! Taree and Attrition kind of sneaked up on me and I really enjoy them now after thinking they were justs so so. And I still love that break down in Black Saturday, I could listen to it for ages
I'll agree with you on Halfway There though, utterly pointless addition to the record, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and I can't believe they didn't have any other songs that they could have used.
Eyelids Mouth is probably my favourite. Crooked Steps is a contender too.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
Lightning Bolt on the other hand is a progression from Backspacer and not in a good way. Backspacer is not that great of an album and to continue something similar but more mellow and adult contemporary is going in the wrong direction. After the long wait, I was so disappointed in Lightning Bolt. I really thought they would have shifted away from Backspacer.
While TDPDH is a small step backwards from BGWTB, it is still a solid album and I find that I like it more every time I listen to it.
Attrition just isn't very good.
Halfway There is poor.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I'm thinking, from the responses you evoked, that you are very much in the minority for Taree.
Lighting Bolt was a massive let down, a huge disappointment for me and, like Of the Aggie said, a really bad progression from Backspacer. It is completely underwhelming, middle-of-the-road rock. There is nothing on the album of any substance whatsoever. I'm genuinely despondent about what has happened to Pearl Jam since Avocado, for me they have become a touring nostalgia act, which I never thought would happen.
Eyelid's Mouth is probably my favourite on the album.
But I prefer Lightning Bolt to it, definitely.
I prefer all PJ albums
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I thoroughly disagree.
I much prefer Pearl Jam to Soundgarden for starters.
I also like Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. I like the change of style with Backspacer and the variety it brings to the catalogue. The Fixer is excellent in particular and great fun live too. I've no issue with PJ whatsoever.
And I'm really looking forward to hearing Getaway, Sirens and several others live.
I saw Soundgarden a couple of months ago and was quite underwhelmed. It was much better than Hyde Park last year, which bordered on ridiculous. But I still enjoyed Cornell at the Roundhouse in 2007 a hell of a lot more.
And I saw Alice In Chains a couple of weeks ago. Was the fourth and most likely last time.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
And why do you think Jeff and Stone feel that way?
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I think for Lightning Bolt to fit in with Backspacer it would need to be simplified and lose some of the layering.
Displeased is probably the wrong word, but they seem to have stepped it up a notch on a creative level for LB. Stuff like Pendulum, Infallible, Let the Records Play, and Yellow Moon shows quite a bit more artistry than anything on Backspacer. Or take something like Sirens, which is really basic and uninteresting thing on the surface....Stone draws you in with the atmospheric stuff and takes a pretty bland power ballad and adds quite a bit with some reverbed sparse playing and Bigsby wobbles.
I don't see Lightning Bolt as akin to Backspacer though. It's darker and deeper. But the change of mood with Backspacer is very nice. I like the fact there's a more upbeat and cheerful than usual PJ album. I enjoyed the tour and like most of the songs live. Just Breathe I like on the album, but I heard it too many times live. Unthought Known, Got Some, The Fixer and Amongst The Waves are particular favourites live.
The post G W Bush mood of it is great.
I rate that above King Animal as well. Comfortably.
But I love all PJs albums
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
King Animal
TDPDH
All are good albums though.
EV Solo: 7/11/11 11/12/12 11/13/12
I will go
Vanishing Point. For me it stays true to the Mudhoney Seattle sound we have grown to love. There is not a single song I skip over when listening to the MP3 of it. The vinyl I have of it I love I was lucky to get the clear Smokey vinyl. This is my favorite record of theirs so far. But I seem to say that after every Mudhoney release.
Lightning Bolt. It's a good album I could do with out Sirens for me that song is Just Breathe all over again. With out Sirens I think this would be number one.
King Animal. I don't know what it is but for some reason I can not get into this album. I have listened to it many times and still it is spun the least among the three.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu
I haven't listened to TDPDH since the time this thread was posted.
http://www.last.fm/user/olivavu