Album anticipation

fortyshades

Dear everyone,

Due to personal reasons  I feel the need to debate about PJ. With the emphasis on "debate" not "bashing". My mother died two days ago and I can use some distraction. You don;t have to gve me condolecance etc. I rather have a post filled with dreams,, hope and  possitivity, than another yet another negative one.

I always like this moment before an album. When there is antcipation, people are guessiging etc.. I also love fanviews instead of "official" reviews..  So I thought: lets stir things up What would you like to hear on this album? Which direction would you like them to go? There is no wrong answer.

First, some rules (for these posts somehow always get derailed, while it is meant to be fun and positive.) NO negative whining or stale arguments like: "probably just as bad as Backspacer or LB." These comments are tire some, old and no longer funny. It is not constructive in any matter. This is about dreams, not crticism.

Second, do not bash someone: if someone likes an album that you don't like or a song you don't like or if you dont agree with someone's wishes or the direction the person want PJ s to go to. Everyone has an opinion and that is more than "ok". Music is very subjective, There is no right or wrong.

Third, if you incidently heard the album, for you were invited to hear it before it was released please put "spoiler" at the beginning of your post, make sure there is some distance between the spoiler alert and the content.

Once again: the aim is to share our ideas and have fun with it.

So here we go. I will start.

My wish is, that this album is more experimental than the previous ones. .Songs that are diffecult to place for they defy any genre, like Pendulum.  Maybe some songs with a string section with the Quarted who acompanied Ed Vedder during his solo tour. (They come from the same city as I do, so I am a bit biased and proud here). No limitations in our fantasy; anything goes:

Album Gigaton.

Tracklist (for all clarity, this is of course fiction, not the formal tracklist. this is just fun to make):

- Bags of Sand (a slow opener, which is partly spoken word and partly a rock song. It has a slow build up and it ends with strings. This song, and the unorthodox approach, in other words, not the typical structure of verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus. Due to the guitar solo in the middle where Mike really shreds the guitar, the song clocks in  around the six minutes. The lyrics are about the environment and how we try to stop the impossible.)

- Echo (the first punk rock song on the album)

- Can't Deny Me. (We all know this one, But the album version is a bit diiferent. It doesn;t end as abruptly as the single does. After the last words of the song, the guitar picks the song up and we hear Ed Vedder whispering words, in the same way he does in Corduroy.)

- Dance of the Clairvoyents (This is one of those anthem songs that Pearl Jam makes. But more subtle. If you have to compare it with a song in their catalogue, the closest is NAIS. The lyrics are somewhat sarcastic. The "clairvoyents" is reffering to those Evangelists that see Trump as the second coming. The "dance" is reffering on how some dance on the graves of others only to fulfill their prophecy.)

- Slipping away (The first ballad on the album. The song is about a lost love, but can also be interpreted in a different way. That not love is slipping away through our fingers, but also our environment.)

- Message lost (Some would call this a filler, It is not however. We hear a voice through static - which s actually the ice that we hear colliding with one another. The song clocks in at 1 minute and 30 seconds. It is the same sound we hear with the trailer of the album. The voice shouts trough a megaphone and. It warns us of the dangers of climate change. The voice gets overwhelmed with the collding ice.)

- Barriers to Overcome (This is without a doubt the first epic song on the album. It is midtempo And we also see that the "filler" had a purpose: It created space so the two songs, with a similar tempo, didn't immediatly  follow eaach other on the album. This song has a mindblowing guitar solo - almost two minutes - which make this songs the second largest song on the album: over 6 minutes.)

- Derailed (the seond punk rock song with a time change near the middle. Comparable to Grievance)

- Blue waters (An instrumental where Mike seems to be playing against Boom. It builds up slowly, but explodes in the end)

- Shadow on the Horizon (Probably most personal song on the album. It deals with Chris, even though he himself is not mentioned. The song is 5+ minutes long and ends with a very powerfull string section.)

- Cracked Mirror (Spoken word, very poetic. Think of "i'm open", but with lyrics  that are much more vulnerable.

- Borderline (Some would consider this a filler, but iust like the previous one, it is a moment to create space on the album. We hear voices and when the voices become louder we realize these are voices of refugees begging for help.)

Life Support (This is a reference to the front cover of the album, This is Pearl Jam's "Stairway to heaven". It builds, builds and builds - like a wave getting more momentum - until it explodes in the end. The song reffers that we are living on borrowed time. That the world is on life support. We hear a piano, that is how the song starts, followed by an acoustic and later an electric guitar. While the song continues, for it doesn't follow the verse, chorus pattern, we start to hear the string section. In the end all these instrument collide together into a moment of complete chaos.) Clocks in over 7 minutes.

- a few minutes silence and than the Easter egg.

- Baggs of sand (reprise) (Same melody, but this time with the string section. We hear Eddie Vedder on top of that. Very baritone, crackling almost, before the songs fades out after 1 minute and 30 secons.)

Once again: This is not a real tracklist, more a wishlist. So put your thinking caps on and tell us what you like to see.

 

Spunkie

Impressive! You've given this a lot of thought, added a flair of creativity, and have a lot of knowledge of the guys playing in their music.

I Have a Hand: It sounds like raindrops on a tent. Babies eyes wide at the fresh, new sound. Cut to amazement. I have a hand! Jeff rips in.

Under the Tree: This ones about showing beauty to another and wanting to hold on always. Guitars weep.

Forbidden: This is a fucking angry Ed song. We've all had nights we didn't  swerve off the road, shoot too much, or swallowed too many. How the fuck could you, you have a child??? Anguished electric chaos. Solemn base line.

Not Enough: Rock anthem for kids with no Dad who are never, ever good enough. It's trashy. Drums on garbage lids.

Hack U Up: Dirty Frank Style.

You Want: This song is every girls dream come true. EVERY sex desire fulfilled. Jeff and Ed have a heyday on this track. Album Art: tan body - contrast - ghostly pale goo.

No tour... pop-up shows at picket lines.

Travels With

@fortyshades
That was a lot of fun to read!  Thanks for sharing.  The anticipation is building so much I'm constantly looking online trying to find more hints of the overall vibe of the album.  Even yours, admittedly made up, was fun to read as we all imagine what the new PJ will be.

fortyshades

Hahahaha, love it. I think we will all be stunned if we accidently nailed a song title! *shocked smiley*. I remember that I saw a leaked tracklist of Binaural once. It had "Letters to the Death" (now known as Sad) and "Fatal" on it. I was very excited about these titles. Fatal, I presumed was a fast furious punk song., while Letters to the Death could only be one of those brooding ballads like NAIS.   @Travels With for me this is one of the exciting momentst o be a fan. Each day I also check if the tracklist is known etc. And I have to say it was fun to write the above. For length of songs, I iused the viny records. The second record has 3 songs on side A and 3 on side B. So there should be at least one long song in there.

Besides, all that, it feels good to write something fun for once instead all those posts over seats and lottery, 

BrainofBGA

I remember when they were revealing LB song titles, when I saw My Fathers Son as a title I thought it might be a great acoustic track like Off He Goes, the name of the track just had me thinking that, I was completely wrong of course!  

jesselms

The build up although frustrating at times is very exciting. Doesn’t happen often anymore so gotta enjoy these times. I’d love an official tracklist and single about now 

fortyshades

@BrainofBGA Ithought Fatal would be punk rock but here we go. It was a beautiful and vilnerable ballad.  A complete different song than I expexted, totles are seeping in.

Spunkie

You did pretty great in this little games of ours, 40ashadesof grey!
 
You had Dance! And it looks like Superblood Wolfmoon is quite similar to the overcome barriers, especially with Mike's solo. Seems like the album reviews suggest there is a "loss" sort if song we both guessed, too.

fortyshades

We didnt do bad. I also notice that the song titles we've have choosen; arent typical PJ song titles. They feel more contextualized and embedded in poetry. (Unlike LBC for example.) It was a gam, of was fun and we came close.

And yes my nick is from the original Hard to Imagine, some seem to think, it is from a specific  book.  ;-).

Spunkie

Not sure what books you write, wherein a PJ reference is obscured, but I def found the words PJ in that series! (Much better in real life, though.)
 

fortyshades

Halubahahaha, true. I read the first book I have to admit. (Shame, shame, shame.) But to quote Pearl jam: "I wanted to see what the fuzz was about". I thought it was hilarious. In the end it was the typical poor girl meets rich man kinda book with the Nightngale syndrome sprinkled above it. But Satans Bed came to mind and then especially the drawning in the booklet.  If we talk about the same series that is.

I do it for complete superstition reasons. Like a football player that doesn't wash his undergarment. I havent done it iin my academic publications, though. But in my fiction I do,  three books of short stories, my novel and two novella. Often obscured though. I dont want  to make it too easy. (In interviews I always mention this and there are people out there that seek for them.) Easter eggs. Mmmmm, maybe I should make it a quiz question for the fanpage on  FB. Some readers started without my knowledge, even without notifying me a fanpage on FB. I was humbled.  So I give them something extra every now and then. Quizes. Being able to read my new novel before it  hit the shelves etc.. Fun stuff. Don't think of big number though. I am a nobody. Really. Have to work full time on the side. (At the University.) Maybe 216 members. But  still, I was truly moved. I never thought that what you do makes an impact.

Edit: I edited my post a little for the original post was written re. 4 o'clock in the morning here, after I took  sleeping pil out of frustration. So made some grammar mistakes + I wrote it by phone and I am too stubborn to admit that I need reading glasses.

Spunkie

Yes, your nickname is from Hard, not the 50 Shades books we referenced. 

Funny, only recently I heard, the lyrics: 40 Shades of Grey... initially I heard: Light your pillow, lay back, watch the flames...

fortyshades

I hear both on the original. In the Lost Dogs version he sings: "Paint a picture, using only grey. Light your pillow, lay back and watch the flames". The original on the soundtrack he sings: "Paint a picture, 40 shades of grey. Light your pillow, lay back and watch the flames". In the same way the lyrcs of You are altered on Lost Dogs and the single. The original lyrics it was all positive. "It is you, you you..." In the sense that the protagonists looses himself in someone. He sings "It might be the way you sympahize" etc. In the version of LD however, besides adding an instrument, he sings "It is you, you, you" in a negative way, like self absorbed. On LD he also sings: "It might be the way you don't sympahize". Small alterations.

Spunkie

Glad you clarified that. I was starting to think I misheard that in an outrageous Freudian slip manner. 

I must have hear the non LB version on PJ radio.

I wonder if he'll keep singing F@#k U this year?!

How did you know DotC title before it was released?

CarryTheZero

I think DotC title leaked about a week before. I remember seeing on the boards and thinking, no way that’s the song title. And keyboards?

Now, I laugh at myself because I really love the song.

fortyshades

I wrote this in another thread after a review. But this would also an interesting topi here:

"Every time I listen to Gigaton I enjoy it more than the previous listen. Gigaton is a matured Pearl Jam, but it’s still definitely Pearl Jam. A band that has seen and been through so much, it’s great to see they still have the energy, the will and the message to the masses after 30 years."

I like this quote for it indicates a slow burner and these albums are imo the best.

Is it me, also listening to the new fragments that the sounds seems "bigger". What I mean to say, is that the songs are not cluttered like Future Days for example. While if you strip this song down, it is actually not so bad. Like there is room for space, silence - which makes each instrument more clear. I hope I make sense but DoC you can hear this. The instruments are not overbearing; there is room between the instrumentation. I don't know if you experience that the same way, but it makes the album feels "bigger". While BS was more introvert and LB also, but in a lesser extent. ST was extrovert but with no focus. This seems to have a focus and a definite arch which was missing with ST and LB.

Ps: The title was known a week before. The others made up titles, are still good, hahahah. If they ever want some inspiration.