Something Special - small clip released

BF25394

KM73780 said:

I’ve never really enjoyed anything I’ve listened to by Josh Klinghoffer or however you spell it so this might not be my favorite track if he was heavily involved in writing it. 

That's exactly how I spell it but, more importantly, that's how he spells it.

wnh1977

kmcmanus said:

LB has a bunch of good songs but it’s not a great album, it feels like a mishmash of random sessions.
BS has fewer great standalone songs but it’s a better album because it has its own cohesive identity which is unique in the catalog.
Gigaton is ambitious & experimental but they didn’t stick the landings on all the experiments. It’s also (for me at least) colored more by the events of the time of its release than the others which makes it hard to give a fair rating to.
i think all three are still good, but the preceding 8 were all great.

In my opinion, Lightning Bolt becomes a much better album if you drop "LTRP" and "Sleeping By Myself".  That leaves 10 songs, run time of about 40 minutes (great length for an LP), and makes for a really, really solid album.  These two songs back-to-back just kills that album.  "Pendulum" opening Side 2 is great.  Maybe get rid of O'Brien's keys opening and closing "Future Days"... those are my nitpicking critiques.

I love Backspacer for what it is.  Just different from anything else in their catalogue.  Love the quick 37 minutes.  And by the way, like or dislike Backspacer or Lightning Bolt, I would say O'Brien's production is terrific on these albums.  I really don't like "Avacodo"'s harsh production... not a huge fan of Riot Act's... or maybe it's the performances ("Ghost" should be more thumping and intense, but it feels phoned in)?  Binaural is unique production, but a little hit and miss for me.  I love "Nothing As It Seems" for example, but some others just sound a little muddy.

BF25394

wnh1977 said:

kmcmanus said:

LB has a bunch of good songs but it’s not a great album, it feels like a mishmash of random sessions.
BS has fewer great standalone songs but it’s a better album because it has its own cohesive identity which is unique in the catalog.
Gigaton is ambitious & experimental but they didn’t stick the landings on all the experiments. It’s also (for me at least) colored more by the events of the time of its release than the others which makes it hard to give a fair rating to.
i think all three are still good, but the preceding 8 were all great.

In my opinion, Lightning Bolt becomes a much better album if you drop "LTRP" and "Sleeping By Myself".  That leaves 10 songs, run time of about 40 minutes (great length for an LP), and makes for a really, really solid album.  These two songs back-to-back just kills that album.  "Pendulum" opening Side 2 is great.  Maybe get rid of O'Brien's keys opening and closing "Future Days"... those are my nitpicking critiques.

I love Backspacer for what it is.  Just different from anything else in their catalogue.  Love the quick 37 minutes.  And by the way, like or dislike Backspacer or Lightning Bolt, I would say O'Brien's production is terrific on these albums.  I really don't like "Avacodo"'s harsh production... not a huge fan of Riot Act's... or maybe it's the performances ("Ghost" should be more thumping and intense, but it feels phoned in)?  Binaural is unique production, but a little hit and miss for me.  I love "Nothing As It Seems" for example, but some others just sound a little muddy.

I actually love "Sleeping By Myself." I just think it didn't need to exist on a Pearl Jam album. The full-band version is much more interesting than the Ed solo version, but the Ed solo version was already out there, and I think the full-band version should have been a B-side. It would have been better to have some singles with B-sides from that album instead of the completely superfluous 7-inch box set they released.

It's funny you say that about "Ghost," because I've used the word "thumping" to describe it. I love that song and think it has a great propulsiveness and forward momentum.

Habit4me

Matt Pinfield about to be canceled. 

on2legs

BF25394 said:

wnh1977 said:

kmcmanus said:

LB has a bunch of good songs but it’s not a great album, it feels like a mishmash of random sessions.
BS has fewer great standalone songs but it’s a better album because it has its own cohesive identity which is unique in the catalog.
Gigaton is ambitious & experimental but they didn’t stick the landings on all the experiments. It’s also (for me at least) colored more by the events of the time of its release than the others which makes it hard to give a fair rating to.
i think all three are still good, but the preceding 8 were all great.

In my opinion, Lightning Bolt becomes a much better album if you drop "LTRP" and "Sleeping By Myself".  That leaves 10 songs, run time of about 40 minutes (great length for an LP), and makes for a really, really solid album.  These two songs back-to-back just kills that album.  "Pendulum" opening Side 2 is great.  Maybe get rid of O'Brien's keys opening and closing "Future Days"... those are my nitpicking critiques.

I love Backspacer for what it is.  Just different from anything else in their catalogue.  Love the quick 37 minutes.  And by the way, like or dislike Backspacer or Lightning Bolt, I would say O'Brien's production is terrific on these albums.  I really don't like "Avacodo"'s harsh production... not a huge fan of Riot Act's... or maybe it's the performances ("Ghost" should be more thumping and intense, but it feels phoned in)?  Binaural is unique production, but a little hit and miss for me.  I love "Nothing As It Seems" for example, but some others just sound a little muddy.

I actually love "Sleeping By Myself." I just think it didn't need to exist on a Pearl Jam album. The full-band version is much more interesting than the Ed solo version, but the Ed solo version was already out there, and I think the full-band version should have been a B-side. It would have been better to have some singles with B-sides from that album instead of the completely superfluous 7-inch box set they released.

Totally agree.  I love the full band version and I’m glad it exists because I think it’s the best version of a great song.  It’s just weird that they put it on a Pearl Jam album.  Perfect B side like you said. 

demetrios

https://instagram.com/p/C5gnLFDtq5B/embed/

demetrios

https://www.reddit.com/r/pearljam/comments/1bz85ej/something_speical/

deb1211

I personally love the facts of life theme song 😆 

BF25394

This song seems to have that vocal affectation that I thought Eddie had eliminated: "round" becomes "ruh-how-ound."

nicknyr15

bbiggs said:

These songs sound like a continuation of Earthling.  Especially this one.  

This was my biggest fear. 

DEGBTI

nicknyr15 said:

bbiggs said:

These songs sound like a continuation of Earthling.  Especially this one.  

This was my biggest fear. 

funny, I played all the released stuff for my wife and the first thing she said is "is this pearl jam or the earthlings?" shes not wrong, so far

Spunkie

DEGBTI said:

nicknyr15 said:

bbiggs said:

These songs sound like a continuation of Earthling.  Especially this one.  

This was my biggest fear. 

funny, I played all the released stuff for my wife and the first thing she said is "is this pearl jam or the earthlings?" shes not wrong, so far

The psychologist in me wants to know if she was primed with Watt information prior to that expression LOL - I guess biased 

Kusy

In my opinion the album is "LB meets Earthling".

dwjmu84

BF25394 said:

This song seems to have that vocal affectation that I thought Eddie had eliminated: "round" becomes "ruh-how-ound."

Certain compositions lend themselves better to this cringe tendency. Something Special fits that mold. Let’s hope it’s the only one. From the metal door leaks, it doesn’t sound like many of the other tracks should, so I’m hoping for more direct pronunciation in the delivery on those. 

Dark Matter was free of any of that, and I very much enjoyed this fact. 

OfThePearl

BF25394 said:

This song seems to have that vocal affectation that I thought Eddie had eliminated: "round" becomes "ruh-how-ound."

That affectation is supposedly a recommendation by a vocal specialist, to help preserve Ed's voice. If that's the reason, it makes me sad, because I surely want to preserve Ed's voice, but I hate the affectation.

Kusy

BF25394 said:

This song seems to have that vocal affectation that I thought Eddie had eliminated: "round" becomes "ruh-how-ound."

Just wait for Upper Hand

Kara3000

demetrios said:

https://instagram.com/p/C5gnLFDtq5B/embed/

Thank you for sharing my Instagram 😌 🙏🏼 

THEBIBLEISTEN

Sounds pretty good 

WW187806

its cool

BF25394

OfThePearl said:

BF25394 said:

This song seems to have that vocal affectation that I thought Eddie had eliminated: "round" becomes "ruh-how-ound."

That affectation is supposedly a recommendation by a vocal specialist, to help preserve Ed's voice. If that's the reason, it makes me sad, because I surely want to preserve Ed's voice, but I hate the affectation.

That's interesting. I'm not a professional singer* so I don't have a sense of why this would be helpful. It also makes me wonder why you don't hear this sort of thing from other great vocalists.

*Though I'm often told I have the voice of an angel...