Binaural

corduroid

It's been downhill from here; IMO this was the peak of their brilliance.

U R A Crazy Breed

corduroid wrote:

It's been downhill from here; IMO this was the peak of their brilliance.

if they were all dead or broken up then you might be right...BUT..they are still making records and we may very well have not even seen their best work yet!

corduroid

Crazy Breed wrote:

if they were all dead or broken up then you might be right...BUT..they are still making records and we may very well have not even seen their best work yet!

Oh I agree, I'm holding out hope for their next effort But as the record stands today the arc of creative passion rose mightily through Binaural, and the years since, for me, have been ... just not the same.

And that 2000 tour ... mmmm

StrummingGnome

corduroid wrote:

It's been downhill from here; IMO this was the peak of their brilliance.

I don't share this opinion, I think Riot Act is a highly accomplished record. "Can't Keep", "I Am Mine", "All or None" are fantastic songs and are three of my personal favourites. Even their latest release is highly accomplished, "Come Back", "Gone", "Life Wasted" and "Parachutes" reminding us of the genius that is Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam has evolved (naturally) as they've grown older, it's perfectly natural and I think they're greater now then they were with the release of Ten. You only have to look at Metallica's St Anger album and Death Magnetic to see what happens to a band when they fail to adjust their music to a more all-round feel, they become one dimensional, predictable and subsequently tiresome.

As for Binaural, I absolutely like this album; but I don't love this album in the same way I love Vs. and No Code! Thin Air is my favourite song on the album and I often find myself skipping several tracks just to listen to Thin Air.

rival.

love binaural.

can listen straight through repeatedly w/ the exception of evacuation.

that boner of a song can't bring down this masterpiece.

Ramone Jam

I've always been a fan of Binaural. It's a great album I could never figure out why so many people bashed it.

NewDamage

In my opinion, still the best album this decade. By any band.

StrummingGnome

NewDamage wrote:

In my opinion, still the best album this decade. By any band.

That's interesting, NewDamage, merely because I haven't heard this opinion before. I think there are some contenders to this, Radiohead's: Amnesiac (I'm not a radiohead fan, but this album is a classic! Arcade Fire's: Funeral, Modest Mouse: The Moon & Antarctica and Bloc Party: The Silent Alarm? These are the albums that I would say are better than Binaural, but that's just my two penneth worth.

tope

Modest Mouse? Sorry, but who?! Dont' tell me that someone called Modest Mouse has made a better album than Binaural. Surely not.

No_CoDeyeah

I agree with all of you, this is one of my favourite album, I love Breakerfall, "and only love can break her fall" great word game, this album rules, I prefer it to pearl jam and rioct act, for me the best of the third last album for sure

Ramone Jam

Is that a phone ringing in the background in "of the girl"?

wilkins

Binaural and the 2000 tour are tops I just don't get the same feeling from any subsequent tour...

youngster

It took me years to get into binaural but the more I listen to it, the more I seem to love it. I don't know why I didn't give it an honest listen to begin with.

wilkins

Binaural and the 2000 tour are tops. I just don't get that feeling from any subsequent tour...

Josh810

Hi all, noob here. Insignificance was my favorite PJ song for a long time. I'm a relatively new fan, so my favorite keeps on changing, but I love a lot of the songs on this album (Grievance, Thin Air, Rival). Btw, my favorite right now is Faithfull. Been my favorite song for a while and I can still listen to it on repeat.

Edved82

Josh810 wrote:

Hi all, noob here. Insignificance was my favorite PJ song for a long time. I'm a relatively new fan, so my favorite keeps on changing, but I love a lot of the songs on this album (Grievance, Thin Air, Rival). Btw, my favorite right now is Faithfull. Been my favorite song for a while and I can still listen to it on repeat.

Welcome to the boards Good to see all the love for Binaura in this thread. Light Years through Sleight of Hand is probably my favourite run of PJ songs at the moment - the album is what i would class as "interesting" and needs a few listens to really appreciate which is why i think i found it tough going at first. But i'd take it every time over Avocado even though I love that album too- Avocado is really immediate whereas Binaural takes a few listens. Binaural has much more repeat-listen value though

PJSEMPRE

I love Binaural as well. It is a strong album and the outtakes - Sad, Education, Fatal etc - are great too.
"Grievance" and "Insignificance" are my favourite songs from Binaural.
Like cropduster82 wrote "the more I listen to it, the more I seem to love it".
Not a big fan of NME, but they gave a great Binaural review (9 out of 10).

'Binaural' burns with the intensity and desperation of a last stand...

They return, at a time when the world is dominated by trashy frat-punks and schlock-metal bozos, a moment when rock seems to have been stripped of any resonance beyond serving as the facile soundtrack for the high-jinks of beer-sodden jocks. Grunge's last men standing, and perhaps the only band of their size and calibre bringing the passion, intensity, and integrity of their underground roots to the mainstream. You could say we need this album.
It's almost ten years since Pearl Jam released their debut album 'Ten', and the playground jibes of closet Van Halen fandom that greeted it have been replaced by a growing respect for the band's pointed refusal to allow the bullshit of the music industry to dilute their music. With Pearl Jam's noose-tight control of their career (no videos, precious few interviews, not touring to death), it's as if the band have cocooned themselves from the nefarious influences of an industry seemingly out to render banal and meaningless (and saleable) anything of worth.
This is no doubt why 'Binaural' sounds so gloriously out of time. It's a seething, furious album; a declamatory statement against cynicism and passivity and the simple injustices of everyday life. Within its 14 tracks, 'Binaural' sees Eddie Vedder rage against collateral damage (the blistering 'Insignificance'), conformity (the jerky post-punk splatter of 'Grievance'), the randomness of tragedy ('God's Dice'). Even when the band slow the pace, the songs are coloured by a heartfelt intensity; the palpable loss of the painfully beautiful 'Light Years', or the acrid dark-hearted humour of the slight 'Soon Forget', for example. This is not the work of a band playing just to pay off the mortgage on their Bel Air mansion.
Tellingly, 'Binaural' continues the musical progression flagged by '96's 'No Code', a post-hardcore reading of classic rock that has coursed through their music since the twin-guitar nirvana of their debut single, 'Alive'. Indeed, opener 'Breakerfall' is a note-perfect aural fantasy of The Who demolishing The Byrds' 12-string prettiness as Vedder howls delectably Neil Young-esque lyrics above. But Pearl Jam aren't hopeless retro-anoraks like, say, Ocean Colour Scene; 'Binaural' might recall, at different moments, The Clash, Dylan, MC5, Springsteen, Fugazi and, of course, Neil Young, but the band's affinity with the spirit of these forbears, as well as their music, marks them out as fellow travellers, as opposed to copyists.
There's a palpable fire in the belly of 'Binaural', employing the language of rock with a keener venom, a more lucid eloquence than any radio-friendly unit-shifter since, well, the last time Pearl Jam released a record. An object lesson in rock'n'roll from some true believers, 'Binaural' burns with the intensity and desperation of a last stand. Which it might very well be.

StrummingGnome

tope wrote:

Modest Mouse? Sorry, but who?! Dont' tell me that someone called Modest Mouse has made a better album than Binaural. Surely not.

Yes, Modest Mouse's - The Moon & Antarctica is better than Binaural. Though only slightly better.

Mohab

the first time I heard the opening few seconds of of the girl (after the glories of insig.) I knew I was in for a summer of epic proportions, and many years of owning a great record. Four copies later and I am still listening intently.

Cassandra-Geminni

I'm a huge fan of Binaural, have been since it came out. My first live PJ experience was on the Binaural tour, and I'm very grateful for that. I've still only seen half the album live, and can only hope they start playing these songs again so I can maybe see the other half. I would love to see Of The Girl and Rival, they are 2 of my all time favourites.