What Do You Expect from Brendan O'Brien and Pearl Jam?
Brendan hasn't produced a Pearl Jam album since Yield. I've enjoyed the Brendan O'Brien produced albums moreso than the non-Brendan albums, even moreso than Ten. I do love Binaural, but it took me years to fully appreciate it. I don't share the same love for Riot Act or the self-titled album. I thought Eddie wasn't as awsome as he usually is (writing and singing) on those albums and that you could barely hear Jeff Ament's bass in the last album.
I'm wondering what to expect from Brendan O'Brien's return. Why do you think the band chose to go back to him? McCready said some of the new stuff is poppy? Does this mean the album will be more radio friendly? Will Eddie write songs as deep and moving while at the same time as catchy as the songs he wrote for Into the Wild? I thought his Into the Wild songs were the best written songs he's done since Binaural or Yield. I also think his voice sounded pretty and passionate. Will the band adopt a Radiohead formula for releasing the album? If they release it themselves they might have incentive to make the album commercially and radio-friendly, because if it is a successful record they could be in for a huge payday. I'd love for them to put out a challenging album with catchy songs, not unlike the Vitalogy through Yield era. I don't want them to sell-out like recent Green Day or Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, and I don't think they will. I just want them to put out a juggernaut of an album that carries me like their best music has.
I asked a Live 105 San Francisco DJ what he thought having Brendan O'Brien back would mean with regards to the next album. He said Pearl Jam has such creative control and a firm grip on what they want to sound like that having O'Brien produce their record would not have much of an effect. He said he wouldn't mind hearing an album that sounds like their mid to late nineties stuff. I don't know if I want them to sound like they did in the mid to late nineties, I just want it to be a uber high quality work.
I'm wondering what to expect from Brendan O'Brien's return. Why do you think the band chose to go back to him? McCready said some of the new stuff is poppy? Does this mean the album will be more radio friendly? Will Eddie write songs as deep and moving while at the same time as catchy as the songs he wrote for Into the Wild? I thought his Into the Wild songs were the best written songs he's done since Binaural or Yield. I also think his voice sounded pretty and passionate. Will the band adopt a Radiohead formula for releasing the album? If they release it themselves they might have incentive to make the album commercially and radio-friendly, because if it is a successful record they could be in for a huge payday. I'd love for them to put out a challenging album with catchy songs, not unlike the Vitalogy through Yield era. I don't want them to sell-out like recent Green Day or Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, and I don't think they will. I just want them to put out a juggernaut of an album that carries me like their best music has.
I asked a Live 105 San Francisco DJ what he thought having Brendan O'Brien back would mean with regards to the next album. He said Pearl Jam has such creative control and a firm grip on what they want to sound like that having O'Brien produce their record would not have much of an effect. He said he wouldn't mind hearing an album that sounds like their mid to late nineties stuff. I don't know if I want them to sound like they did in the mid to late nineties, I just want it to be a uber high quality work.
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Come off your battlefield."
I tend to agree that PJ has been doing this for quite some time now and I think a producer can only help them so much. Not to mention that they are all fairly strong-willed and opinionated, so I imagine that they only go where their musical muse takes them, not go into a direction where a producer steers them. I think a producer could nudge them some, but not much.
Nah, Brendan was there for the 2nd through 5th albums, I think if anything Adam Kas[ar and Tchad Blake would be more prone to letting the band get away with crap. B.O'B has proven he can drive this band to greatness, their best albums were all produced by him, and the albums he produced were the best they've ever done and we will just continue to see them grow with Brendan back.
Come off your battlefield."
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
"If I wanted you to understand, I would have explained it better"
Johan Cruijff
-Reagan
i fUllY expEcT hIM To BrinG iN a 20O PiECE cHOIr To BaCK EddiE Up. AlSo i tHiNK hE WiLL MiX In a lIttLE CyMbaLoM tHRouGhOut ThE AlbUm.
foR tHosE wHo dON't knOw Of tHe CyMbaLoM: http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om08750.html
tHiS aLbUm WiLl rOcK!
In fact, I expect a sequel to "Bugs" called, "Cowbell."
.. oh, and a bonus tambourine to play would be a nice touch too
He's done some awesome work with Pearl Jam in the past and I think he did an superb job producing (and playing on) their cover of "Love Reign O'er Me". Another case in point were his re-mixes of the "Ten" songs on "Rearviewmirror"; which blow the original versions out of the fucking water.
I feel Brendon knows this band better than any other producer out there. The boys are comfortable with him and he knows how to get what he wants out of them.
As much as I like the last three albums, I don't think they hold up production wise against the music that Brendon produced for them.
Vs. Merkinball, Vitalogy, No Code, and Yeild, are the definative albums in the bands catalog and If the production even comes half way as close matching the standard set by those albums, I think we're in for a real ass kicker of a record.
I'm just thankful they haven't jumped the shark and approached Danger Mouse or Rick Rubin to produce their album.
Brendon is their man. He's like their George Martin.
Later
I think we are in for the Best Album of 2008....or 2009.
Cleveland 5/20/2006 Columbus 5/6/2010 Chicago 7/19/2013
Cincinnatti 6/24/2006 Noblesville 5/7/2010. Buffalo 10/12/2013
Lollapalooza 8/5/2007 Mountain View 10/23/2010 Cincinnatti 10/1/2014
Washington D.C. 6/22/2008 Mountain View 10/24/2010 St. Louis 10/3/2014
Chicago 8/22/2008(EV Solo) St. Louis 7/1/2011 (EV Solo) St. Paul 10/19/2014
Kansas City 5/3/2010 East Troy 9/3/2011 Milwaukee 10/20/2014
Hampton 4/18/2016 Columbia 4/21/2016 Lexington 4/26/2016
NYC 5/2/2016
all things point to yes, a rocking album!!! heres to hoping we get some of that good ol pj.
and.... in my opinion riot act is pearl jam at its' finest
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
typing like that drives me fucking nuts
i hate it
so i fully expect it to KICK ASS!
Is that Freddie on the left?
that's 40 years
Nice predictions and thoughts. I think there are so many interesting things that could play out in the next few months. I can't wait to see what developments take place. I posted this because I figured a lot of people would have random ideas as to what kind of album PJ and O'Brien will make together. I'll probably add new developments to this thread as they take place to see whether or not people's projections came true.
Huh?
well, thats not totally true. Vitalogy for example had some songs that could be presented very cleanly and win over the masses as singles....but the albums he produced all had enough weird tracks to put people off, and challenge listeners (Bugs, Pry To, Hey Foxy, Im Open, Who You Are, Red Dot, Push Me Pull Me)
and BO'B was the one who first got ed to try layering vocals on songs like All Night....which is still something he does (especially on Riot Act), and which would totally change the sound of songs like bushleaguer, Help Help etc on the later albums
BO'B also actually has played on several of the recordings (I Got Shit, Gremmie, LROM)
and the drums, bass and strings in LROM sounded MILES better than they have on any of the last few albums.
BO'Bs remixes of Once, Alive & Black were fucking amazing aswell. he can totally change the way a song sounds.
Sure, Binaural/RA/PJ has great songs on them, but imagine how different You Are, Severed Hand, Breakerfall would sound if BO'B did them? he has much better sound for them band as a whole, im pysched about the new album.
with LROM & ITW i think the bar has been raised and its right to have high expectations.