Thoughts?

slightofjeff

soulsinging wrote:

That's another good point. PJ has hands down one of the best rock vocalists EVER. Why do they insist by squandering it with all these songs where he's reduced to doing little more than rapping essentially? Seriously, listen to the delivery. He's not singing, he's basically just speaking rhythmically twice as fast as some girl from The Hills, and throwing in a few growls or shouts to make it sound like it's rock singing.

Sort of like ... "What the fuck is this world/coming to/you didn't leave a message ..."

Or ... "Ohpleasedon'tgoutonme/don'tgoonmenow"

They've been playing songs like this from Day 1.

You don't like them. Fine. But don't act like this is something new. It's quintessential Pearl Jam, actually.

slightofjeff

foodboy wrote:

sorry all i didn't like the song. maybe i need to hear it again properly . ed seemed like he was straining with his vocals. cigarettes and wine will do that to you. hopefully this was an exception to what are usually great performances. the review in the toronto sun was the song was a stinker.

Where were the wine and cigarettes on the Avocado tour? Because Ed sounded fucking great.

Furthermore, where were they on the solo tour last year? Because he sounded even better than that.

Better Dan

soulsinging wrote:

cincybearcat wrote:

Alright kids, calm down. Everyone can have their own opinion, music is SUBJECTIVE.

I must have no musical taste whatsoever though soulsinging since I iked the song, and I love Comatose. Big Wave I could do without though....maybe there is hope for me after all.

That's about right. A good chunk of the fanbase is still onboard and they are going to love this song because they love this style. Personally, I hate the style. If you're big on punk, you'll love PJ these days. I'm not. Nothing wrong with either side, and I'm allowed to hang around and keep hoping I'll hear them get back to what I consider their strengths... strong baritone vocals, soulful solos, and a great funky rhythm section.

From Vitalogy to Yield they managed to experiment and push themselves while still capitalizing on their strengths I thought... they combined that guitar crunch with great grooves for songs like Tremor Christ and In My Tree. I don't think they do that anymore. There's nothing new about this song, it's just another fast, short, punky riff-rocker. I can live with them, but there are more and more of them every album and they're pretty well throwaways. Used to be one per album (stbc, hail hail, brain of j)... now there are 3-4-5 each album and they're complete filler to my mind. If you've liked those songs off the last few albums, you'll love this. But personally, I hate those songs (and I think the fact that most of them disappear from the setlists permanently without notice is a solid demonstration that they don't have much lasting power). We've had fan campaigns for Breath, Leash, Deep... I rather doubt you'd ever see such a campaign for this song, or for Gods' Dice, or for Big Wave.

The most memorable moments of the last few albums have all been the slow burners... songs like In Hiding, Of the Girl, NAIS, All or None. I feel they're at their strongest when they use that dynamic tension they do so well and take their time to let a song breathe and build. Some people get bored by that and want all songs sharp, short, and rocking with no jams. I'm not of that latter persuasion. Give me an epic Inside Job or a mind-blowing outro to Immortality or Present Tense or a great groove-based breakdown in Even Flow. Take your short little thrash numbers and hand them off to Good Charlotte

You summed up my thoughts perfectly! This is just one song though so its too early to tell whether there will be 4-5 songs like this or just one.

periaqua

I must be living under a rock because I had no idea there was an album in the works. And I'm a member of the Ten Club...

It'd be nice if I didn't have to hear it on Conan and could've read it on say, PearlJam.com ... just a thought.

slightofjeff

periaqua wrote:

I must be living under a rock because I had no idea there was an album in the works. And I'm a member of the Ten Club...

It'd be nice if I didn't have to hear it on Conan and could've read it on say, PearlJam.com ... just a thought.

Um ... it was on here.

Thorns2010

My reaction to it?

WTF is this??

The vocals were terrible, being to low in the mix, and it sounded like his voice was giving out here and there. Maybe he was sick, I dunno.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting going into the performance, but I can say for sure what I heard wasn't what I expected.

I'll wait until I hear a better quality version of the song before I make a final judgment, but for now? Meh

flyinwhole313

I THINK THE FUCKING IDIOT TREE IS IN BLOOM.

Gems and Rhinestones

my thoughts are that pearl jam is such a great band.

Plankton

In one sentence:

I liked the song quite a bit.

In more:

I can definitely agree with people that worry we are going to see too many short fast songs like this on the new album. I really do love Self Titled, but the first four tracks... too much, too similar at first. Then there's more (Big Wave) to come. The album's best bits for me were Army Reserve, Unemployable, Inside Job. I want more of that.

But at the end of the day, we still will, maybe not as high a percentage as some would like. I think this new song has made me feel like we'll get an album similar to Self Titled overall.

cincybearcat

soulsinging wrote:

[
The most memorable moments of the last few albums have all been the slow burners... songs like In Hiding, Of the Girl, NAIS, All or None. I feel they're at their strongest when they use that dynamic tension they do so well and take their time to let a song breathe and build. Some people get bored by that and want all songs sharp, short, and rocking with no jams. I'm not of that latter persuasion. Give me an epic Inside Job or a mind-blowing outro to Immortality or Present Tense or a great groove-based breakdown in Even Flow. Take your short little thrash numbers and hand them off to Good Charlotte

Kinda funny...I love In My tree and Tremor Christ (2 of my all time favs) that you mentioned early in your post, but some of my least favorite Pearl Jam over the long haul (meaning I get bored of them the quickest) are songs like NAIS, All or None, Inside Job...not Of the Girl though, still love that. But I like the mix on the album. I think you need some of what you speak as well as some "Comatose"'s. If it was an album of all songs like NAIS I'd put it done fast and never come back.

slightofjeff

Just watched it again. Can't get it out of my head. I think that's a good enough sign.

I got some if you want it
I got some if you want it
I got some if you want it

I'll be singing it for days. By Mennen.

mfc2006

slightofjeff wrote:

By Mennen.

krzzzymary

Cracks me up how Ed rocks out and then after jumps onstage near drums and puts his hands in his pockets like no big deal.

springsteenfan

I hated it at first but it's growing on me!

pandora

I've read a bunch of negative posts here on the different threads and I just know after watching the performance a few times now everybody- even those badmouthing the song- are gonna be jumping around- knowing every word singing along just loving the band come the end of summer- can't wait!
Oh i thought they looked awesome- getting better with age for sure

Murderers.

Plankton wrote:

But at the end of the day, we still will, maybe not as high a percentage as some would like. I think this new song has made me feel like we'll get an album similar to Self Titled overall.

How can you go off of one song? Like someone else said, people read in to this WAY to much.

LONGRD

Didn't like it.

I'll have to hear it more, I guess.

thunderDAN

LONGRD wrote:

Didn't like it.

I'll have to hear it more, I guess.

yeah same here. It was a little much. I liked how into it they were, but the song itself was pretty blah. They should have picked a different song knowing the world was watching them on that one night and it was their chance to tell everyone they are still around kicking ass. All they did last night was tell the world we are still around forcing weird music towards. I love Pearl Jam and I didn't like the song at all. I know some of you would kill your first born before you spoke poorly of the band, and I respect that, but if I as a hardcore PJ fan didn't like the song, I can't imagine it reached out to a new audience. All I get when I tell people PJ is my favorite band is "I like their old stuff but their new stuff sucks" or "I liked Ten but everything else sucked after" I get into arguments over how No Code is awesome, and even Pearl Jam S/T is awesome. Last night just put me into a deeper hole because I can't even defend that one.


Also, I read this whole thread and I'd say 65% of it is placing conditions on the song or performance. Like "After I listened again i loved it" or "The studio version will be better", a bunch of excuses placed in with how much people love the song. If it was a great song, there would be no conditions. Great songs trump over everything. You can hear Eddie sing Immortality with technical problems, and you hear that it's a great song. You don't have to listen to Corduroy 10 times before you decide if you like it. That's the thing. I think some of you guys love the band way too much and can't admit when they didn't put our a solid track. Maybe the album is full of other winners, but even from the text of this thread, I think the general consensus is that people don't really dig this one. Maybe I'm wrong too, who knows

Plankton

Murderers wrote:

Plankton wrote:

But at the end of the day, we still will, maybe not as high a percentage as some would like. I think this new song has made me feel like we'll get an album similar to Self Titled overall.

How can you go off of one song? Like someone else said, people read in to this WAY to much.

Sorry, what I meant (without much explanation!) was that it sounds similar - it could fit right into Self Titled, for me - so I feel the overall sound will be something quite comparable.

You're right for sure though, it's just one song. That's just the feeling I'd take from it for now, that's all.

slightofjeff

thunderDAN wrote:

LONGRD wrote:

Didn't like it.

I'll have to hear it more, I guess.

Also, I read this whole thread and I'd say 65% of it is placing conditions on the song or performance. Like "After I listened again i loved it" or "The studio version will be better", a bunch of excuses placed in with how much people love the song. If it was a great song, there would be no conditions. Great songs trump over everything. You can hear Eddie sing Immortality with technical problems, and you hear that it's a great song. You don't have to listen to Corduroy 10 times before you decide if you like it.

I don't think this is true. The Pearl Jam catalogue is rife with songs I liked a lot more the 10th time than I didn the first.

Pearl Jam songs, moreso than say, a Britney Spears songs take time to digest. When I get a new album I like to shut myself off in a room and listen to it a couple of times through, absorb the music, absorb the nuances -- and, most importantly of all, pore over the lyrics, and try to interpret them. I don't really like like a song until I've gone over the lyrics. And it's impossible to do that based off one 3 1/2-minute performance.

I'm not sure what you were expecting out of this song ... but it was akin to Grievance and WWS as far as songs debuting on national TV. This is the type of music PJ has been putting out for nearly a decade ... about as long as they were putting out "grunge" music, or whatever that was.

I don't know why anyone would be surprised at how it sounds. It isn't "weird." It's pretty much "Pearl Jam."