Options
Backspacer - freedom or burden?
burtschips
Posts: 734
'we've tried to subvert the business, but now that we're putting out a record on our own, we're taking on the responsibility of sinking or swimming ourselves. If that means writing a song that sounds like a mainstream radio hit, we're going to do that. And if it means going on TV to promote ourselves, we're going to to do that, too.'
this quote from Mike and some of the other quotes on the writing process of the album, i.e. quick and sharp makes me think that it is what it is mostly due to necessity.
The freedom of being label free is countered by the constraints (maybe some fear) and reality of needing an easy album with a broad appeal and free flowing light bite of a collection of soongs. They are kind of testing the water again in a new environment but need to pay the bills.
I think that once they get over this the music will challenge again, and it will become art again.
Don't get me wrong, I like the album, it is free and easy but it does not have the beautiful deep quality of Binaural or the urgency of Vitalogy. Does anyone else think this?
this quote from Mike and some of the other quotes on the writing process of the album, i.e. quick and sharp makes me think that it is what it is mostly due to necessity.
The freedom of being label free is countered by the constraints (maybe some fear) and reality of needing an easy album with a broad appeal and free flowing light bite of a collection of soongs. They are kind of testing the water again in a new environment but need to pay the bills.
I think that once they get over this the music will challenge again, and it will become art again.
Don't get me wrong, I like the album, it is free and easy but it does not have the beautiful deep quality of Binaural or the urgency of Vitalogy. Does anyone else think this?
Salut baloo
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
yeah, interesting, but i am not bothered by Mike's spin quote or concerned by it.
I am interested in why the music is as it is, which was touched on in that thread but most people were discussing the album's promotion.
In the case of Backspacer I think the music is just a little safe, i think once they feel secure in their new enterprise it will become multi-layered again.
BOS-9/28/04,9/29/04,6/28/08,6/30/08, 9/5/16, 9/7/16, 9/2/18
MTL-9/15/05, OTT-9/16/05
PHL-5/27/06,5/28/06,10/30/09,10/31/09
CHI-8/2/07,8/5/07,8/23/09,8/24/09
HTFD-6/27/08
ATX-10/4/09, 10/12/14
KC-5/3/2010,STL-5/4/2010
Bridge School-10/23/2010,10/24/2010
PJ20-9/3/2011,9/4/2011
OKC-11/16/13
SEA-12/6/13
TUL-10/8/14
i love that they were just having fun with this one and ST, but now i think its time to get serious about the music again.
i'm both excited and cautious about the next one. i think Backspacer needed to happen, but i wonder what direction the go in next.
Period.
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
- Ben Franklin
Great job boys backspacer is awesome!
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why not (V) (°,,,,°) (V) ?
i don't think there is a correlation between the way the album was marked/distributed and the album itself...being without a label now, they needed to find new avenues to distribute the album...the way the album was produced and recorded had a lot to do with brenden o'brien...if i remember correctly, mike or ed said that brenden didn't let the band take too long in the studio recording the album...and ed's experience writing and recording itw was also an influence in the recording of backspacer
maybe they have to be more economic with studio time when they are footing the bill !
Anyway, slightly off topic but the artwork is amazing and good for Ed backing up his earlier post on cartoonists and their loss of print space / work.
If I were to see PJ on mtv promoting a song or hearing their song played during a show I wouldnt care at all. Theres nothing wrong with attracting younger fans. But then again I AM a young fan, (21) so of course I would accept that easier than alot of the older fans here.
8/7/08, 6/9/09
explains a lot :(
I'm all for owning the rights to all your music, but there's plenty of marketing advantages to labels as well... just don't let the music suffers (as it has IMO)
http://seanbriceart.com/
itw = good
they seemed to have the right equation... I'm with the OP in his assumption that something must be a bit off...
http://seanbriceart.com/
By Andrzej Lukowski September 21st, 2009
If they've never exactly been fashionable, Pearl Jam have always been on better terms with the UK than received wisdom would have it. Though Ten’s naffer excesses were oft used as a stick with which to beat the band – generally to the flattery of Nirvana or the Britpop acts – the fact that exactly the same ‘throwback bores’ argument was trotted out in the face of the savage Vs and unhinged Vitalogy probably indicates that there was no real dislike for those records, more the actual idea of Pearl Jam.
Once Britpop had finally sloped off (though not before taking the almighty shit in the bathroom that was the Stereophonics) we were all good to go: 2000’s Binaural was accompanied by glowing reviews, the band’s first full UK arena tour, and such articles as this excellent, thoughtful interview with NME’s John Mulvey.
Okay, it didn't really last, for which the agonised Riot Act and the distraction of the (ahem) New Rock Revolution can most likely be blamed. But the fact is that general critical acceptance of the band has been on the cards for an age. Sniffing the upbeat press and general goodwill around Backspacer and it would appear it's finally happening for real.
Which is fine and all, but um, yeah... shame it’s not one of their best records. Out goes the seething emotion and hard-fought musical builds of yore. In comes the first set of straight down the line pop songs Eddie Vedder and co have ever written. Fortunately, they're not the shabby kind.
Backspacer commences with ‘Gonna See My Friend’s twangy rollick’n’roll, easily the giddiest opening track on any Pearl Jam record. While Vedder’s lyrics would seem to be a fairly gloomy channelling of a junkie’s lusts – “I'm gonna see my friend for what I require ... I'm sick of everything, I'm gonna see my friend, make it go away” - his borderline ecstatic delivery is such that one can’t help but interpret the actual sentiment as “yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaw!” It's good, and the next three songs are frickin’ sublime. ‘Got Some’ cruises in on an ultra-tight new wave guitar figure, Vedder flipping his softened, almost adolescent voice through the catchiest vocal hook of his career – “every NIGHT with the light ON where you GONE? WHAT’s wrong?” The lyric would appear to be the flipside to ‘See My Friend’ – Vedder is the one dispensing the relief – but again, it doesn’t feel like there’s any darkness here, just a glorious burst of pop-rock, delightfully in love with its own momentum. ‘The Fixer’ offers a third track on the same theme; once more, the name suggests something untoward or seedy, but the music's life-crackling surge and lines as blessedly optimistic as “If there's no love, I wanna try to love again” says otherwise. ‘Johnny Guitar’ offers more deliriously flip rock pop, almost to the point of pastiche, Vedder casting himself as a lovelorn horndog who finds himself thwarted in his love of “the girl in red so innocent” by the eponymous lothario.
Indeed, stylistically and lyrically Backspacer would seem to consist of the songs Vedder might have written as a teenager had he been less monumentally fucked up at the time, with the band drawing heavily on the pop of both their youths and their parents’ before them – certainly ‘Last Kiss’ now seems way less anomalous.
You may miss the full-force guitars and the molten eruption of Vedder’s wounded soul, but we’ve had plenty of that before, and a lot of Backspacer is a lot of fun. A shame, then, that they’ve kind of messed up the quieter songs, which dominate the record's second half.
Pearl Jam’s gravitas – musically and lyrically – has enabled them to write some of the more affecting ballads and lullabies of recent times: ‘I Am Mine’, ‘Wishlist’, Nothingman’, ‘Better Man’, ‘Daughter’. Though Backspacer's only actively excruciating note is the beardy folk ramble of ‘Just Breathe’, the likes of ‘Unknown Thought’ and ‘Speed Of Sound’ feel sapped by the record's lightness; it's fairly self-evident that these tracks would have sounded better if recorded at literally any other time in Pearl Jam's history. The occasional presence of an orchestra is just bewildering: this is a band that reaches their emotional highs through blood, sweat and tears, not symphonic gimmicks.
Still, if Vedder's once inferno-like angst really has subsided, it's entirely to him and his band's credit that they've diverted their energies elsewhere. Backspacer is defined by its opening salvo of choons, a joyous fusillade that seems likely to finally finally finally put the band's rock dinosaur rep to bed. It’s the long-term implications that are more worrying: there are weak songs here, and they’re weak because they lack qualities Pearl Jam used to possess in rough hewn spades. Still, Backspacer is very much calculated to sound the way it sounds, and suggesting Pearl Jam have lost anything would be premature. Ultimately there’s no point fretting about the future when contemplating a record that’s so very much a celebration of the moment.
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/14660/reviews/4137916
I highlighted the parts that I liked, and added the link because I liked the comments, too.
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
don't forget Bugs.
Canada, Vancouver 2000
Auckland & Christchurch 2009
Melbourne 1&2 EV Solo 2011
but, what does it matter that betterman is played along lady gaga? Isn't that what we want more pj out there? maybe others will learn what great music is.
umm what station would play gaga and pj? lol crazy mix
It lacks the rawness.
But the reasons for it being different may be in exact opposite to the reason the OP and others expressed.
Maybe it was on Backspacer where they did whatever they wanted without regard to what "whoever" thought about it or how it was received. Perhaps it was the other albums where they had the "Pearl Jam" image to live up to or keep alive.
In any event, "different" doesn't mean "bad" as all their albums are just..well.. YOU all know.
Backspacer just sparkles with "unthought known" and kills with "The End".
My first impression of the four opener songs was "How Bubblegumish", but listen after listen brings out that Pearl Jam grind. (As if :x and
My vote is "freedom"
you can't call vitalogy a "safe" album. it sounds completely different than ten and vs... they sound like a completely different band. pearl jam had a lot of guts because they must have known it was going to alienate a large portion of their fan base when it was released.
as a stand alone album, yes it is "safe" to a certain extent because it has songs with HUGE hooks (ie better man). as a pearl jam album, it was ballsy.
I simply have to disagree 100%. What the hell does "safe" mean anyway/ That some of the songs they wrote were amazing and therefore received airplay? Do you want a full album of "Revolution 9"?
Their is a tremendous vibe to these albums, and a tone that is unmatched in much of the music of the 90s and today.
And, Yield is not pretty poppy. Some songs are, but the album is not.