Riot Act is hugely underrated

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  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,784
    Riot Act started out as one of my least favorite Pearl Jam albums but it worked its way up my spinal chord into into my brain. It started out somewhere in the region of the lumbar vertebrae but with repeated listening it crept its way up to the brain stem, fanned out into the cerebellum, began to affect the limbic system and the amygdala, created increasingly strong leaps across synaptic vesicles, and then just took off.

    If I had to name one and only one favorite Pearl Jam record it would have to be Riot Act... just a tiny bit above No Code, and Yield.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Eraserhead
    Eraserhead Stoke-on-Trent Posts: 2,984
    My second fave album after No Code. Amazing record.
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  • Ricsard
    Ricsard Posts: 1,943
    rival. wrote:
    appreciated it more and more after the latest three albums.

    riot act is truly pearl jam's last album of the first half of their career so i kind of built a soft spot for it.

    Yeah, Riot Act was a brave effort when it was released, it was obvious PJ made a huge leap into an even darker territory with it, and it took me years starting to appreciate, moreover love it!!! Its dark, but still uplifting vibe always reminded me of those gloomy The Cure records (a huge fan of them), however I am glad they put an end to that sad period.
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  • PearlJamAdam
    PearlJamAdam Powhatan VA Posts: 33
    I don't think Pearl Jam can make a bad album... I Love every song ever created by the band. If this is there worst album, they need to make ten more that are as shitty as this one.
  • VOLARE
    VOLARE Posts: 315
    When Riot Act came out I was listening to much heavier music at the time. I didn't play it enough compared to the earlier albums I loved. It wasn't until I picked up Benaroya Hall and loved that performance that I really got pulled back into playing Riot Act and giving it more rotations when I listened to Pearl Jam. Nice thing though was it always felt like a great new album every time I put it on even though Ive had it since it came out. For me Riot Act had a wonderful slow growth rate making it appreciated more and more as time went on.
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  • James Lander
    James Lander Posts: 49
    Second favourite album after Vs.
    Brilliant songs throughout.
    Flanders
  • Merkin Baller
    Merkin Baller Posts: 12,818
    Can't Keep is one of my all time favorite PJ tunes. . . . I consider myself lucky to have seen EV play it solo. . . it's still one of my PJ white whales though.

    As far as the whole album goes. . . . I break it out here & there & am constantly discovering new things on it, but it has a long way to go for me to consider it as one of my favorites by PJ. In my opinion none of their releases since Yield have come close to the brilliance of those first 5 albums.

    Doesn't mean you folks are wrong though, it's all subjective. This thread WILL however inspire me to pull this album out again this week.
  • Spiritual_Chaos
    Spiritual_Chaos Posts: 31,658
    Merkin Baller wrote:
    Can't Keep is one of my all time favorite PJ tunes. . . . I consider myself lucky to have seen EV play it solo. . . it's still one of my PJ white whales though.

    Yes! Been my of my favs since Riot Act came out! Happy that I've seen Eddie do it, but the PJ version is what I love.
    "Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
  • ckravitz
    ckravitz NJ Posts: 1,668
    Spinning now thanks to to this thread! Thanks!
  • Merkin Baller
    Merkin Baller Posts: 12,818
    ckravitz wrote:
    Spinning now thanks to to this thread! Thanks!

    +1
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,784
    One thing that would make Riot Act even better for me would be to reissue it on vinyl. I've played the CD a million times but I haven't heard it on vinyl so I cannot say I've truly, fully heard this great record.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • nobtran
    nobtran Posts: 16
    Cropduster is amazing. My favorite off the album.
  • wvueers1
    wvueers1 Phoenix, AZ Posts: 61
    Just posting again in support of Riot Act. I think it is a brilliant album.
    Fan since the beginning, but 1st PJ concert ever -- Phoenix, AZ 11-19-13

    Love boat captain
    Take the reigns,.. steer us towards the clear.

    M.Y.T.H. is
    Belief in the game controls that keeps us in a box of fear

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  • halv
    halv Posts: 717
    With all the positive comments about Cropduster I threw on the vinyl and played it a few times today. Realized that I like the song more than I thought, I just don't like it's placement on the album. Maybe it's because Ghost is right after and I find it has a similar tempo.
  • i_lov_it
    i_lov_it Perth, Western Australia Posts: 4,007
    Yeah went and bought this Album the day after it came out and couldn't really get into it at first then I saw Pearl Jam here in Perth in 2003 then after hearing other Live Boots through out 2003 come Mid Year I was Hooked :)
  • Versus13
    Versus13 Vancouver, BC Posts: 197
    Love this album. My favourites are Save You, Can't Keep and Thumbing My Way. I have been listening to their State College, PA 5-3-03 and it's phenomenal! This album is definitely underrated.
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  • BrainofBGA
    BrainofBGA Australia Posts: 4,562
    It would be interesting to see how people would re-track the album If they were to do it differently. It's a good record and I think I appreciate it more recently than I did a year or two ago. I feel Ed's voice / vocals aren't quite right to me!? Just my opinion.
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  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,784
    Of the many things I really like about Riot Act one of the more interesting aspects is that the lyrics often make nature-related, earthy, rooted, organic and atmospheric references:

    All this life
    Like an ocean
    In disguise

    earthquakes making waves

    Light green to green, dark green, brown..
    Every life is falling down
    Brown to black, it's coming back
    Dies to be part of the ground
    Seed to seedling, root to stem

    Swallowing seeds on the deathbed,...
    Dig a hole in,... the garden

    The moon is rolling round the world

    A place in the clouds

    There's east and there's west and there everywhere life

    The ocean is full cause everyone's crying,
    The full moon is looking for friends at high tide.

    No matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead

    Sometimes I burn like a dot on the sun.

    I am the shore
    But you're the sea.

    I'm searching the haystacks, water is sunshine

    And like weeds,.. with big leaves
    Stealing light from what's beneath

    Shell of the man from the sea

    Climbing on a mountain
    Floating out on the sea

    Whispering that life
    Existed long before breed
    Balancing the world
    On it's knee
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • dodgydave
    dodgydave Posts: 3
    This was the album that introduced me to Pearl Jam. Saw my first Pearl Jam concert in Feb 2003 (Sydney) and haven't looked back...

    Can't go past I am Mine.
  • H.Chinaski
    H.Chinaski Brooklyn, NY Posts: 1,604
    Riot Act is probably my 3rd favorite PJ album!
    Pine Knob, MI Lollapalooza 1992 / Soldier Field, Chicago 1995 / Savage Hall, Toledo 1996 / Palace, Detroit 1998 / Palace, Detroit 2000 / Pine Knob, MI 2003 / Showbox, Seattle 2004 / MSG, NYC 2008 / Key Arena I & II, Seattle 2009 / Eddie Vedder Beacon, NYC 2011 / Eddie Vedder Benaroya, Hall Seattle 2011 / Barclays, Brooklyn I &II 2013 / Wells Fargo, Philadelphia II 2013 / Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany 2014 / Wells Fargo, Philadelphia 1 2016 / Madison Square Garden, NYC 2 2016 / Wrigley 2, Chicago 2016/ Fenway 1, Boston 2018/

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