Binaural vs. Lightning Bolt

Chalk another one up for LB. If you take out 9) LTRP and 10) SBM you have one kick ass disc!
I don't know what i'd do with Binaural? It's first half is a mess.

DewieCox said:

Yes, let's look at this song-by-song:

1) Getaway vs. Breakerfall - Push...Getway has it til "Makin love like the lizards" +0

2) Mind Your Manners vs. God's Dice - Gods' Dice pretty easily...It's like Hail Hail edger more badass older brother. MYM sounds like a band trying to rage and with GD, it just comes more naturally. Binaural +1

3) My Father's Son vs. Evacuation - both pretty unique in the PJ canon, but I'll give it to My Father's Son for the shear rage EV put into it, along with that thick gnarly bassline. LB +1 EVEN

4) Sirens vs. Light Years - Light Years and it's not even close...When people complain of Sirens being cheesy it's b/c of PJ's track record of making stuff like Light Years...Is there a better PJ line than "We were but stones........" Binaural +1

5) Lightning Bolt vs. Nothing as it Seems - NAIS just has so much more depth and is an interesting direction for PJ Binaural +1>2

6) Infallible vs. Thin Air - Infallible...Thin Air is a nice little ballad, but Infallible is modern PJ experimentation done pretty well Lightning Bolt +1>Binaural +1

7) Pendulum vs. Insignificance - Insignificance...Pendulum is another modern PJ experiment done pretty well, but they didn't see it through. Insignificance manages to sound unique and become one of PJ's masterpiece tunes. Binaural+1> +2

8) Swallowed Whole vs. Of The Girl - OtG...Nothing wrong with SW, but you're talking a PJ in their prime at their most creative
Binaural+1> +3

9) Let the Records Play vs. Grievance - Grievance...straight from the get go and I think LTRP is an underrated track on LB Binaural+1> +4

10) Sleeping By Myself vs. Rival - Rival with yet another lopsided victory...I don't care about any of the "It's an Ed solo track" on SBM talk, Rival is just a great tune and another that PJ takes to a place unlike any other in PJ's catalog. Binaural+1> +5

11) Yellow Moon vs. Sleight of Hand - Sleight of Hand is another that really shows them at their creative peak. Those washes of delay and atmosphere are just delicious. Yellow Moon is just a basic strumalong type tune that PJ has done much better several times before. Binaural+1> +6

Throw Soon Forget out of comparison, but extra credit goes to Binaural for having the balls to put it on there...Binaural+1> +7

12) Future Days vs. Parting Ways - Parting Ways mops the floor with Future Days.PW is an exercise in great dynamics with some of the best lyrics Ed has ever written. FD is probably the cheesiest thing PJ has ever done, musically and lyrically...Binaural +1>+8


Binaural wins easily. LB put forth a strong effort, but after the first few songs, it's clearly outclassed.

Almost all your comparisons only take into account creatively/experimentation. That stuff is great and definitely factors in, but more experimental does not equal better.

DewieCox said:

Yes, let's look at this song-by-song:



1) Getaway vs. Breakerfall - Push...Getway has it til "Makin love like the lizards" +0

2) Mind Your Manners vs. God's Dice - Gods' Dice pretty easily...It's like Hail Hail edger more badass older brother. MYM sounds like a band trying to rage and with GD, it just comes more naturally. Binaural +1

3) My Father's Son vs. Evacuation - both pretty unique in the PJ canon, but I'll give it to My Father's Son for the shear rage EV put into it, along with that thick gnarly bassline. LB +1 EVEN

4) Sirens vs. Light Years - Light Years and it's not even close...When people complain of Sirens being cheesy it's b/c of PJ's track record of making stuff like Light Years...Is there a better PJ line than "We were but stones........" Binaural +1

5) Lightning Bolt vs. Nothing as it Seems - NAIS just has so much more depth and is an interesting direction for PJ Binaural +1>2

6) Infallible vs. Thin Air - Infallible...Thin Air is a nice little ballad, but Infallible is modern PJ experimentation done pretty well Lightning Bolt +1>Binaural +1

7) Pendulum vs. Insignificance - Insignificance...Pendulum is another modern PJ experiment done pretty well, but they didn't see it through. Insignificance manages to sound unique and become one of PJ's masterpiece tunes. Binaural+1> +2

8) Swallowed Whole vs. Of The Girl - OtG...Nothing wrong with SW, but you're talking a PJ in their prime at their most creative
Binaural+1> +3

9) Let the Records Play vs. Grievance - Grievance...straight from the get go and I think LTRP is an underrated track on LB Binaural+1> +4

10) Sleeping By Myself vs. Rival - Rival with yet another lopsided victory...I don't care about any of the "It's an Ed solo track" on SBM talk, Rival is just a great tune and another that PJ takes to a place unlike any other in PJ's catalog. Binaural+1> +5

11) Yellow Moon vs. Sleight of Hand - Sleight of Hand is another that really shows them at their creative peak. Those washes of delay and atmosphere are just delicious. Yellow Moon is just a basic strumalong type tune that PJ has done much better several times before. Binaural+1> +6

Throw Soon Forget out of comparison, but extra credit goes to Binaural for having the balls to put it on there...Binaural+1> +7

12) Future Days vs. Parting Ways - Parting Ways mops the floor with Future Days.PW is an exercise in great dynamics with some of the best lyrics Ed has ever written. FD is probably the cheesiest thing PJ has ever done, musically and lyrically...Binaural +1>+8


Binaural wins easily. LB put forth a strong effort, but after the first few songs, it's clearly outclassed.

How could you compare God's Dice to Hail Hail? God's Dice is a cool, fast punk number, but no comparison to Hail Hail. Hail Hail is certainly in the band's top 10 songs ever, while I wouldn't even place God's Dice in the top 50!

jp307677 said:

How could you compare God's Dice to Hail Hail? God's Dice is a cool, fast punk number, but no comparison to Hail Hail. Hail Hail is certainly in the band's top 10 songs ever, while I wouldn't even place God's Dice in the top 50!

The verse to Gods Dice verse is very similar to the intro to Hail Hail, musically. Both have kinda similar mellow middle section. It's an appropriate comparison, that I've seen made before.

I'd pick Hail Hail over Gods Dice, too, but I don't think it would be anywhere near my Top 10.

DewieCox said:

Half isn't "almost all" and I go against experimentation on a few of those.

I don't vote for the song b/c they're experimental, inside with them b/c they're better constructed and more interesting. For instance, LTRP doesn't get the nod over Grievance.

Are you saying not to take creativity and uniqueness into consideration?

Binaural wins b/c they experiment and almost every song on there is still really good or great.

EXPERIMENTATION COUNTS, I JUST DONT THINK IT IS AS IMPORATANT AS THE "NUTS AND BOLTS" OF A SONG ARE.

I ALWSO DONT THINK COMPARING THE SONGS ONE-BY-ONE IS A GREAT METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE BETTER RECORD. I THINK IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO RANK THE SONGS.

THIS WOULD CHANGE DAILY AND OBVI WE WILL ALL HAVE DIFF RANKINGS...BUT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD TODAY ID GO...

INFALLIBLE 24
GRIEVENCE 23
LIGHT YEARS 22
PENDULUM 21
GETWAY 20
MYM 19
OF THE GIRL 18
SWALLOWED WHOLE 17
PARTING WAYS 16
SIRENS 15
LIGHTNING BOLT 14
INSIGNIFICANCE 13
YELLOW MOON 12
BREAKERFALL 11
SOH 10
MY FATHERS SON 9
NAIS 8
LTRP 7
GOD'S DICE 6
THIN AIR 5
EVACUATION 4
RIVAL 3
SBM 2
FD 1
SOON FORGET 0

LIGHTNING BOLT - 161

BINAURAL - 139

1) Getaway vs. Breakerfall That's no competition at all Getaway has better lyrics a better melody and musically it's also not hard to pick Getaway over Breakerfall. L 1 - B 0

2) Mind your manners vs. God's dice Mind your manners blew me away straight away and Gods' dice is one of my least favorite Jeff tunes. So again no competition. L 2 - B 0

3) My father's son vs. Evacuation The first tough one as I am one of the few people who actually like Evacuation. I like the timing. Still I'll go with My father's son if for nothing else that bassline. L 3 - B 0

4) Sirens vs. Light years I really had to put some work in to sort of enjoy listening to Sirens and it only happend when the bootlegs came out. Live I don't have to get annoyed by that Brandon O'Brein coating. Light years in more suttle and has beautifull lyrics. The mix is defenately another plus for Light years. L 3 - B 1

5) Lightning bolt vs. Nothing as it seems I really like Lightning bolt although I do feel it's better live than on the album. Still Nothing as it seems wins this by a landslide. It's so haunting and great team work as well with Mike elavating Jeff's work to a higher level. L 3 - B 2

6) Infallible vs. Thin air Thin air is a really nice song, but Infallible is way more interesting. The lyrics are great and the music is more edgy. I really like the vibe of the music and it's a great song to sing along. L 4 - B 2

7) Pendulum vs. Insignificance This is a really though choice. Insignificance is such a great song that has so much going for it. Still I'm just in love with Pendulum. The whole feeling of the song is just so eerie. I love the fact that it sounds so open and Matt does a really good job by just doing what the song needed. L 5 - B 2

8) Swallowed whole vs. Of the girl This ones easy. I like Swallowed whole alot, but Of the girl is has such a beautifull drive and a very nice bluesy feel it's just no match for Swallowed whole. L 5 - B 3

9) Let the records play vs. Grievance With Let the records play it's pretty much the same story as with Swallowed whole. Grievance is just so powerfull. I love the sarcasm, the music and lyrics are just great. The way Eddie delivers it is another plus. L 5 - B 4

10) Sleeping by myself vs. Rival Sleeping by myself would have been a great Christmas single. I like Eddie's version better than the LB version. Apart from that I just really dig Rival. The music is so full of hooks and the melody line is very interesting. I feel it could be delivered by a man in a cafe while holding a glass of wine in his hand while he's preaching.
L 5 - B 5

11) Yellow moon vs. Sleight of hand Yellow moon is a very nice moody piece and I really like the admosphere, but compared to Sleight of hand it falls a little short. Sleight of hand is just one of the more interesting Pearl jam songs musically.
L 5 - B 6

Throw Soon forget out of comparison, however it is a nice little extra.

12) Future days vs. Parting ways Parting ways mops the floor with Future days is what DewieCox said. And really that says it all. Future days to me is like a weaker version of Just breathe and The end.
Lightning bolt 5 - Binaural 7

se7v7en said:

All these people comparing songs one by one...that doesn't make any sense!!!!!!!!
You will get totally different outcomes depending on which songs you compare.

Sure, you are right off corse.
But it was fun to do.
Your point is exactly why I have a problem figuring out which album I like better Binaural or Riot act.
Nothing as it seems and Insignificance count double. Even though Riot act might have more songs I hold dear.

Last-12-Exit said:

no way that pj peaked, lyrically, in 2000. Lightning bolt has some of the BEST lyrics Eddie has ever written.

I think you could make an argument for any album, beside LB and BS, as being the best lyrically. Songs like Unthought Known and Future Days are lyrics that Ed wouldn't touch with a 10' pole in his prime. All albums have their high points, but I don't think any albums scrape the bottom oft he barrel like the last 2.

That's kinda the way I feel about them musically, as well.