No Code I bought at midnight, so I changed it up to preorder Yield from Atomic Records (when the shop was still open). The owner definitely had connections to the band or its management and I still see him at PJ shows (his 10C number is a little lower than mine).

Anyways, I stopped in the store walking back from class that Friday (Jan 30 I think, maybe the 23rd). The preorder came with a swag bag and in it was the t-shirt, a big Yield sticker, a few other things and ... the vinyl. I'm quite sure I only preordered the CD, but the bag had the entire record in it.

I walked straight home (to my first apartment, which was less than a block away from Atomic), put the record on, and listened all night and weekend - like I was in on some secret. At that point I had only heard Real Audio streams of the audience recordings from the Oakland shows, GTF which had been played on the radio since December, and 20 seconds of Pilate that the old Wall of Sound website had a sample of the previous summer.

Oh yes, I'm turning 40 Wednesday, I can't believe Yield has been with me more than half my life.

Yield is my favorite PJ album (tied w/ No Code), but it also has the distinction of being the only album I didn't buy on release day. For whatever reason PJ had fallen off my radar in '98, so I didn't even know they had a new album out until I randomly saw it on a Shopko shelf later that year. I haven't missed a release day since. Even Backspacer, which I downloaded, listened to once, and promptly forgot about.

Yield is flawless. A perfect album on every level.

Was a senior in high school when this came out. I rode my bike everywhere, it was the only way I could get around at the time. So I took off for school that morning, and instead, went straight to the record store. It didn't open for another hour, so I just did circles and wheelies and ramped on the speed bumps around the parking lot for a while. There weren't any big PJ fans in town, so I was standing there at the door when the first shift clerk unlocked the door. Had to wait for the guy to bring the box out of the back bc they hadn't put the cds on the shelf yet. Bought it with thirteen $1 bills, bought a Coke with my one remaining dollar at the the store next door, popped the album in my discman, and walked my bike all the way back to school.

One of my favorite – if not the favorite – high school days of all time.

I had heard Given To Fly from the cd single. And I had heard Wishlist and DTE from a very shitty cassette copy of one of the Oakland shows when they opened for the Stones, but I really didn't know what to expect. Album blew me away.

I'm working in a coffee shop in Atlanta today. Blasting this right now. Fucking love this album.

Come over to Myrtle Beach. It's only a five hour drive

I didn't hear it until a few weeks after it was released (maybe months, I don't know, it was 20 years ago). Anyway, one of my friends was playing it for some friends when I got there. The friends were more Ten, Vs. fans and bailed after Vitalogy, and No Code. I too kinda fell off after Vitalogy, but Yield brought me back. I remember the others saying of Yield that "it sucked" after I got there and asked what they're listening to. My friend plays it again, and right off the bat BOJ has me. That riff, those drums! Holy shit! After GTF, I thought the other friends were fucking idiots; this was clearly one of Pearl Jam's best. Yield is why I came back to PJ, and remains firmly in the top 4.

damn those opening 4 songs ...

might be my favorite stretch of PJ songs. BOJ slays. Faithfull is perfect. No Way has the best bridge in PJ history. GTF is, well, GTF.

how about YOU come to ME, sucka.

^ that post is riddled with possible FTFY RM editing

Just gonna go ahead and nip it in the bud

MTV Promo:

This album and No Code are why this band has such an obsessive following. They are so, so good. Without these two records, I'm not sure that I would have stayed with the band all this time, and I'm sure there are thousands out there like me.

I was 16 in February 1998 and this album was just the coolest shit ever. Ten was really my first actual rock album, and Vs and Vitalogy were all just huge parts of my life. I really didn't 'get' No Code right away, and was kind of bummed out. I drifted more towards pop punk, metal and hip hop for a while. When Yield came out, it all came together - I not only loved Yield, but what they were trying to do on No Code made more sense. I knew this was something special. 1996-2003 is unquestionably the best era of the band for me.

I bought this for a dollar in 2004 or so from a used CD shop, I guess I was late to the game due to being 7 when it came out.

I mean it was well worth my dollar, unlike the No Code I bought for a dollar from there. The shop ended up giving me Binaural for free a few weeks later because I spent big cheddar on the new Beastie Boys and Kanye West albums at the time.

3:19 - 3:45 of that video kinda sums up how the band feels nowadays

this makes me nostalgic as fuck.

circles and wheelies have been replaced by staring at a phone.

we are circling the drain.

but at least we get to listen to yield as it happens.

jesus

I was stationed in Italy right after this came out. It was my first time seeing how popular they were worldwide. There was Yield posters plastered everywhere on walls and windows in the bigger cities I visited in Europe during that deployment.

I first heard this on a Discman in the Spring 2001. I was in a school bus on an Honor Roll field trip. Strange how vivid the memory is.

I bought this on cassette at Quincy Records & Tapes about 6 months after it came out.

Do you still have the cassette?