old thread archived here

Share the story of the first time you heard this album

I LOVED Binarual when it first came out, although looking back I think I was forcing myself a little bit

I knew NAIS (cool atmospheric song but not one of my favorites) and Insignificance (from the single). Insignificance took some time to grow on me but I soon came to love it. And Grievance from Letterman fucking blew me away. Possibly the best on tv performance of theirs I had seen up to that point. For a good three years Insignificance and Grievance were my two favorites on the record

I really liked how breakerfall blew the album open (I still don't understand why it doesn't get more love than it does), god's dice and evacuation were okay. I was more into them then than I am today just due to the newness of them. I think I've always had the same thoughts about Light Years from the first listen. A pretty song that fails to be as beautiful as it wanted to be

Amazingly I liked thin air a lot when it first came out until I could no longer take the lyrics

Of the girl did very little for me then and still does very little for me today.

Rival was cool, and has grown on me over the years

Sleight of Hand was impressive, but difficult, as it still is

Soon Forget was funny and amusing at first. Today it is pretty trite

Parting Ways was a bit disappointing at first since it felt (musically) like a Long Road clone

But this was an extremely solid album on the first listen that I absolutely loved. few stand out tracks but a very compelling piece as a whole. Tragically I am less appreciative of it today. My love of parting ways and Rival have grown, but I am into pretty much every other song on the record less now than I was when it first came out

Twenty years later and I'm still in love.

It was fun reading this 13 years after I wrote it. Still have the cassette. And the girl.

Cheers, RM

###

I’m sitting on the edge of the bed in my girlfriend’s sister’s room, looking down at the lyrics in Binaural’s booklet, and listening to the stereo as Breakerfall, Gods’ Dice and Evacuation blitz by.
Hmmm. I’m digging Breakerfall, but…..
My girlfriend asks what I think of the record so far. I tell her I like it. She leaves. I’m fearful I really don’t.
With the booklet open in my hands, I slide off the bed and shuffle a few steps into her room. Her stereo is finally set up, so we sit on her twin bed, backs to the wall, and listen.
We’ve only been officially dating for six days, but Pearl Jam’s new album is out - she understands.
Big drums. Tentative then authoritative guitar. Light Years.
“No time to be void or save up on life…You got to spend it all.”
This is a beautiful song.
I know of Nothing As It Seems - the darkness, the guitar work - so I really concentrate on the rest of the songs. A few instantly stand out. Thin Air. A song about a new relationship.
“How to be happy and true is the quest we’re taking on together.”
Perfect. My girlfriend approves.
Grievance is a politically-charged rocker and filled with juicy lyrics.
What’s Ed saying?
“Have a, have a drink, drink…..have a drink.”
Haha. Love it.
We are rolling now!
Wait, is that a dog growling?
Yes, I believe it us. Rival is interesting. We’ll have to go back to that one.
My girlfriend gets up to get a drink, my eyes are glued to the Sleight of Hand lyrics.
The song slowly develops but the music and lyrics have me hooked.
“It was like a book he read in his sleep….endlessly….
Sometimes he hid in his radio, watching others pull into their homes
While he was drifting…”
This is a really good album.
Soon Forget is funny, witty, smart. Excellent. My girlfriend slips back onto the bed, laughs and says she really likes that one.
Cool.
Right from the opening chords Parting Ways feels like it’s going to be this grand song. Turns out, the lyrics are minimal, but written to depict a very tangible scene.
“Standing, like a statue, a chin of stone, a heart of clay, hey.”
A masterpiece.
I was just getting into a relationship, and here is this song about the inevitable destruction of another.
The song rattled me for awhile because I was so happy with my girlfriend and yet I knew relationships sometimes dissolve. There’s no way I wanted that to happen.
I love this record.

I knew nothing of leaks. I did not know the tracklisting. Heck, I just learned to use e-mail a few years before.
Binaural was all new. The album arrived with no pretense of greatness, no expectations, no reviews, no nothing.
I just graduated from college and days later- after going with two friends to Sam Goody (no Binaural in stock) then to The Wiz (lots of Binaural) - here is this album, filled with potential.
Each listen turned into a discovery.
I love the production. I can feel this album.
Ed’s vocals? Hypnotizing at times.
And these lyrics. Whoa, this is writing. The imagery, the story-telling, the detail.

After the first listen at my girlfriend’s, I had to drive to work. My car at the time (white Dodge Neon) had no CD player. So, even though I would be late to work, I stopped at The Wiz and bought Binaural on tape. I couldn’t wait five hours before my next listen. The cassette was calling.
My car now has a CD and cassette player. The Binaural cassette sits patiently in the player, always ready to go.

* listens to Binaural *

I had a weird Pearl Jam timeline - my brother owned No Code and Vs so that's how I got into them, then I got Vitalogy because he told me that had "the most tracks" so was good value. At some point I got Ten, and then somehow completely missed that Yield existed. So Binaural was the first album I had heard was coming and was waiting for.

I remember liking it, but similarly to Stip I think I was forcing myself a bit. I can't remember specifics - I remember leaping around my brother's room because he had the best HiFi, I remember I thought Breakerfall was slightly weird but funky, I remember really like the album art.

Years later and Binaural's fine (it's definitely the Pearl Jam album that most needs a retrack though).

the first time I heard it was in my dad's car, on the way from the cd shop where I'd just bought it, to have lunch

I thought it blew, I hated it; the only song I liked was "Light Years", and I thought the rockers had no bite

I was in college. Bought it at midnight at some record store near’ish to UW I’m sure.

I won it week early from 1077 the end. At Wright park in Tacoma .

Bought it late May from Nebraska Furniture Mart (they also sell electronics) the week after my 8th grade year ended. My brother was moving to college later that summer and he was taking all his CDs with him. It was the first CD I ever bought with my own money.

I thought it was a requirement that all CD’s purchased by 8th graders was done so through Columbia House

I remember it finally hitting an FTP I was using at the time, I queued it up the night before so I could actually listen to it the following day. I archived it on 5/9 and loved Breakerfall from the beginning but I really played the shit out of Light Years.

That's how I got Ten-Yield in early 2001.

I used BMG to get VS, Vitalogy, and No Code in early 1998.

Someday I hope this album really works for you.

Interesting that some people here had stumbled across it. By the time Binaural came out, I had been obsessed with them, seen them 4 times, and would see them twice more on the 2000 tour.

I went to a midnight madness sale but they had not received the shipment so it was a no go. I skipped class the next day and went to Best Buy at the mall to get it when the store opened and that thankfully worked. I loved it from the get go but initially was more taken by my hearing Eddie Vedder’s voice pushed back in the mix compared to the other albums. I loved the musicality to it and the he atmosphere. It’s continued to reveal new things to me nearly every listen 20 years later. As I have said in the past, my only complaint is that I wish it were a double album with all the quality stuff leftover.

i was living in Orlando at the time, working at Disney. i went to the midnight release at Virgin Megastore. picked up the cd and the vinyl, and remember standing in line with a bunch of dolled up Disney theme park actors and drag queens who were there for Britney Spears "Oops I did it again" record release party store takeover.

in 1998, either BMG or Columbia House (can't remember which) launched their first ever web store where you could sign up and order your first 13 cds online. It was such a new concept, and someone figured out that you could clear your browser cache and cookies, sign back up with a new email address, and get 13 more cds under the same name and address, therefore it was all lumped into one account for the price of one membership. I believe I got around 90 cds that day.

Had a friend that must have done that exact same scam in 98...all i remember is him asking me if i wanted some CDs! I mean i knew it was some sort of scam but anyway definitely ended up with some freebies around that time.

Nothing Pearl Jam related though....Ten was the only album i didnt get on its first day of release!

My first Binaural listen was in the car...radio station was having some sort of advance listening party, probably the week before its release?

I already had the NAIS single...love both songs! But at the time Grievance from the Letterman performance was my favorite of the 3.

Anyway all i remember is driving around with my gf and being able to listen thru till NAIS before we got to our destination. I was pretty underwhelmed by the first three tracks but Light Years was fantastic!

Album release day was my first full listen but the only other song that really jumped out at me immediately was Sleight of Hand. I remember being really disappointed with the Grievance we got on the album, at least compared to the one version i had watched on a loop the month prior.

Initial thoughts were that i liked it, but that the album didnt measure up to their previous 5.

I think I would've first listened to Binaural in 2004, having spent a few years away from following the band.

On first listen, I thought Evacuation was the only halfway tolerable song.

This level of internet savvy in the year 1998 might be the most impressive thing I have ever fucking heard. I’m serious.