Bottom 10 songs

[chewm]

what the fuck is the pearl jam stat tracker app

[Thurman Murman]

What's the argument for "Soon Forget," especially, not being a "proper track"? Is it because it's just Ed?

The other songs I get, because they're kind of weird and non-traditional. I still count them but I understand the reasoning

I don't think "Soon Forget," "Push Me Pull Me," and "I'm Open" belong in this "songs that don't count" category. It's interesting to me, I feel like I never see "Bu$hleaguer" included on that list, even though it's basically the same concept as "PMPM" and "I'm Open" (spoken verses, sung choruses, full band performance). And "Soon Forget" probably has more going on musically (at least chordally) than plenty of "proper" PJ songs -- there are some cool things happening in that song, though the uke sound kind of obscures them. All of these songs are a bit on the non-traditional side for PJ, but so is "Dance of the Clairvoyants."

"Pry To," "Aye Davanita," "Arc," and "Red Dot" feel very deliberately like interlude/segue tracks, not necessarily beholden to the same criteria as typical PJ songs, so I can see why you would omit them from a conversation where you're trying to measure artistic failure or success -- that they fall short of PJ's better songs doesn't really say anything damning about them, but there is also a ceiling on what they can achieve.

I'm on the fence about "Bugs."

Bugs definitely belongs with songs like Soon Forget, Push Me Pull Me, and I'm Open.

For sure.

[Birds in Hell]

Push Me Pull Me is one of the best songs on Yield.

[Thurman Murman]

Push Me Pull Me is one of the best songs on Yield.

Its not in my top 5 or 6 on the album that's for sure, but i do love it.

[chewm]

Push Me Pull Me is incresingly climbingly in my list of favorite Pearl Jam songs, i'm more often in the mood for it than most of the others.

[epilogue]

Push Me Pull Me is incresingly climbingly in my list of favorite Pearl Jam songs, i'm more often in the mood for it than most of the others.

It's a really great song

[Bammer]

what the fuck is the pearl jam stat tracker app

I am legitimately jealous that you are gonna get to experience this for the first time. Oh to go back and live that over again...

[PHATJ]

What's the argument for "Soon Forget," especially, not being a "proper track"? Is it because it's just Ed?

The other songs I get, because they're kind of weird and non-traditional. I still count them but I understand the reasoning

I don't think "Soon Forget," "Push Me Pull Me," and "I'm Open" belong in this "songs that don't count" category. It's interesting to me, I feel like I never see "Bu$hleaguer" included on that list, even though it's basically the same concept as "PMPM" and "I'm Open" (spoken verses, sung choruses, full band performance). And "Soon Forget" probably has more going on musically (at least chordally) than plenty of "proper" PJ songs -- there are some cool things happening in that song, though the uke sound kind of obscures them. All of these songs are a bit on the non-traditional side for PJ, but so is "Dance of the Clairvoyants."

"Pry To," "Aye Davanita," "Arc," and "Red Dot" feel very deliberately like interlude/segue tracks, not necessarily beholden to the same criteria as typical PJ songs, so I can see why you would omit them from a conversation where you're trying to measure artistic failure or success -- that they fall short of PJ's better songs doesn't really say anything damning about them, but there is also a ceiling on what they can achieve.

I'm on the fence about "Bugs."

This is exactly my thinking, including the question of Bugs. Wasted Reprise belongs in the second category as well.

[Norris]

Bugs is a song, not an interlude track.

[darth_vedder]

sticking to only studio albums and lost dogs...

leash
bugs
arc
gone
i'm open
hold on
future days
soon forget
the end
amongst the waves

[mkay0]

Push Me Pull Me is one of the best songs

[E.H. Ruddock]

Wait, this thread isn't about the worst songs on their first album?

[Norris]

rudd

[E.H. Ruddock]

rudd

Do you see what I did though

[RockPusher]

Push Me Pull Me is incresingly climbingly in my list of favorite Pearl Jam songs, i'm more often in the mood for it than most of the others.

It's a really great song

Yeah it's been a steady grower for me as well

[tyweed]

ND isn't terrible, but man I wish Stone could've come up with even just one crunchy, riff-driven track to supplant Ed's mediocre musical effort here. I'm not asking for a DTE or Hail, Hail but even just something at a Life Wasted-level would have been better.

Stone's songs (as combined with Ed's lyrics/vocals) really define the band's musical blueprint for me; Once, Even Flow, Alive, Black, Animal, Daughter, Dissident, Last Exit, STBC, Hail Hail, DTE, etc.

I really feel the absence of those flagship Gossard-penned tunes on most of the band's records in the last two decades, including Gigaton.

Most definitely. Starting with Binaural, he really seemed to have have shifted his musical focus to the more eclectic, folkier, understated, weirder, unconventional side of his songwriting (Thin Air, Of the Girl, Bushleaguer, All or None, Parachutes, Buckle Up, DOTC, etc.) and has mostly excelled in this regard. But his attempts at writing a mid/uptempo rock song (outside of Rival and Life Wasted) have flat-out shit the bed, imo -- Supersonic, LTRP, Amongst the Waves, Johnny Guitar.

But I realize this isn't a post-Yield Stone Gossard songwriting symposium so I'll jump back to the matter at hand and add to my original list by saying that Unthought Known is astoundingly overrated.

Last edited by tyweed on Fri July 17, 2020 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Bammer]

rudd

Do you see what I did though

I'll play

Porch
Release
Alive
Jeremy
Garden
Deep
Even Flow
Oceans
Why Go?
Black

[Mickey]

Bugs and Red Dot are hands-down better than most of their post-2002 output.

[dad]

Very disappointed with those who have U on their lists.

tsk, tsk

Edit: and Insignificance

[liebzz]

Not sure if I replied to this in the past, but this is a really hard list for me to curate, mostly because I apparently have a positive ear and enjoy nearly every Pearl Jam song...but here’s my best list least favorite to 10th least favorite:

1) Future Days
2) Turning Mist
3) Angel
4) Pry, To
5) Stupid Mop
6) Bee Girl
7) Sweet Lew
8) Evil Little Goat
9) Johnny Guitar
10) Can’t Deny Me