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everything that featured a band member pre pearl jam (excluding soundgarden) is just terrible
Do you feel this way because your fandom has always focused on Ed? His voice and lyrics, and song writing contributions. You have said elsewhere you have heard little of the solo stuff or side project stuff apart from his.
No - I've found so much of that early stuff I've heard unlistenable (I've heard them all at least once) on its own merits (in my opinion). My preference for Ed stuff is why I haven't been interested in most of the other band's post Pearl Jam output, but I don't think it's terrible. It's just not for me.
Do you count Temple Of The Dog in that? Ed just got in on their studio session in his first week in Pearl Jam. That album alone is better than half the Pearl Jam albums.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 2:03 pm
Fake NYC Setlist Relayer
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 7:55 pm Posts: 7401
Temple of the Dog
Upon the untimely passing of Andrew Wood, and after a few months reflection, Jeff and Stone are back, with Mike McCready, and a just arriving Eddie Vedder. The band with Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell go into the studio to cut a single in dedication to their lost band mate, but emerge with an album of material.
I covered this album before in the context of Chris Cornell’s career arc and I won’t go through that again, only to note once again that I think this is his career high point from a pure vocal standpoint. He reaches for the breadth and scope that he imagines Andrew Wood going - the back of the stadium, and lifts the whole band up with him. Of note here is that the tectonic shift that brings the sound circling around what they would be in Pearl Jam is the addition of Mike McCready, who brings with him less of a metal or glam sound and more of a classic rock and slightly bluesy sound, with effects and flourishes that call back more to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix than a slowed down thrash. This impact is immediate and huge - most notably present in Reach Down. Eddie makes his first cameo on record in Hunger Strike and despite Chris taking the lead, it feels like this is Eddie’s band - a comfortable old shoe feeling like these guys have always belonged together. Other than the revved up Pushing Forward Back, which I love, this album runs at a steadier pace, visiting the dark places that Andrew Wood spun down into with his heroin addiction - a theme that sadly runs through much of the music of the early 90s. Here though, all of the songs are lifted by the players to give a sense of vitality to it all. Nearly everything here, from Times of Trouble to the sludgy Four Walled World to the heartbreaking Say Hello 2 Heaven are phenomenal and highlights. This to me is a truly great record even though I know many here don’t feel quite that way. A statement for sure even though there was no pressure.
Temple of the Dog Green River - Rehab Doll Green River - Dry As a Bone Mother Love Bone - Apple Mother Love Bone - Shine Green River - Come On Down Bad Radio Demos Green River - 1984 Demos Deranged Diction - Life Support / No Art, No Cowboys, No Rules
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 2:57 pm
Fake NYC Setlist Relayer
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 7:55 pm Posts: 7401
Anders wrote:
Could include early Skin Yard and Shadow as well.
I forgot about that, but am also glad because I feel like that is more of a scavenger hunt. I also, fair or not, focused on Jeff and Stone’s work because it does really seem like the foundation by which Pearl Jam was built on. I think I covered 9 pre-Pearl Jam releases and there’s a sort of progressional line going there where you can sort of understand Ten from the perspective of what came before it rather than the vacuum likely most of us discovered it in. From just experiencing Ten as sort of this suddenly creative thing that appeared is a beautiful thing and a stunning jolt of power, but now hearing it from its foundations, as the tip of a greater iceberg is its own level of rewarding and sheds a new light. I am glad I did this.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 8:56 pm
Fake NYC Setlist Relayer
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 7:55 pm Posts: 7401
Pearl Jam - Ten
From the ashes of Mother Love Bone, Jeff and Stone regroup with Mike McCready, Dave Krusen and an unknown surfer from San Diego referred by way of Jack Irons (who later joins Pearl Jam) to form a new band who then records this album (sorry had to work this in to tickle your nausea!)
Alright, so listening to this in context of the foundation I noted that built this record is quite illuminating, if for nothing else than noticing much more so what makes Ten an all time great debut album against what preceded it. First note actually came by way of Temple of the Dog - that being the difference that McCready immediately brings. Really though, there’s a way that Eddie’s desperate singing on this record, like his life depends on this, that transforms everyone here. The band feels like it’s responding in real time to whatever Eddie is feeling in the moment, and everyone just keeps raising the game through the end of each song. And in turn, both the music and Eddie are immediately relatable to a larger audience, as Eddie’s storytelling here captures the arc of others’ real life struggles even if the match isn’t fact for fact. His ability in that sense to project a struggle and emotion that is more or less universal in scope (I mean not too many people learn at 17 that their real father died when they were 13). In that sense, we need not hang on every word, but perhaps every metaphor and emotional release - be it anger, hope, or longing. All of this equally matched by the band’s larger than life playing and tone. Ultimately, Stone and Jeff didn’t need a singer with bigger range or bigger ambition, but a singer who could anchor their big sound with a similarly big but earnest voice, speaking to the human experience more than singing to the back of the room.
Pearl Jam - Ten Temple of the Dog Green River - Rehab Doll Green River - Dry As a Bone Mother Love Bone - Apple Mother Love Bone - Shine Green River - Come On Down Bad Radio Demos Green River - 1984 Demos Deranged Diction - Life Support / No Art, No Cowboys, No Rules
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 9:09 pm
tl;dr
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm Posts: 8468
Great take, liebzz -- I feel like, through some combination of overfamiliarity, the general public's overemphasis on it compared to the rest of PJ's catalog, and various mannerisms on the album that frankly just haven't aged well, I tend to underrate Ten. But it really was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. I'm not even listening along, but even from memory, the context you paint makes a lot of sense.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 9:14 pm
Fake NYC Setlist Relayer
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 7:55 pm Posts: 7401
Kevin Davis wrote:
Great take, liebzz -- I feel like, through some combination of overfamiliarity, the general public's overemphasis on it compared to the rest of PJ's catalog, and various mannerisms on the album that frankly just haven't aged well, I tend to underrate Ten. But it really was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. I'm not even listening along, but even from memory, the context you paint makes a lot of sense.
Thanks! I honestly do the same thing. It’s definitely an album that somehow gets overrated by casual listeners and underrated by fans of the band, I think in part in reaction to it being overrated by the casual listener. Really it is an all-time great album - I just happen to think Pearl Jam has many of those.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 9:20 pm
tl;dr
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm Posts: 8468
It's an album that tends to fall in my estimation when I think about it in the context of the band's output -- really, there are other styles and approaches of thiers that I like way better -- but improve when I put myself in the headspace of that time period, of that creative outpouring, and just try to...ahem...ride that wave. The 30th anniversary set that Brad and JWB put together really does a good job of supplying that sense of time and place -- lots of framework, lots of little details and sidetracks to get lost in.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 9:48 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 38639
Ten dipped for me for a long time, but these days, it's probably my most common go to album. Somehow of a moment and timeless/universal, and there was a lack of self-awareness to it that we never quite got again. The only time (at the height of his powers) Eddie ever sang like Eddie without having to wonder what Eddie Vedder is supposed to sound like
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 9:51 pm
The Master
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 46410 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
stip wrote:
Ten dipped for me for a long time, but these days, it's probably my most common go to album. Somehow of a moment and timeless/universal, and there was a lack of self-awareness to it that we never quite got again. The only time (at the height of his powers) Eddie ever sang like Eddie without having to wonder what Eddie Vedder is supposed to sound like
I actually think Vs. is where he sounds the least self aware, just raw passion.
Post subject: Re: The Journey/Rank Thread to Rank Them All - the Worst Thr
Posted: Wed January 26, 2022 10:27 pm
Rank This Poster
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 1:10 am Posts: 3762
I definitely hear more affectations on the Ten vocals than on the Vs. ones, though I'm sure that's colored by some degree by the production on both albums.
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