A lot of thoughts, haven't heard it enough yet, and I'm already way too far behind on the conversion

Much better answer

This is definitely the last album and tour.

Ending it all in Australia is an interesting choice. Maybe so Ed can pop over to New Zealand and surf off into the sunset.

So...more importantly, did any of you get any lovin' seated in the dark confines of the theater?

I'm not gonna have time to write out what I wanted to write out today. So, rapid fire:

- Not as "heavy" as expected based on pre-album talk
- Once again we have two openers that I'm guessing everyone here will love forever, and that are.... fine, for me. It's basically like every PJ record. The first one hopefully will grow on me more, but right now feels disposable. The second track is a step up. Room for growth upon further listens, for both of these to be sure.
- Love Wreckage
- Wreckage through Waiting for Stevie is fucking great -- by itself would be an amazing EP that I'd rank really high in their catalog.
- I fucking love Upper Hand. Definitely in the top tier after just two spins.
- Running still feels slight, out of place, and disposable.
-I don't care what the lyrics generator at the theater said, he's not saying "Love Hater" he's definitely saying "Potato" in Running.
- Something Special is fine. Hardly offensive, haters need to get over themselves about it. It's sweet. And it was a favorite among several at my screening.
- Got to Give and Setting Sun are both awesome.
- Waiting for Stevie and Setting Sun sound so much like old school PJ, it's almost jarring.
- As much as I love Ed now, I do wish i could hear Ten/Vs era Vedder on vocals for those two (WfS & SS). I think people would be fucking floored.
- Ed's least interesting album lyrically but I do love that these couldn't have been written by a younger Ed. That's the tradeoff I'll keep evaluating with new spins.
- I would actually love to see Setting Sun cemented as a concert closer. It has all the anthemic lift and crescendo the other songs that rotate out as closers and I think it could be really powerful.
- Several people at my screening said it was easily better than Gigaton and I can't go there.
- This album is going to be a grower for me (for context: so was Yield and so was Binaural).
- If you made me rank it after two listens, I'd say it's better than LB and Backspacer, but that's it.
- My wife actually wanted to come to this thing with me and she also had a really great time. Her favorites were Wreckage and Got to Give.

A way too early ranking that is sure to change as soon as I hear the album again tomorrow:

Setting Sun
Upper Hand
Waiting For Stevie
Wreckage
Got To Give
Dark Matter
Won't Tell
Something Special
React, Respond
Scared of Fear
Running

Definitely their best album in awhile. Lots of great songs underneath the sometimes overproduction. The mix at the theater probably didn't help either. Quite a few mid-tempo slow burn songs. I'm excited to hear these songs live in a more stripped down manner. I found the lyrics to be good but not some of Ed's strongest. I also heard some call backs to older PJ songs in terms of structure and lyrics, and songs that sounded like other bands- Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, etc.

thanks!

The potential is clearly there for this to be great, but I (personally) really need 10+ listens before I can begin to assess an album - especially Pearl Jam where there is so much weight and history

Not much to argue with there. Where'd you rank the album? because that's not a glowing overall review.

i mean he did say he thought 7 of the 11 songs were pretty awesome on first listen

And he ranked it below everything except Backspacer and Lightning Bolt.

That seemed like a pretty glowing first impression to me, especially for a band three and a half decades deep.

It's gotta fit somewhere. He is also someone who is generally very positive around their entire catalog

its also interesting to mention that if i think on my first impression on PJ albums...i loved Riot Act but was super mixed with Binaural. Yield was only ok. ST was awesome, perhaps my favorite first listen with them. Gigaton too. I was really thrown off with Backspacer. Dont even remember LB. Vs was an instant love. Vitalogy was a huge meh.

Oh, I respect his ranking. But B then asked him where he'd rank it, having seemingly missed that part of the post.

As a father, Something Special really spoke to me.

I had thoughts of those special segments on Sportscenter where the parent trains to run a marathon with their disabled kid or something like that. Very touching. Loved it.

Spoiler: show

Notice how I worked “something” and “special” into that second paragraph.

Unfortunately, it appears your expectations were spot on. Not sure that i knew that the visuals would basically just be lyrics over a screensaver. I was hoping for something a little more engaging.

My theater experience was laughable. The first time through in the dark suddenly stopped 15 minutes in and the lights came on. Then they just went ahead and started over with the on-screen lyric run. And the sound was muffled and inconsistent. My buddy and I had a hard time not making fun of the whole thing.

Songs were great tho

And the more I think about it, I think the production gets in the way like it does for most of Binaural. I think the studio versions of Rival and Grievance are just good, but live they're on another level. I hoping that's the case with this album....great songs underneath production.

I guess I'm mixing up his theater experience with his enjoyment of the album, or lack thereof.

I had the same audio issues as most others. At first, music was only coming out of the upper corner of the right side of the screen. Audio was low too. Someone from the theatre came in around the 2nd song and bumped up the audio and it seemed to activate the left channel. I was comfortable with that audio level but some drunk chick in the back screamed "LOUDER", so theatre person bumps it up again, which was too loud for my comfort level but no use in complaining after that since others seemed to be satisfied. I was able to distinguish Stone and Mike's guitars coming from one side or the other. Ed's vocals were more to the front that other albums, probably an Andrew preference.

They do love their long outros tho.