I've said this before, but it's jsut a whole other deal artistically when it's a band, and not a solo act. There's pros and cons to each. To get a band to agree on a specific direction or sound or approach is difficult/next to impossible. But, the pros are that you have this collaborative interaction which yeilds results that would never exist by any one band member. Apples and oranges.

Getaway is the no brainer for single. A left turn from Sirens and the most immediate fun bouncy melodic (adjectives!) song on the album.

LB takes too damn long to sink in and takes a big leap when heard live - two luxuries a single doesn't have.

They all seem to gush over Neil and how he does shit. Thus, they could all easily be on the same page when it comes to throwing caution to the wind and forgetting what pearl jam is apparently and supposed to be about.

They need to man up.

I'm so glad today I downloaded the two official bootlegs of the Brooklyn shows I was at. Boys are on fucking fire. Ed hasn't sounded this good since maybe 2000. Has me so excited for these gigs:) it's not about 'going for it' anymore. They want to play and sound great. And it comes across. Happy days can't wait to get to Oceans:)


Still don't like the second half of this record though.

I think his point is that if you have 5 people throwing caution to the wind in 5 different directions you may not be able to produce anything. That's different than the 5 of them having a radically different vision that they share and feeling unable to pursue it because it's not what pearl jam is.

We think of pearl jam as a singular entity, and the creation process as similarly singular, but it's not.

This isn't to say they couldn't all get on the same page about doing something different and then have the pearl jam ideal hold them back, of course. I'm just expanding on what I think Toul means

Go to bed Dime, you're drunk

listening to this one right now...fuck those first 4 songs are flawless...yeah, i wish the guitars in Getaway sound more in the vein of Last Exit, but this is a very very god start...LB`s fade is criminal.

The second half of the album needs another rocker though.

First you say they're flawless, and immediately follow that up with how it could be better.

No, the beauty of LB is the second half. Modern Non-rocking PJ is better than modern rocking-PJ, so I think it's just right.

Eds voice on Pendulum is so beautiful. I'm listening now on full blast and it totally envelopes you... this is what we were missing on BS - that type of haunting vocal.

Pendulum is hypnotically wonderful. I still don't get the "better than RA" talk, they're so different. Y WE ALL CANT AGREE?!