I'm always going back and forth on ATW. It's the religious imagery. If not for that, I think I'd consistently like it.

My favourite off Backspacer.

Yeah, it tries a little too hard to be "anthemic" Pearl Jam, but I love the way it peaks and I guess I'm a sucker for the redemption narrative. Give me this any day over Big Wave or Oceans.

It’s my favorite of Backspacer too. And it’s basically a B- PJ song. It strives for “Red Mosquito” but comes up short. Still, I like the solo, and I’m not as bothered by the supposed “laziness” of the song as many RMers are. I think it executed it’s purpose as well as any song on Backspacer, the problem is that Backspacer is a shitty record, and this song would be about the 10th best song on any other PJ album, but somehow finds itself numer one amongst a pile of shit that surrounds it.

Why do you think it strives for "Red Mosquito"? It's nothing like "Red Mosquito"

Meh, it would serve that purpose on the album as dose RM on No Code.

I don’t understand this post, and still wouldn’t if you’d spelled does correctly. (Giving you a hard time)

That said, I don’t get it when people try to make this comparison in general: X song is to X album as Y song is to Y album. That kinda thing just never struck a chord with me. Whatevs. I’m rambling now. Nothing to see here, move along.

Good post Bammer. Really added a lot

Who knows anything? I’m stoned. Backspacer still sucks ass, and Amongst the Waves is the best of the worst. That’s the damn point.

I was kidding Bammer's post added nothing

Really? Please clarify again.

You’re goddamn right it added nothing.

#18181

This is a good song. Good, but not great.


The important thing, as PhatJ has said many times (and I agree), is that it's a better song than Sleight of Hand.

This has one of the most out of place guitar solos of all Pearl Jam songs.

It does. Someone (Harmless?) argued in another thread recently that the song isn't trying to be an uplifting anthem, and I agree that it doesn't need to be, and arguably is better if it isn't trying . The problem is that it feels like it has to tack that classic chorus on, without fully committing to it. It's one of the reasons why that solo feels out of place. Thematically you can make an argument for it (the stormy darkness the singer has survived and moved past), but if you go in that melodramatic direction you really need to nail the celebration that follows, and the song never gets there (as opposed to something like Force of Nature - which does this so well)

I like this song. It seems like a pretty uplifting anthem to me. A complete 180 from their angsty early 90s grunge songs which makes sense. I would think at the point they recorded it for Backspacer, they were older, wiser, more introspective and feeling better about how their lives turned out since the grunge era.

Awful song

Yup. Cringe worthy.

It’s my M.O.