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Because of the March Madness tournament I've been on a huge Pearl Jam kick. I've listened to each album up to Riot Act all the way through over the past few days.
Current ranking:
Riot Act Vitalogy Ten Yield No Code Gigaton Vs Binaural S/T Lightning Bolt Backspacer
After a year. And hell if I know this list will last more than a day:
1) Vitalogy 2) Yield 3) No Code 4) Binaural 5) Gigaton 6) Vs. 7) Ten 8) Pearl Jam 9) Riot Act Lost Dogs 10) Backspacer 11) Lightning Bolt
Lots of movement. Yield jumps way up for me this year while Binaural goes from 2 to 4. No Code always hits in the top 3 or 4. Gigaton is still riding high but from that to the self-titled is really close for me. Could be anywhere from 5 to 8 depending on my mood. Backspacer and Lightning Bolt are interchangeable for me at the bottom. Both are good albums but seem like a photocopy of Pearl Jam rather than the real thing.
Not much has changed with this list in the last year. One difference is giving Backspacer a little more respect than i had been giving it the last two years. Without a doubt the bands 2nd worst album, but where i used to kind of lump it in interchageably with LB i now have them in disctinct tiers.
Binaural sessions as a whole i'd have ranked ahead of Gigaton and into the same tier as No Code, Vs. and Yield.
Last edited by Thurman Murman on Sat March 27, 2021 11:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I don't think I've ever really thought this out while trying to include Gigaton...
Binaural Vitalogy Yield No Code Vs. Ten Riot Act Gigaton S/T Lightning Bolt Backspacer
I don't think I've ever thought of Binaural as the band's best album before; I think I hesitate usually because it's flaws, minor thought they may be, are more noticeable to me than the next few albums on the list. But the fact is that for me so many of the band's best songs are on that one album, and it's really the only PJ I've listened to over the past year besides Gigaton (and No Code sporadically).
Yield slipped a little bit; it's usually 1 or 2 for me. And maybe Gigaton has a chance to move further up, but right near it doesn't feel like it exceeds their pre-S/T work for me. I think I'd handily put it above the three prior records, especially BS and LB.
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 2:02 am Posts: 15145 Location: Gigatown
Ten is impossible to rank accurately. It’s legit to have it ranked anywhere from 1-8. And I’ve probably had it in every one of those spots over the years. Based solely on what order I’d choose to listen to PJ albums today:
Binaural Gigaton Yield Vs. Vitalogy No Code Riot Act Ten
no code/yield vitalogy vs ten pearl jam binaural riot act LB Backsapcer
I want to rank Gigaton right around the vs/ten rankings. i'm having a hard time comparing an album that just came out to albums that i've been in love with since my childhood. i vividly remember the morning vs came out, going in my brothers room to see it b/c he got it at midnight. even hearing 'go' for the first time weeks before that. ten is ten. my favorite pj song consistently has been 'porch'. i've loved these songs for close to 30 years. i dunno if i'm still feeling the effects of a brand new album, but it says a lot about Gigaton to even think about putting it that high.
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 38611
I should come back and revisit this after the tournament is over, but it is easier, after the first 4, to really cluster albums together
1. Vitalogy 2. Ten 3. Vs
Vitalogy and Ten remain my first and third records of all time by any band (REM's Automatic for the People is in the 2 spot). If I'm honest I would probably rather listen to Ten these days. I do think Vitalogy is better, but the songs on Ten demand less of you upon entry, and work better in the 'I am just going to throw a song on' way I am more likely to consume music outside of a binge period.
Vs. is a deeply uneven album. Even it's bottom moments are still pretty good, and its top moments are among the bands best (I'd put Go, Animal, Daughter, RVM, Small Town, and Indifference up against the best songs best, and no album except Vitalogy and Ten can produce six songs of that caliber for me). I don't see anything ever moving past Vitalogy or Ten at this point since even if the songs were as good I am just at a point in my life where new music cannot soundtrack the self-discovery of my adolescent and adult self.
4. Gigaton
Gigaton remains the pivot between those top tier albums and the next group of 4. It is a consistent record where I am happy to listen to any of the songs, and even the lesser tracks I still enjoy. I can't say that about half of pearl Jam's albums. So it scores major points for consistency. And unlike some of the records in the next batch, I would (at least a year out) track its best songs against the bands best work. There is the opening run of three tracks that I adore, but it is buttressed by a whole bunch of songs (Quick Escape, Alright, 7 Oclock, Comes then Goes, River Cross) that are also clear 4 star songs for me, so there is a fair bit of depth to the album as well. I feel good about it staying in this spot. It is very similar to Vs. in terms of how I experience the record, except Vs. has 6 all timers, and Gigaton has 3
5-8 are all pretty close together, for different reasons
5 and 6: Backspacer/Lightning Bolt (order is interchangable. Push comes to shove LB maybe edges out Backspacer)
Except for Supersonic I like every song on Backspacer, and love a few of them, though even the very best songs (Fixer/Force of Nature) don't quite crack my truly elite group of Pearl Jam songs. I like almost every song on Lightning Bolt, and even the weaker tracks (Getaway, MFS) I can find things I enjoy. There are more high end tracks for me on Lightning Bolt (Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt, and Sleeping By Myself are my top 3), and these come a bit closer to cracking my elite group of Pearl Jam songs. I might even put Lightning Bolt in that group. I recognize I am virtually alone on that island.
So the consistency is there, and I like almost everything, but the albums are mostly locked into that 3-4.5 range, never dipping to low but almost never punching through.
7 and 8: S/T and Yield (order is interchangeable. Push comes to shove Yield maybe edges out S/T)
These albums are almost the opposite of Backspacer and L-Bolt for me. Each features a block of 3-4 songs that are catalog favorites, and some solid mid tier tracks, but also have stretches of songs I just don't care about. Massively inconsistent records for me. If I was pulling the best songs these two album outclass Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. But I'd rather listen to those two albums from start to finish
Yield has Brain of J, Given to Fly, Wishlist, and DTE. S/T has Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Comatose, and Parachutes. But after those stunning highs there are a few songs I enjoy but don't love (MFC, All Those Yesterdays, Severed Hand, Marker, Come Back, and then a bunch of others that range from fine but unexciting (your Army Reserves, Gones, Pilates, Push Me/Pull Mes) to songs that I can dig if I'm in the right mood, but they are definitely sometimes songs (Inside Job/No Way/Low Light), and songs I just don't care to ever hear again (Unemployable, In Hiding, Faithfull)
If S/T sounded better it might move up a bit. Other than Lightning Bolt, I don't know if there is an album where the production did a great disservice to the songs. Release the Evans Mix
9-11: No Code, Riot Act, Binaural (all roughly equal, but if I had to rank maybe Binaural, Riot Act, and No Code)
These albums have the weak points of both ST/Yield and Backspacer/Lightning Bolt. I find them both pretty inconsistent and lacking any songs that truly track my upper echelons.
Binaural comes closest. Again I find it wildly inconsistent with a number of songs I just could care less about (God's Dice, Evacuation, Soon Forget, Sleight of Hand) and others that have an interesting core that don't get where I'd like them to for different reasons (Thin Air, Breakerfall, Of the Girl, Light Years). The best tracks on Binaural are VERY strong, and there a bunch of them (Nothing As it Seems, Insignificance, Grievance, Rival, maybe Parting Ways), but they all fall just shy of my top songs - there are some five star songs there, but they get five stars more out of respect than actual enjoyment (I'd sooner put on Lightning Bolt than Insignificance, but I fully recognize that Insignificance is the better piece of writing). And while the production choices here (and on Riot Act) are intentional and work with the artistic intent behind the songs, they are choices that don't play to what I generally want to get out of the band.
Riot Act has a few songs that teeter just on the edge of the top tier (I am Mine, Save You, maybe Can't Keep), and a few others that I really enjoy (Cropduster, Ghost, Get Right). But after that it's all songs that I like fine but are missing something to put them over (Thumbing My Way, You Are, 1/2 Full) or songs I just don't care to hear at all (Green Disease, All or None, LBC, Bu$hleaguer, Arc, Help Help). And given how bottom heavy the album is with those songs, and how downbeat it is in general, Riot Act REALLY starts to drag for me on the backend. It sounds great, but this was not the album to cap out at 15 songs. Overall it may be the one I am the most likely to listen to from start to finish of the bottom three, but the highs aren't as strong as the best songs on Binaural, even if it ends up being more consistent.
No Code probably remains at the bottom. It is maybe the most consistent of the three, but there are almost no songs on here I love. There are a few 4 star songs (Hail Hail, Who You Are, In My Tree, Red Mosquito - Habit comes close these days), and a bunch of songs I can appreciate but don't really care a ton about (Sometimes, Smile, Lukin,Present Tense Around the Bend, sometimes Mankind), and then I really dislike I'm Open and Off He Goes. There is almost no song on No Code I ever feel the need to listen to these days, and haven't for a long time. So I think it remains pretty rooted in the cellar for me
I know very well you are no casual Pearl Jam listener having read all those deep dives over the years, but I wanted to note that if I played say all of the Pearl Jam albums to someone who had never heard them before, I would likely expect to see roughly that ranking. That doesn’t minimize your experience with them, it is just something I find fascinating.
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