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Joined: Mon March 30, 2020 11:59 pm Posts: 1657 Location: sleep sac in a bivouac
liebzz wrote:
Just Breathe is a little much and it doesn’t help that it’s musically just a retread of Tolumne with words.
Having never heard "Tuolumne" until now, I have to agree with that description. I do love the song though, and think it could really benefit from a wayyyyy stripped down production mix, a la Josh Evans with Comes Then Goes.
_________________ Be mighty...Be humble...Be mighty humble...
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 39894
Thurman Murman wrote:
digster wrote:
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
L-bolt has my favorite 3 run song to end an album since Vs. Gigaton may be ahead of it. Which may just prove Digster's point
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
L-bolt has my favorite 3 run song to end an album since Vs. Gigaton may be ahead of it. Which may just prove Digster's point
No doubt most of their albums are top heavy to some degree. But i can't even stomach that run of 4 songs to end Lightning Bolt. Let the Records Play is probably a bottom 5 song (not including interludes, etc) in the catalogue and Future Days as it is on the album is bar none their worst closer in my books. Yellow Moon is OK, i'm not offended by Sleeping By Myself but i found it kind of depressing that the band couldnt have come up with something better to fill out the album with...it just seemed really pointless.
Ten Vs No Code/Gigaton Yield Binaural Riot Act Vitalogy S/T Backspacer Lightning Bolt
I finally like Binaural....though now find Vitalogy pretty mediocre. Ten is rankable for the first time I've done one of these and even though I never really listen to it, it's just so good for that kind of music. I still feel that Yield and Gigaton should be back-to-back on these rankings - even if they are bottom two.
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
LB does close with what may be the worst Pearl Jam song, but its latter half does have some songs that for me still have compelling aspects to them, from Infallible and Pendulum to Swallowed Whole, Sleeping By Myself, Yellow Moon. I don't know if I'd call any of these favorites, but I do like some of them and like parts of all of them. The problem with Backspacer is that even if I'm feeling good about Just Breathe (a song I run pretty hot or cold on), from Amongst the Waves onward I don't think there's a compelling song on there until they get to the closer. That's half the record for me that just doesn't really go anywhere.
For all the crap I talked, I still love Let the Records Play and always will. I mean, if you are going to juxtapose a sleek pop song over a Stone riff, that’s the way to do it. Sleeping By Myself is fine but anything that’s almost a meta self reference should probably be a b-side. Yellow Moon works for me. Future Days is my least favorite Pearl Jam song.
Really it’s songs like Sirens, Infallible, My Father’s Son, and Swallowed Whole that start to bother me because they all have great potential but the decisions made on those songs turned them from potential greats to mediocre by numbers Pearl Jam songs that try to be songs that already exist. I guess they are fine but I expect more.
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
LB does close with what may be the worst Pearl Jam song, but its latter half does have some songs that for me still have compelling aspects to them, from Infallible and Pendulum to Swallowed Whole, Sleeping By Myself, Yellow Moon. I don't know if I'd call any of these favorites, but I do like some of them and like parts of all of them. The problem with Backspacer is that even if I'm feeling good about Just Breathe (a song I run pretty hot or cold on), from Amongst the Waves onward I don't think there's a compelling song on there until they get to the closer. That's half the record for me that just doesn't really go anywhere.
I mean i'm not a huge Backspacer defender here...i still think its their 2nd worst album easily, but man i will take the last four songs there over LB anyday. I love The End...and contrary to many on the board i really dig Force of Nature.
PJ's later career albums (and some might argue their whole career) have always been a bit top-heavy, but I feel like Backspacer loses the plot around Johnny Guitar/Just Breathe and never really finds it again.
No Pearl Jam albums ends with more of a limp than Lightning Bolt.
LB does close with what may be the worst Pearl Jam song, but its latter half does have some songs that for me still have compelling aspects to them, from Infallible and Pendulum to Swallowed Whole, Sleeping By Myself, Yellow Moon. I don't know if I'd call any of these favorites, but I do like some of them and like parts of all of them. The problem with Backspacer is that even if I'm feeling good about Just Breathe (a song I run pretty hot or cold on), from Amongst the Waves onward I don't think there's a compelling song on there until they get to the closer. That's half the record for me that just doesn't really go anywhere.
I realized today when combing through Spotify that I've never really listened to any of the 2013 tour, when LB songs were in heavy rotation. So, I put one on (Seattle 12/6). Gigaton being the obvious other exception, I've never given many of the LB songs a chance to gain or lose esteem based on how they come through live.
In the handful of shows I've been to since then, certain songs (MYM ( ), Lightning Bolt ( great)) still get played a fair amount.
But Pendulum was a great opener, and I've probably underrated it a bit over the years. Getaway was solid and made me want to listen to more of it from the tour. Sirens was solid. Let The Records Play was terrible. And Future Days was...good.
I think I'll spend quite a few hours digging into that tour more in the next few weeks.
I listened to Brooklyn 2 (I was there) and Oakland in the last month and they were both very good shows.
Yeah, I'll go with the Brooklyn shows next, since I was at those two. I recall being quite let down by Yellow Moon, despite it coming at the right spot in the set.
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), Lightning Bolt ( 
great)) still get played a fair amount. 
