I really hate that I am Mine has 37 million listens on Spotify, but Cropduster only has 2 million. The general PJ audience really sucks.

Matt kills it on LBC.

I bet most Riot Act songs are the hardest for Pearl Jam to do in the live setting. They're all so focused, contemplative, and understated.

best Pearl Jam album

When "Riot Act" came out, everyone was calling it "Crapduster" and acted like it was the second coming of "Evacuation". Oh no, it's another Matt song! God forbid. I thought "I Am Mine" was an MOR snooze-fest. Little did I know how much worse things would get in that regard. "Lightning Bolt" didn't even have a Matt song on it so I guess people got what they wanted.

Do you still hate riot act, wct?

For the record I agree I Am Mine is awful, but love the rest of the album.

This should probably be in the "No options, only facts" thread

Back when it dropped I literally felt like the only human alive who liked Riot Act. The way this has shifted over the years has been a joy to watch. I love that folks largely seem to love the album now.

I distinctly remember standing in line to enter a PJ show on the riot act tour and the general vibe was that it was a lackluster album that they crapped out in a couple weeks. It’s top three for me now, and the one I’m mostly likely to play on any given day

makes me so happy

I always liked it. Self-titled was the first WTF for me.

I remember there was some vibe here of PJ coming back to a more radio oriented sound, a more poppy side with RA here, specially after Binaural.

We got the I Am Mine video on tv, that promo they did, and then the Thumbing My Way chop suey performance too.

I got Riot Act in the fall of '03 at the college bookstore almost a year after it came out. I had an immediate love for it and it was the album I listened to most throughout my freshman year. For many years after that, my opinion of the album as a whole had dropped, though it still had its highlights. Lately I've found it back on the upswing; there's some weak songs, but on the whole it stands up well with most of the rest of the discography.

I am reading a pearl jam bio/tour diary from a danish music journalist (heavy Roskilde emphasis), and it's interesting to hear them talk about Binaural and Riot Act. Everyone apparently hated making Binaural. Eddie's writer's block. Mike barely remembering any of it. Apparently Matt feeling like he couldn't give songs his own unique spin (that he was there to enhance the other 4). And they all talked about how much they loved making Riot Act, which is always a surprise to me. There are some albums (Yield is a good example) where the enthusiasm for what they're doing really shines through. Riot Act clearly shows a lot of craft, but it never jumped out to me as an album everyone approached joyfully.

Also LBC was the last song completed, apparently

What was Mike’s deal during Binaural? I thought he got off the sauce back during Vitalogy.

He relapsed after a softball injury (painkillers)

I did not know that.

Yeah it’s not something they talk about regularly but they were very open about it at the time

I Am Mine isn't awful.

Somebody sell me on Cropduster. I generally like most anything PJ puts out, at least on some level, but Cropduster is definitely on the meh end of things for me. I think the weird timing is cool and I like the lyrics, but I dunno - kinda a bland one, no?