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I mean they're probably more potentially impressive songwriters right now than they were on Vs. They've been at this for a long time and Eddie, for instance, I think is far more adept at writing melodies now than he once was. But there is a primal, visceral, elemental, desperate energy to this album that elevates absolutely everything it touches. And I don't think they'll ever be able to tap into that again. They're grasping for something here they eventually found, and even if they let go I don't think you reach for it again in quite the same way
Ive played with musicians who have gone through serious jazz training and musical scholarships. I always found their songwriting to suck after they get all that knowledge.
When ament talks about how none of them were really songwriters and that Jeremy never really had a key change.... I roll my eyes. Who gives a shit? The primal instinct is usually the best one. Its now showing in their song writing. They are trying too hard because it seems as though they now have an idea of what a song should be. How it should be structured.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vs.
Posted: Tue April 02, 2024 12:34 pm
AnalLog
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 4:57 am Posts: 1995
Listened to this yesterday in my run up to the new record and I'm still blown away how brazen of a follow-up this was. It's been so long now that I almost take these songs as a given, as if this was a group of songs that was always meant to exist, but, if I put my mind back in October of '93, it's staggering how they managed such an audacious follow-up.
Some of the DNA from the genesis of the band is still there, but, this record couldn't have been a more direct contrast sonically from Ten. Looser, rawer, and more direct, some of the material is a bit undercooked, but, that actually worked in the album's favor, at the time.
I still can't believe they pulled this one off. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when they handed this in to the label.
_________________ We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vs.
Posted: Tue April 02, 2024 2:19 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 40080
I think Vs is the album that teaches you how to listen to a Pearl Jam album, and what they will be. It creates the template - the platonic form of a Pearl Jam record
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vs.
Posted: Tue April 02, 2024 2:56 pm
Future Drummer
Joined: Sat August 24, 2013 2:33 pm Posts: 3090 Location: Baltic Sea, Germany
Just stumbled upon the Pitchfork review for the Vs/Vitalogy Edition from 2011. While I don't think the start of this paragraph is quite fair, I like where it ends.
Quote:
Their music, as always, remains the least complex part of this equation. Pearl Jam's retooled take on classic rock was often lumpy and flat-footed, and they sounded hopelessly unfashionable next to their punk-influenced contemporaries. But focusing on these flaws, as most rock critics did and still do, misses out on the music's signature virtue, which is communication. It is this burning and self-evident need for human connection, more than anything else, that has always elevated and redeemed their most dubious efforts, and it was a quality personified by Eddie Vedder, an empathetic lead singer who transmitted a vivid emotional intensity. At its most winning, Pearl Jam's music exudes his best personality traits: warm, earnest, generous, passionate, and, yeah, harmlessly dopey sometimes.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vs.
Posted: Tue April 02, 2024 3:01 pm
AnalLog
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 4:57 am Posts: 1995
stip wrote:
I think Vs is the album that teaches you how to listen to a Pearl Jam album, and what they will be. It creates the template - the platonic form of a Pearl Jam record
Not to discard your solid point, stip, but, speaking of "how to listen" to a Pearl Jam record, you know what I've been reminded of that I REALLY miss with the more recent records? The placement of the guitars!
So, slightly OT, but...on Ten, FOR THE MOST PART (there are exceptions in the songs and within the mixes), Stone and Mike are placed as they are on stage, and you are listening as if you're in the audience. On Vs., you're mostly seated behind the kit, basically, with Stone to your left and Mike to your right...Incredible. Pretty sure they did the same on Yield.
More modern productions completely eschew this level of detailed instrumental separation. I don't want to speak for Trag, but, it's a small part of a larger issue that drives me and my ears absolutely insane! I can only wonder what I would think of Dark Matter & Running were they afforded the same luxury.
_________________ We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vs.
Posted: Thu April 04, 2024 11:11 pm
She / Her
Joined: Sun January 26, 2020 12:10 pm Posts: 12248 Location: Warwickshire, UK
only today did it really hit me: Vs. is my favourite PJ drums album, both in playing and in sound (tuning, tone, mix, everything)
I don't think it's my favourite overall (thats Vitalogy, and its mood / aesthetic beats Vs., just) but if someone asked me how PJ influenced my drumming as a young'un, I'd play them this
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