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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Mon December 23, 2013 8:03 pm 
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stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
Immortality: 99 out of 100 times this is where Vitalogy ends, which makes Immortality their best closer, and is arguably their best song. When I complain about how I find Binaural to be somewhat hollow and lifeless this is what I'm comparing it to--a song that captures the same sense of desolate empty space and the lost soul wandering in it, but there's still life and warmth and humanity here that gets stripped out of so much of that record. That's what made this so special--the way Eddie was able to take such an unrelenting and bleak and personal set of songs and still manage to invite you (and only you) into that space.

I don't even know what to highlight about this song. Everything is perfect. The music has always reminded me of a darker reprise of U2's One.

Completely unexpected solo from Mike, but one of his best. I love how heavy the build gets coming out of the chorus into the final verse, and how abruptly it flattens out into something quiet and open.

There's a very compelling methodical quality to this song, like slowly investigating a wound that you fear might be fatal.

The outro is really great, but so different in tone from the rest of the song, like the singer reached a crossroads and then freezes there, jogging in place, not sure where they're gonna go.



Well said, except there's nothing hollow and lifeless about parting ways, of the girl, etc. those are two of the 'warmest' sad songs in their catalogue



I don't know. Those songs feel pretty empty to me. I don't mean that as a knock against them, mind you. I think that's their point.


nah, they feel fuller to me than immortality. all the songs in question are brilliant, but immortality is certainly more desolate. immortality and footsteps pretty much win the most desolate pj song award.


I don't mean empty musically, just so that's clear


do you mean empty emotionally? p ways is rife with slow-cooking grief.

maybe we should save this discussion for the LALttA binaural thread.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Mon December 23, 2013 8:20 pm 
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Random Vitalogy thought:

I think Better Man would have fit better on No Code.

The timing of the recording sessions doesn't work, but hypothetically I think both albums would have been better by subbing I Got Shit into Vitalogy, putting Better Man on No Code, starting No Code with Long Road, and throwing Sometimes into the dustbin.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Mon December 23, 2013 8:40 pm 
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stip wrote:
Immortality: 99 out of 100 times this is where Vitalogy ends, which makes Immortality their best closer, and is arguably their best song. When I complain about how I find Binaural to be somewhat hollow and lifeless this is what I'm comparing it to--a song that captures the same sense of desolate empty space and the lost soul wandering in it, but there's still life and warmth and humanity here that gets stripped out of so much of that record. That's what made this so special--the way Eddie was able to take such an unrelenting and bleak and personal set of songs and still manage to invite you (and only you) into that space.

I don't even know what to highlight about this song. Everything is perfect. The music has always reminded me of a darker reprise of U2's One.

Completely unexpected solo from Mike, but one of his best. I love how heavy the build gets coming out of the chorus into the final verse, and how abruptly it flattens out into something quiet and open.

There's a very compelling methodical quality to this song, like slowly investigating a wound that you fear might be fatal.

The outro is really great, but so different in tone from the rest of the song, like the singer reached a crossroads and then freezes there, jogging in place, not sure where they're gonna go.


Immortality is one of my favorite songs, but I actually think this is one of the few instances where the studio take doesnt quite do the song justice. Its good for sure, but I think Eddie was so much into stripping everything down on that album, that Immortality loses some of the depth and epicness it could have had. I Love the version from Self Pollution radio. Its slower and has a more ethereal quality to it. Particularly Mikes solos which are have alot of harmonics and reverb, and really build to an epic climax. The solos on the Vitalogy version fall short.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 7:33 am 
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stip wrote:
Okay, this is both my favorite album of all time and, I think, the most compelling rock album of all time. I do think it's that good. the way it manages to take something so viscerally personal and invite the listener in, the way it takes something so narcissistic and melodramatic and cuts right to the human core of it. The songs are all pretty much amazing (how do you get last exit, not for you, tremor christ, nothingman, betterman, corduroy, and immortality on the same album), the guitar tones are fantastic, the rhythm section is totally locked in, and Eddie manages to simultaneously have a breakdown while maintaining iron clad control over himself, releasing just the right amount of pressure each time to push the explosion further down the line. In every single one of these songs every member of the band is doing something worth listening to. That you can have the same band putting spin the black circle, immortality, corduroy, and betterman on the same record is nuts.


This is as good as it gets. All other pearl jam albums have to answer to this standard. none have measured up.


This.

Also, I've always liked that Ed's voice is a bit lower in the mix than other (especially modern) PJ records. I love to hear his voice, but it feels like he is pushing with everything he has in order to be heard over all the other instruments. That urgency and push adds to the tension throughout the record.

I also love the simplicity of the drumming on Corduroy. I'm not entirely convinced it's even Dave A drumming because the one live version I have heard doesn't match up with how the studio version is played. It's so simple it could even be programmed drums. . . Anyway, there's something about the simplicity of the drums that helps make the song work so well. It's not even my favorite PJ song, but recording-wise it's high-water mark for me.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 7:50 am 
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parasolmonster wrote:

Also, I've always liked that Ed's voice is a bit lower in the mix than other (especially modern) PJ records. I love to hear his voice, but it feels like he is pushing with everything he has in order to be heard over all the other instruments. That urgency and push adds to the tension throughout the record.



Agreed. It's a huge issue with the new records. Eddie clearly sounds removed from the band. I'm sure he was recording his vocals separately on the early records, but you can't hear that in the way you can on the new stuff. He never sounds like he's fighting with the music; he always sounds removed from it.

Anyways, this used to be my favorite PJ record; it's not anymore, but it's still one of their best. I'm always impressed by how it manages to simultaneously sound impeccably crafted and held together by scotch tape that's barely hanging on.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 7:51 am 
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DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
Immortality: 99 out of 100 times this is where Vitalogy ends, which makes Immortality their best closer, and is arguably their best song. When I complain about how I find Binaural to be somewhat hollow and lifeless this is what I'm comparing it to--a song that captures the same sense of desolate empty space and the lost soul wandering in it, but there's still life and warmth and humanity here that gets stripped out of so much of that record. That's what made this so special--the way Eddie was able to take such an unrelenting and bleak and personal set of songs and still manage to invite you (and only you) into that space.

I don't even know what to highlight about this song. Everything is perfect. The music has always reminded me of a darker reprise of U2's One.

Completely unexpected solo from Mike, but one of his best. I love how heavy the build gets coming out of the chorus into the final verse, and how abruptly it flattens out into something quiet and open.

There's a very compelling methodical quality to this song, like slowly investigating a wound that you fear might be fatal.

The outro is really great, but so different in tone from the rest of the song, like the singer reached a crossroads and then freezes there, jogging in place, not sure where they're gonna go.



Well said, except there's nothing hollow and lifeless about parting ways, of the girl, etc. those are two of the 'warmest' sad songs in their catalogue



I don't know. Those songs feel pretty empty to me. I don't mean that as a knock against them, mind you. I think that's their point.


nah, they feel fuller to me than immortality. all the songs in question are brilliant, but immortality is certainly more desolate. immortality and footsteps pretty much win the most desolate pj song award.


I don't mean empty musically, just so that's clear


do you mean empty emotionally? p ways is rife with slow-cooking grief.

maybe we should save this discussion for the LALttA binaural thread.


I don't really feel anything empty about those songs or that album. Desolate, perhaps, but not empty. Of their catalog, Vitalogy and Binaural are pretty similar bedfellows, in terms of the dread that accompanies listening to them.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 11:32 am 
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digster wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
DeLima wrote:
stip wrote:
Immortality: 99 out of 100 times this is where Vitalogy ends, which makes Immortality their best closer, and is arguably their best song. When I complain about how I find Binaural to be somewhat hollow and lifeless this is what I'm comparing it to--a song that captures the same sense of desolate empty space and the lost soul wandering in it, but there's still life and warmth and humanity here that gets stripped out of so much of that record. That's what made this so special--the way Eddie was able to take such an unrelenting and bleak and personal set of songs and still manage to invite you (and only you) into that space.

I don't even know what to highlight about this song. Everything is perfect. The music has always reminded me of a darker reprise of U2's One.

Completely unexpected solo from Mike, but one of his best. I love how heavy the build gets coming out of the chorus into the final verse, and how abruptly it flattens out into something quiet and open.

There's a very compelling methodical quality to this song, like slowly investigating a wound that you fear might be fatal.

The outro is really great, but so different in tone from the rest of the song, like the singer reached a crossroads and then freezes there, jogging in place, not sure where they're gonna go.



Well said, except there's nothing hollow and lifeless about parting ways, of the girl, etc. those are two of the 'warmest' sad songs in their catalogue



I don't know. Those songs feel pretty empty to me. I don't mean that as a knock against them, mind you. I think that's their point.


nah, they feel fuller to me than immortality. all the songs in question are brilliant, but immortality is certainly more desolate. immortality and footsteps pretty much win the most desolate pj song award.


I don't mean empty musically, just so that's clear


do you mean empty emotionally? p ways is rife with slow-cooking grief.

maybe we should save this discussion for the LALttA binaural thread.


I don't really feel anything empty about those songs or that album. Desolate, perhaps, but not empty. Of their catalog, Vitalogy and Binaural are pretty similar bedfellows, in terms of the dread that accompanies listening to them.


YeH, that really struck me on this listen

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 3:12 pm 
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Satan's Bed drummer was Dave's tech, Jimmy Shoaf

from Vitalogy wiki page-

Drums on "Satan's Bed" were performed by Abbruzzese's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf. On the day it was recorded, Abbruzzese was in the hospital having his tonsils removed. Vedder and Gossard asked for Shoaf's help to get a drum machine working, and after setting it up, the pair asked Shoaf to perform the same beat on the drums. He is credited on the lyric sheet as "Jimmy".[7]

In other words, just a big :finger: to Dave A


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 3:50 pm 
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hlniv wrote:
Satan's Bed drummer was Dave's tech, Jimmy Shoaf

from Vitalogy wiki page-

Drums on "Satan's Bed" were performed by Abbruzzese's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf. On the day it was recorded, Abbruzzese was in the hospital having his tonsils removed. Vedder and Gossard asked for Shoaf's help to get a drum machine working, and after setting it up, the pair asked Shoaf to perform the same beat on the drums. He is credited on the lyric sheet as "Jimmy".[7]

In other words, just a big :finger: to Dave A


Jimmy what a traitor....Poor Dave, he must be insufferable because everyone seem to hate him.

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Tue December 24, 2013 9:58 pm 
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and throwing Sometimes into the dustbin.

:|


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Wed December 25, 2013 4:24 am 
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Self wrote:
Captain Termite wrote:
and throwing Sometimes into the dustbin.

:|

Yeah that's absurd.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Wed December 25, 2013 6:36 am 
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hlniv wrote:
Drums on "Satan's Bed" were performed by Abbruzzese's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf.


Pearl Jam had yet ANOTHER drummer :shock:


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Wed December 25, 2013 6:42 am 
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maybe jimmy will be free for 2015 when Matt returns to his sisters in soundgarden

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 12:43 pm 
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I had the flu for Christmas. So I got to drive the family up to Nowhere, South Dakota in a wind chill advisory and slippery snowstorm, and then hide in a separate little basement living room from the festivities with no book, tv, computer, windows or anything. Just an old, uncomfortable recliner and an afghan.

But I had my phone and barely a signal, so I noticed that this was up here and figured "Shit, I've got dictation software and an old post I made about this record that I could add on to." Plus I had Vitalogy on my phone, and all of the above pretty much made it the perfect mood setting for the record.

It was that or Angry Birds.

Anyway, some of this is requisitioned from an earlier post.

-

So, first of all, I think some setting of historical context is super important but probably will get skipped by a lot of people, so I'll spoiler it:

Spoiler: show
The 28 months following the end of the band’s tour in support of Vs included two full Pearl Jam albums, a complete Neil Young album and tour set, the introduction of Jack Irons to the band, the Ticketmaster thing, the pirate radio thing, the Mike Watt thing, the Dead Man Walking thing, and a spattering of events I’m not going to mention. So the thing is, it was a period marked by lots and lots of music but relatively little Pearl Jam...certainly little of the collaborative Pearl Jam that was the norm prior to that point.

It’s hardly gone undiscussed how frustrating and occasionally unenjoyable the band found the act of being the band during this era. But I think it's easy to overly simplify and therefore misrepresent the band's position in 1994.

The music industry experienced a state of almost perpetual growth from the late 1950's to the late 1970's. There's a lot of reason for this...the introduction of the adolescent as a mass market, changes in buying power, etc....but this growth also coincided with a massive power transfer from industry to artist. Especially from the mid-60's to mid-70's, the ability of the musician to spend large amounts of time and money preparing and presenting exactly their most recent artistic vision flourished and expanded.


Image


Back in the 1950’s recording sessions were very tightly controlled events, and pop musicians expected (and generally received) short recording careers. By the 70’s, though, labels spoke in terms of “nurturing” niche singers, “embracing” legacy artists, and giving new figures the time to find their voice. Bruce Springsteen’s first two records had both cost the label substantial amounts of money when he set out to begin the month's long run of studio time that would produce just a single song (Born to Run), and yet the amount of pushback from the label during the majority of that work time was virtually nil. This was just "how it was done," by that point. Conversely, Neil Young’s label humored him through countless low-selling and sometimes extremely expensive projects during the tremendous span of time between his initial commercial success and his eventual successful return. And they did this fully realizing that he might never make such a return. It was fine, because the more the culture worshipped at the alter of pop music, the more those artist’s eventual successes resulted in big back catalog sales returns that more than made up for some short term losses.

Basically, at the same time labels had embraced the idea of ceding power to artists, returns had climbed ever upwards. This led to the existence of powerful figureheads who saw themselves as artist support champions as much as businessmen (Billy Graham, Ahmet Ertegan and David Geffen come to mind), and to artists who felt both justified and entitled to the amount of sway their sales afforded them. It also led to a situation where individuals could be seen by the general public as among the premiere artists of their moment, and yet also bask in the light of celebrity.





The 80’s represented a reversal of fortune. Sales dropped worldwide, and more specifically new product by established and highly paid artists was suddenly very hard to sell. This resulted in a lot of “shoring up” defense reactions by major record labels (David Geffen comes to mind again) and to new industry behaviors. The amount of influence and money demanded by established artists at this point far outstripped their returns. Even people like Elton John, who had multiple enormous hits during the 80's, was afforded such a tremendous amount of money and such a large recording and promotional budget that his "hit" records would cost the label a small fortune. Occasional exceptions existed, but this overall situation led to a renewed obsession with pursuing "trends," and to signing greater amounts of unknown talent. It would also eventually would kick-start the reissuing trend to acquire new cash from old stories and thus earn back the money that those big name artists were costing.

So we get to the 90's. The upward trend renews itself, taking on staggering levels of upward motion and the number of copies sold annually surpassing all previous figures by as early as 1994 (and continuing upwards right up until the turn of the century).


Image


Which means that 1994 represented a very, very strange mix of conditions.

Artistic expression had become a powerful factor in the expectations people had of more “serious” musical acts thanks to the efforts of those artists who thrived in the '65-'80 era (and who still make up the majority of acts considered "classics"), and yet the industry as a whole was moving more and more towards a professional, tightly controlled system (this, along with the changes in technology that made recording more accessible, also influenced the rise of indie labels in the 80’s and 90’s). Meanwhile, the still fairly uniform nature of media at the time (pre-mass internet, pre-200 channel digital cable packages, etc) meant that being the “biggest band in the world” gave you a much larger cultural footprint than it might today, and the post-80's trend-chasing nature of the industry meant that there was more of that unspoken assumption about shorter careers that had been so familiar in the 1950's. Basically, you had a little less power than those bands you grew up admiring, but you sold more records and were under a much hotter spotlight.

Retrospect is always easy, but looking back it's not hard to imagine why the industry eventually had to start reducing. The shift from artist support to business management, the centralization of the industry into a small group of very large companies, the changes resultant from renewed focus on immediate dollar return, an ever-increasing focus on charging the living shit out of older fans who will pay jackoff prices because they followed a band for 20 years, and especially the ever-growing size and scope of the industry all combined to set the scene for a massive implosion…all that was needed was a catalyst.

Like the ability to download.

But the point is, that kind of perspectivist awareness is a conceit given to history. The inside of a tornado pretty much all looks the same, right up until all of the sudden it doesn’t.



-=-

So, the album itself.


Recorded at the peak of Pearl Jam’s popularity, Vitalogy is both the start of what some might call their “wilderness” years and the most marked evidence available of the contradictory urges that define it.

Where Nirvana had produced In Utero, an artistic statement that was inward-looking and arguably purer, Pearl Jam’s reaction to existing pressure was as concerned with the fans and the world at large as it was with the turmoil within the band. It barely seems to distinguish between the experienced and the witnessed. On Bone Machine, Tom Waits disguised an intensely personal record with his usual collection of characters and abstraction. On Vitalogy the mirror opposite happens: an incredibly large-scoped subject is explored through the eyes of the very personal.

As a result of this, the record which best represents Pearl Jam’s anti-commercial leanings is also the one that is most protective of its fan base (and contains their biggest original hit). Meanwhile, songs that surge with outward-facing and unified aggression often break apart, explode cacaphonically, or crack open to reveal barely-whispered cores. Personal confessions are punctuated by empathic storytelling, political sermonizing, hazy confusion, and half-formed jams. It indulges in thoughts of defeat, but it’s not a record about self-pity or victimization. It can’t be. Unlike many of their peers, Pearl Jam always wanted to change the world. Vitalogy is a pure, primal aural document of that basic feeling…not the active response to it, or the rationale behind it…just the feeling itself.

This is a record about the need for change.

In a way, Vitalogy is the compassion and lack of complacency displayed by U2 or Bruce Springsteen delivered in its most empathic, least calculated form…an album that draws no distinction between suffering and savior, personal and public, narrator and story.

Lyrically, the record is both more personal and more intentionally vague than its predecessors. While some of Vs’s tendencies towards clipped, primal directness carry over, the writing during this period leans towards an abstraction that will eventually translate into the tone poem-like qualities of songs like Low Light and Nothing As it Seems. Metaphors, generally clear in the past, will occasionally become so thoroughly unanchored as to suggest intentional disclarity. As with Talking Heads’ Fear of Music, songs seem as though they want very strongly to express ideas and feelings they are uncertain they want understood by others…as though the feeling is pure but the expression is destined to fail.

The idea of honesty or genuineness, not just the importance of pursuing them but especially the impossibility of the goal, is a recurring theme during the era.







Conversely, there are instances where Ed seems to take delight in the idea of secret messages or unnoticed communications...or perhaps the ability to control who receives the expression:









Now, please don’t think that I’m dismissing the melodrama of the record. Even its most playful moments maintain an undercurrent of ragged distrust, bitterness, or twitchy paranoia. Spin the Black Circle would just be a brief aside, were it not for the fact that the song’s frantic and desperate nature transforms it into something else entirely.

The song is a snapshot of a person seeking much-needed perspective, the sound of a band that just sold a million units in a week reminding itself that a single record can be important…can even be life-changing. It also serves as the simplest, most effective rejection of the band’s fame. “I’d rather you than her,” it yelps, declaring allegiance to the one record that means everything over the million CDs that make you rich.

There are certainly "message" songs sent from the center of the tornado, here, but in general the record isn’t focused enough to be about the difficult life of a successful rock star. The need to escape a bad situation? Yes. The need for redemption, after finding out that you were someone else’s “bad situation?” It's in there. The want to save the world? To leave it behind you? To find your place in it, and live a good, simple life? Yeah.

The album’s title may be happenstance, but it is exceptionally appropriate.

The exact moment when the need for change becomes most defined and present is an anxiety-filled, tense one, and very rarely does a good thing stay good on this album. The ocean swell may wash away an unwanted past at one point, but it becomes mindlessly destructive just a few songs later. The angels triumphantly outpace the devil on side A, but side B suggests that the devil may have been an inevitability (or simply present) the entire time. The sun burns away your mask, sure...then it burns the rest of you up, and then it turns out to have been a con the entire time.

Privacy is priceless, but the need for others is so great that our narrative immediately admits that he was losing his mind just from waiting for your arrival (and uses the song about privacy to send a "secret" little thank you message to another human being).

The album begins to spiral out of control in the second half, as he reminisces on the infestation of thought that his isolation forced on him and the band becomes less and less capable of putting together a complete musical idea. Torture, on this record, always follows reward…until eventually it stops mattering which one is which. Like death follows life. It’s divine...aye davanita.

You know what it’s like?





In the end, the singer reaches out to the same mother he taunted almost playfully at the very start (“look, ma, watch me crash!” / "stripped and sold, mom,"), lamenting his treatment at the hands of others but never quite asking for her forgiveness or help. Instead, he simply acknowledges the need to move on, which is what he's been railing about all along, and does so.

This is why I say this is an album about the base need for change. Nothing is working here...not the individual, not the relationships, not the governing agencies or the world at large or even the hereafter...and there’s never a point where that isn’t realized and fretted over.

But the need for change, at its purest expression, is completely reactionary and directionless. There’s no guiding light out of the dark on Vitalogy. There’s no suggestion on the part of the album for what should come next. In fact, in some ways the next step is so scary that the album takes comfort in just continuing the cycle (my spanking…that’s the only thing I want so much. Torture follows reward.).

But life…really living…requires an escape. One half of the equation in Nothingman saw that. The characters in Tremor Christ and Not for You felt it on a purely emotional level. The status quo, simply put, is a willful denial of further experience. It is a purely habitual behavior trap…and its death can mean the birth of something better. A metaphorical suicide that promises metaphorical rebirth. Some die just to live.

Do you ever think that you actually would kill yourself? Well, if I thought about it real hard…yes, I believe I would.



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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 4:05 pm 
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Thanks McP. That was a great read. I've sometimes felt the most important lyric on the record is the mention of syssiphus in the not for you liner notes. There is no guiding light, no way out, but there is also a refusal to surrender, and stubborn defiance in the face of dark certainty is a victory, and an important part of the record

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 7:53 pm 
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My favourite PJ album, possibly my favourite album.

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 9:43 pm 
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stip wrote:
Thanks McP. That was a great read. I've sometimes felt the most important lyric on the record is the mention of syssiphus in the not for you liner notes. There is no guiding light, no way out, but there is also a refusal to surrender, and stubborn defiance in the face of dark certainty is a victory, and an important part of the record agency

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 11:03 pm 
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I feel like Vitalogy may end in the bleakest spot of any of their records. I wouldn't deny there's a fighting spirit at the beginning, but by the time Stupid Mop sputters out, it seems like there's nothing left of it. It was kind of shocking when I listened to the album straight through most recently; in isolation the songs sound more hopeful then tracing it from start to end.


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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Thu December 26, 2013 11:19 pm 
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Though we generally cringe at "Grunge", with Vitalogy, In Utero, Superunknown and AiC's general sound by 1994, I think you could argue that Grunge could be considered its own subgenre by that time.

Nirvana got sludgier, PJ got punkier and Soundgarden and Alice moved away from the metal. Originally coming from different backgrounds, they all seemed to move toward each other to some degree by 1994. I wonder how conscious it was.

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 Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Vitalogy
PostPosted: Fri December 27, 2013 1:20 am 
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BurtReynolds wrote:
Though we generally cringe at "Grunge", with Vitalogy, In Utero, Superunknown and AiC's general sound by 1994, I think you could argue that Grunge could be considered its own subgenre by that time.

Nirvana got sludgier, PJ got punkier and Soundgarden and Alice moved away from the metal. Originally coming from different backgrounds, they all seemed to move toward each other to some degree by 1994. I wonder how conscious it was.


I don't know how conscious it was, but there certainly seemed to be a recognizable sound at thus point. The screaming trees certainly move in the same direction, and second gen bands like bush and sponge are definitely apeing a discernible style

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