Binaural was the third album in a row (at the time) I worked to convince myself that I loved more than I did. It was a hostile review but I remember someone describing it as the sound of pearl jam running their sound into a brick wall, and that always struck a chord with me (that and a yield review that observed no band had ever been chained by expectations to their first album as much as pearl jam have been the two review comments that lingered with me the most.

Atmosphere is there in spades and it works great for me in about half the atmospheric numbers. but there is a leaden quality to many of the performances that are not what I personally want from the band. It impacts the fast numbers in particular, where even greay songs like grievance feel stuck in gear.

Rival and NAIS remain catalog highlights. I wish i loved insignificance more - I appreciate yhe tremendous craft and get what it wants to do, but i always feel like listening to insignificance is like listening to the world’s greatest rock song wrapped in heavy blackout curtains. its an intellectual experience more than the visceral one it wants to be. parting ways has a lovely sadness to it and the grievance studio v live differences are we’ll documented. but thats the sum total of my destination listening. i usually wont turn off breakerfall and increasingly Ill enjoy thin air. the rest of the album is just there for me.


Ive been listening through the records pretty regularly recently and binaural has landed pretty firmly at the bottom for me. No code and riot act are elevated as full listening experiences and have moments of joy, hope, and fire that mostly feel absent from binaural for me

all this is relative to the rest of the catalog. i still like this album

you’re damn right I do! Its a complete demo. a legit choice

That's a great explanation of what makes this record so compelling.

its a choice, and i like it as a moment in a diverse catalog, but it isnt playing to what i want out of their music. i get how it is for some, though

We’ve spent the better part of 20 years making the perfect album from all this great material. It’s like a puzzle without a final image. Perhaps this is the impetus behind Puzzles and Games after all - because it’ll take Light Years to solve.

What do you think about Kid A by Radiohead?

I really admire your skill in interpreting certain songs and albums, and that is why it has always surprised me how you never discovered the sonic journey that is Binaural, where Eddie's words hardly matter, that's the visceral aspect of the album, which is pure emotion, sometimes like an open wound and sometimes really hidden, under layers. It's the closest PJ has to a concept album.

Kid A is where I almost got off the Radiohead train. It wasn't for me. Still isn't.

I mean there's no way to say for sure, but I think I understand, and maybe even intellectually appreciate, what Binaural is trying to do. I don't think that I'm missing the point. It's an interesting record, especially as a direct response to Yield and a predictor of Riot Act. it's actually one of my favorite periods of the band to write and talk about in terms of what's going on and what it represents within the arc of pearl jam. I'm just not moved or engaged by it as much as I am with other choices they make.

It was just a comment to this. I guess it could be included here.

I am limiting myself to what’s on Spotify. For no other reason than convenience over completeness.

That’s a bonus on Apple Music, can add your downloaded music to lists you’ve made.

I use YouTube music and the big thing it has over other music services is the ability to add YouTube videos to your music playlists. It opens up tons of live and rare music.

I'm surprised they don't advertise that feature more. It's a real game changer.

True. I’ve got YouTube Music as well.

It's a wonderful feeling when your listening experience matches up with another fan and that fan has a gift for writing.

Concluded this focus with the Seattle 11/6/00 show. It really was such a culmination of the album and tour cycle. Good on them that they had such an amazing show to cap it all, especially after all the struggle, heartbreak, and redemption they experienced that year.

Absolutely, this and other shows from that year seem very important to the band's story, beyond the show itself.

It'll never happen, but I think there's a big missed opportunity to write a book or make a documentary on the band's 1994-2000 period. It's one of the most fascinating periods for a major rock band operating on their level that I can think of, even beyond what you think of the actual music. Starting with Cobain's suicide, going through the change in drummers, the shift in band dynamics between Vs. through Yield, the Ticketmaster situation, the doomed 1995 tour, going up through the Last Kiss phenomenon, Binaural, the Roskslide tragedy and ending right before Election Day 2000 with the Seattle gigs. It's a really compelling, dramatic story that does have a strong arc built into it.

Stuff like the Crowe documentary and books on the band lean on the 91-92 period because it's maybe the height of their popularity, but it's also because there's so much in terms of interviews, footage of the band, etc. For something digging into 94-2000, you'd probably need the band to take part, which I doubt they'd ever do.

Light years is a measure of distance, not time.

hell yeah, I'd watch that.

I remember reading an article, maybe Rolling Stone, where Nancy Wilson came up to Ed after that show, gave him a hug and said something to the effect of, "You just put on the best rock show in history" and Ed started crying and said, "I know".

I would love that so much. Maybe even expand it to 2003/2004 when their Sony contract expired.

yeah, i agree. They went trough to much really.

Those Seattle shows are magical.