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Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sat January 18, 2014 1:38 pm
AnalLog
Joined: Wed April 03, 2013 8:10 pm Posts: 1833
PryTo wrote:
Nothing As It Seems – When this was released as the first single, everyone thought it sounded like PJ trying to imitate Pink Floyd. That was my thought on it, too. And after ripping Zeppelin on the previous album, there was a sense that PJ didn’t have many original ideas. I’ve never been a big fan of this song, and it’s not doing much for me today. I don’t think it’s a Floyd ripoff, but it is perhaps an homage. The solo sounds especially David Gilmour-ian. Lyrically, it sounds like Ament was working with a rhyming dictionary. All the lyrics have the same “one” rhyme but what do they really mean, anyway? More than anything, this song lacks energy and just sounds plodding and lethargic, to me. Pass.
It's about a drug addict with a vocal range between the tenor and bass ranges who doesn't seem to be interested into getting treatment for his addiction but ultimately all he would need is home.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sat January 18, 2014 5:28 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 40080
Eddie doesn't do that well, either. It undermines unemployable a bit for me as well. There is some blue state smugness in that song that wouldn't have been there if Springsteen wrote it
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sat January 18, 2014 6:26 pm
I've been POOSSTTIiiEEnngeeaahh
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:53 pm Posts: 12085
McP's track listing is a cool idea but even assuming Of The Girl was stretched that long 65 minutes fits on one cd and on one cd I don't think that mix works. No record company is gonna release two CDs if the songs fit on one. Of course that has nothing to do with McP's concept but it's the dumb stuff I think about when laboring over the mythical perfect Binaural.
01 Breakerfall 02 God's Dice 03 Evacuation 04 Letters To The Dead 05 Rival 06 Grievance 07 Light Years 08 Of The Girl 09 Fatal 10 In The Moonlight 11 Thin Air 12 Insignificance 13 Nothing As It Seems 14 Education 15 Sleight Of Hand 16 Parting Ways (Soon Forget)
Last edited by bada on Sat January 18, 2014 7:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sat January 18, 2014 6:35 pm
Misplaced My Sponge
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 9:52 pm Posts: 6363
Soon Forget is one of the big examples, at lease for me, of Binaural's flaws. How the hell did they decide that was a better tune to keep than Sad, Education, or In The Moonlight? It's just mind boggling, and knowing all the cool songs / ideas that went down with the Binaural sessions, vs. what we actually got just make it all the more frustrating.
The album sessions and the highs from the album are Pearl Jam at their best. What we got though was a good album, rather than a masterpiece.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sat January 18, 2014 6:45 pm
AnalLog
Joined: Fri February 22, 2013 5:59 pm Posts: 1455
This albums timing came out exactly when I was in a phase of life learning to mix/produce. It's greatly impacted the way I hear music know. Knowing what the band was going for, where there are obvious flaws and where they succeeded have helped trained my hear to know certain elements of the recording process that work or just flat out down work. This is one of favorite albums of all time and I credit the band so much for going out on a limb and trying something different even if it didn't come out perfectly. It's the flaws of the album that make this more special to me in a strange way.
Greviance, while it could have been recorded differently, is a shining example of an amazing song that is almost ruined by the production (but ultimately saved by a few artistic choices).
This is the definitive PJ album for me and I can't imagine the void in my life if this didn't exist. It's Pearl Jam firing on all cylinders and probably their creative peak.
I adore this album regardless of what tracklist. The songs are so strong individually that it just flat out doesnt matter what order or what b sides are added in place of other songs.
God's Dice and Evacuation are the 2 most underrated songs in the PJ catalog. God's Dice more so than Evacuation.
_________________ You have to shave your nipples if you want to be with me.
Despite its release as a nineteen-song double album, Being There was sold at a single album price due to a deal between lead singer Jeff Tweedy and Reprise Records.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 8:28 am
Future Drummer
Joined: Mon July 08, 2013 5:47 pm Posts: 3062 Location: Louisville, KY
cutuphalfdead wrote:
I, for one, love the muted distance of the songs on Binaural. The loudness, while still feeling pushed away. There's something intense going on that you're not quite able to touch. But that fits in with the entire theme of the record. Even the artwork is trying to portray a sense of immense power separated by an incredibly vast distance. This is an album of muted rage, and that shows in not just how they wrote the songs, but how the recordings were constructed.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 1:04 pm
NEVER STOP JAMMING!
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 1:56 am Posts: 21862
bada wrote:
McP's track listing is a cool idea but even assuming Of The Girl was stretched that long 65 minutes fits on one cd
If only I'd thought to imply that you
Quote:
might need to add one or two songs to each disc, or some interlude pieces dependent upon your creative design.
Honestly, even if they'd simply developed one of the instrumentals into a song (the softer one. what's the softer one called? I liked the softer one.), offered up a solid 'Of the Girl'-level binaural mix of Strangest Tribe, and done a little work on Anything in Between (isn't that from these sessions?), and that would probably have been enough to justify it. It'd be preferable if they invested another of those oh-so-tiring two week sessions to coming up with something new (or seen what else they have unfinished from previous sessions, since that paid off gangbusters this time around), but goddamn do I love me some Strangest Tribe.
Then again, Cold Roses is another record that fits on a single disc but was marketed as a double, so...
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 1:08 pm
NEVER STOP JAMMING!
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 1:56 am Posts: 21862
hlniv wrote:
cutuphalfdead wrote:
I, for one, love the muted distance of the songs on Binaural. The loudness, while still feeling pushed away. There's something intense going on that you're not quite able to touch. But that fits in with the entire theme of the record. Even the artwork is trying to portray a sense of immense power separated by an incredibly vast distance. This is an album of muted rage, and that shows in not just how they wrote the songs, but how the recordings were constructed.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 4:52 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 40080
McParadigm wrote:
hlniv wrote:
cutuphalfdead wrote:
I, for one, love the muted distance of the songs on Binaural. The loudness, while still feeling pushed away. There's something intense going on that you're not quite able to touch. But that fits in with the entire theme of the record. Even the artwork is trying to portray a sense of immense power separated by an incredibly vast distance. This is an album of muted rage, and that shows in not just how they wrote the songs, but how the recordings were constructed.
exactly
I missed this. Fantastic.
it's an excellent description of what they're trying to do on this album. I just think they're not consistently successful, and since it's such a mood piece the missteps are more constly than on other records.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 6:33 pm
Future Drummer
Joined: Mon July 08, 2013 5:47 pm Posts: 3062 Location: Louisville, KY
stip wrote:
McParadigm wrote:
hlniv wrote:
cutuphalfdead wrote:
I, for one, love the muted distance of the songs on Binaural. The loudness, while still feeling pushed away. There's something intense going on that you're not quite able to touch. But that fits in with the entire theme of the record. Even the artwork is trying to portray a sense of immense power separated by an incredibly vast distance. This is an album of muted rage, and that shows in not just how they wrote the songs, but how the recordings were constructed.
exactly
I missed this. Fantastic.
it's an excellent description of what they're trying to do on this album. I just think they're not consistently successful, and since it's such a mood piece the missteps are more constly than on other records.
Interesting that you give them a pass for the recording and production missteps on S/T but are holding to such a high standard on Binaural. I get that by naming the album as such and obviously relying on a specific technique means more attention to this aspect of an album, but still, come on. I'll take the imperfections of the Binaural recording over muddy yet empty pieces like Life Wasted, WWS, Gone, and Inside Job any day.
Post subject: Re: Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Binaural
Posted: Sun January 19, 2014 9:08 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 40080
S/T is trying to be a record of loud, agressive, forceful songs. There are production missteps that hold back quite a few of those songs, but they're less costly given what the album is trying to do. I'll judge an album based on what I think about the general songwriting, and for whether or not it pulls off what it is trying to accomplish (and of course whether or not I enjoy it).
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