What do you think?
Tremor Christ #1?

Sad (FKA: Letter to the Dead)

The Fixer

Honestly, Release. It’s such a raw and unfiltered expression of parental loss that a craftier songwriter could never have delivered it. Post-fame Ed couldn’t, either…in fact, after watching him squirm and normalize his history during the Stern interview, I’m a little surprised that the song didn’t get memory holed like a Beth reference.

Beyond that, it’s tricky, because the whole purpose of early Pearl Jam is to zero in on a situational need for catharsis, and to then deliver that catharsis or come apart from the trying. So a lot of the early material is super dark and depressing, but always in the service of a climactic, uh, release.

Some of the Riot Act era stuff is like a mutation…darkness without hope…but it’s always marred by a professionalism to the songwriting and by the intimacy filter that post-success Ed put on to protect himself. Nothing there is as simply, directly honest as “I’ll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me. I hold the pain. Release me.”

Lyrically/thematically speaking, my vote for the darkest songs would be either:

Once
Do The Evolution
Insignificance
Rival
Dead Man

If we're talking music/vibe, it's got to be NAIS.

Hard to Imagine

around the bend

Thumbing my Way

Nothing As It Seems

excellent post, which is why I wouldnt nominate something from those earlier records. Release is maybe the most nakedly painful song, but there’s still that escape valve - that expectation that release will come someday.

I think the highest percentage of truly hopeless (and therefore depressing) songs are found on Binaural. Even the Riot Act aongs trudge on without fully surrendering. And so Id probably say Sleight of Hand or Parting Ways.

In different ways Yellow Moon and Do the Evolution are up there as well

I Got Shit

yeah thats a pretty hopeless song, but it does at least have catharsis - and as long as something is still worth feeling, even if it is something terrible, I feel like it isnt fully hopeless

Hey guys. Did you know that Jeremy is a true story about a kid that took a gun to school and blew his brains out in front of his classmates?

yeah but there's that sweet story about how he got to fondle some teacher's boobs with his teeth... balances out

how could I forget?

maybe because he hit you with a surprise left.

i wonder if that was like a make-a-wish thing, the fondling, before he died

Footsteps is pretty bleak

All or None

I think I'd make a slight differentiation between PJ's darkest and most depressing song, but I think they both show up on Binaural (and are tracked right next to each other). In the former, I'd pick Rival; the cavalier way in which the band approaches something so terrifying is pretty unique in their catalog. It's the closest the band comes to something like a horror movie. The most depressing for me is Sleight of Hand, with Parting Ways coming close as well.

In terms of the earlier songs, I'd agree that there's usually an uplift there that keeps them out of being considered the most depressing, but I'd probably throw Jeremy and Indifference into the mix.