Keeping in mind that, for this band, 10 years just means a few more tours and maayyyyyyybe a slopped out record....I'm thinking that for me the journey ended some time ago.

Not if it was done properly. If they picked 10 large amphitheaters around the country, did back-to-back nights at venues where there is demand, and then played essentially the same set at all the shows, it would be great. The band could perform a well-rehearsed set, and fans wouldn't feel like they have to go to multiple shows to chase songs like Fatal and Otherside if they were just part of the set.

I just want to hear Tremor Christ & Who You Are live

This and this. While L-bolt hasn't worn as well for me as I would have hoped (as opposed to Backspacer, which I still love), I still maintain that almost all the songs on that album are fundamentally strong, and with a few different choices here and there that album reaches its potential.

no more touring and concentrate on releasing new music.

1) People still care about Dave A? Fuck that
2) Meh
3) Yes
4) YES
5) yes

I like pearl jam. Im fine with mediocre albums at this point but i sure would love it if they gave me something i could be proud of.

Strat, does the line "When the gas in my tank / Feels like money in the bank" take on a deeper meaning for you now?

I get 27 miles to the gallon in my patriot and with gas prices what they are these days......Im feeling pretty good about everything

less expeirmental bs, more punchy 2 min punk rockers

Man. I'm lucky if I squeeze 20mpg on a tank these days in my POS

The thing is they've done elaborate, full and slick even (Yield) in the past and yet it worked. They've even done all that with BOB on top of it.
I think from Vs. to Riot Act what prevailed, when they were composing the arrangements, is what were the best choices that worked for every individual song. If that meant some of them had to take the back seat on individual songs, they did. Now the priority seem to be for each of them to have as prominent of a part to play in each song as the song can handle. Sometimes the songs sound as if each of the guys works on their part in a vacuum and those parts then get combined together without even thinking if the resulting composition sounds good or not. It's also how they talk about the process. It seems much more important that they're all (BOB included) happy to be able to do whatever they want, the music itself just doesn't really matter that much. The songs themselves are a mere vehicle for them to do their things.

Pearl Jam is a weird band. The colour each of them contributes to the sound of the band is distinctive and essential in making the band what it is. This is even true on Vitalogy and No Code which according to them were composed pretty much by Ed telling them what to play.
Yet when no one is limiting them the results are underwhelming. They all learned how to write a song, they know how to write what they want to play in a song. What most of them lack is the good taste of understanding how those parts work together. A lot of their best songs are composed of parts that are dull in isolation but they work really well combined. This is something they were actually good at. The cock viagra rock approach they are so fond of on the other hand has been ruining ok songs since 2006.
What i think would work wonders for them is hiring the biggest ass hole of a producer they can possibly find who doesn't give a shit about what they think and force them to write arrangements that actually sound good.

I actually agree with this. The songs at their core aren't significantly better or worse than they've always been.
The "sound" changed much more than the songs did.

everything is just so thin sounding. it's like you're listening to the album through a keyhole.

I'd like to see them stop touring with Boom, he ruins every song for me. NO MORE ORGAN!!

They're definitely worse.

What about them is?

Where do I begin?

You really think the songs on Backspacer or Lightning Bolt are, production aside, just as good as those on Vitalogy or No Code or even Binaural?

No and i made a post about it in this thread.
I asked because when it comes to discussing this in detail people tend to have very different things in mind. It literally goes from guitar tones to lyrics to completely subjective things like not being more like whatever other music someone likes better.

What i meant with the statement you quoted is, that i think that they could take those same songs and re-arange them in a way that makes them sound like they come from the same band that did the records from Vitalogy to Riot Act, and at the very list the fans would be more forgiving towards them.

At the fear of getting sucked into an endless back-and-forth on this, I'll make my response brief: of course the reasons people provide are subjective, everyone's appreciation or lack thereof for Pearl Jam is subjective.

And saying that songs from Backspacer or Lightning Bolt would be better received were they performed or produced like the band's earlier material is a somewhat different argument than you made earlier (and a pointless impossibility, in any case).