it has that icky "'80's hangover" sound that was so prevalent in early '90's mainstream rock

it was, and it is really good. But for whatever reason I just can't bring myself to care about it anymore. I do occasionally get reminders about why I did, however.

some of those slightly off-color arpeggios of Stone's that count among the most musically engaging features of early Pearl Jam (think "Garden" or "Release")

That's the word I was looking for. "Mainstream".

That mainstream 90s sound didn't really come about until after this was already released. I'm not saying there's anything cutting edge here, but its fair to consider who was creating this sound that eventually became loathsome.

That mainstream 90s sound didn't really come about until after this was already released. I'm not saying there's anything cutting edge here, but its fair to consider who was creating this sound that eventually became loathsome.

Maybe I misspoke--I don't think it sounds like mainstream '90's rock; I think it sounds like mainstream '80's rock. I think there was a weird period of transition in the early '90's where a lot of records still possessed, in varying degrees, pungent remnants of that signature '80's production approach, despite the fact that the music was veering further and further into a realm where that production approach was no longer appropriate (not that it was ever really something to celebrate, mind you, but it did fit with the bombastic excess of the decade).

I think Ten contained all of this, and Vs. was the album in which they began to shed it, in order to then make Vitalogy.

I don't know man, it sounded dated already when it came out. Somehow.

I'm not really sure what 'strangled' means in the context, but overproduced and overly metallic? Yes. But I loved that then. Now I'm not a huge fan, but I still love it for nostalgic reasons. Problem is, although the new Ten Redux made the guitars and everything else a bit closer to the sound of their more current live sound, I don't really like their current live sound much either. So it was interesting to see how that album might sound now, but that's it. I think I only listened to it twice. It strikes me that the songs on Vs. are not vastly different to the songs on Ten. It's just the production that's different really. Vitalogy was almost the album that began to redesign their sound significantly. It was almost the perfect set up for No Code.

Well you see Vitalogy was a low point for me. I love Vs and Yield, everything else is below these two.

Well you see Vitalogy was a low point for me. I love Vs and Yield, everything else is below these two.