Red Mosquito • View topic - What is Each Album's Major Flaw?: Vitalogy

bada · **Joined:** Tue January 01, 2013 5:53 pm **Posts:** 12081

McParadigm wrote:

Yeah, that's the winner post, easy.

My cd shelf didn't have high enough shelves for this record to go in with the others, unless I leaned it about 45 degrees. It was a nightmare.

A fucking nightmare.

I cut mine up so it would fit. Probably the dumbest thing I've ever done.

Bammer · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 5:08 am

Good call on the size of the jacket. That started a trend of weird PJ packaging that I've never been a fan of.

This was the first CD that I got on release day and have continued to do so ever since which has lost some of the fun of the experience with so few record stores around anymore and fan club pre-order.

Anyway - this album does have two flaws. With the few weird tracks you really only get 10 normal songs on this one. I would have liked another song or two, and the other flaw would be the lack of solos by Mike. Maybe solos didn't fit in a lot of the songs and that is fine, but to me there's nothing like a McCready solo and they are usually the highlight of a PJ show for me.

stip · **Joined:** Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm **Posts:** 39449

I just put the case in on its side, which bothered me, but desperate times...

I remember the first time I had a CD tower that was designed like shelves rather than the preslotted CD spaces. I could store my double CD cases (fucking Mellon Collie and live Metallica bootlegs) and Vitalogy. It felt like a brave new world.

hlniv · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 2:28 pm

In the LAL Vitalogy thread, I said that Vitalogy ended with Immortality. I still think this. Stupid Foxy mophandlemama doesn't exist for me. Never has.

So, I don't see it as a flaw in the album, because I've cut it out of my brain.

The major flaw in the album is how out of place Betterman is. And that is really reaching for a flaw. I think it's about the perfect album once you accept that it ends with Immortality. Stupid Foxy mop is like an Ed-gasm spewed on the back cover and shouldn't count.

I think Pry,to is a nice transition into Corduroy, and Bugs is quirky enough to like. And Aya Davanita is the most enjoyable of the three.

VinylGuy · **Joined:** Tue January 01, 2013 5:10 pm **Posts:** 36059

i not a big fan of vitalogy, although every time i listen to it i realize how important it is.

Im sad there is not more music from this moment of the band.

mac · **Joined:** Wed April 23, 2014 11:56 am **Posts:** 25

I would say the tracklisting can make the album feel a bit disjointed in the second half, which is a shame. Still one of the best one two punches to open an album ever.

VinylGuy · **Joined:** Tue January 01, 2013 5:10 pm **Posts:** 36059

mac wrote:

I would say the tracklisting can make the album feel a bit disjointed in the second half, which is a shame. Still one of the best one two punches to open an album ever.

Yeah, the first half is amazing. Corduroy is such a great song.

mray10 · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 3:54 pm **Posts:** 414

Kevin Davis wrote:

stip wrote:

What is Stupid Mop adding to that? Especially by adding in a new character and clothing them in faux shocking statements that are trying way too hard to provoke. It's a pretty heavy handed postscript to what was a very graceful conclusion.

The thing is, I can understand wanting to end the album on something other than ''Immortality,'' which almost feels a little too perfectly ''final''; if ''Immortality'' is ''some die just to live,'' I like the idea of following that up with a seven minute drone to symbolize the dying (or the living?), or to at least give the listener some space to ponder whatever he or she wants. It's all down to that stupid voice-over, which just makes it feel like a hamfisted collegiate art piece. I never listen to it and agree that it's the worst thing about Vitalogy.

I agree, as well.

Also, I think I could be on board with it much more if it were a hidden track, as Stip suggested. You never totally get over that first listen through the record when you know there's one more song coming ... and then it's Stupid Mop. But as a weird sonic moment "hidden" at the end, I'd have no problem.

mray10 · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 3:54 pm **Posts:** 414

Kaius wrote:

stip wrote:

Kaius wrote:

Bugs is annoying sometimes.

Sometimes, but sometimes it is wonderful, and I always think it is pretty clever

Pretty much.

I sometimes skip it after a few seconds if I'm not feeling it, and that's the biggest flaw I can find with Vitalogy.

Yeah, I kind of like Bugs and Aye Davanita. Pry To I just sort of consider the side change music and ignore. Outside the album or in the wrong context, Bugs can be pretty annoying, though.

mray10 · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 3:54 pm **Posts:** 414

stip wrote:

Betterman is a great song, and the fact that you can make a serious case for either Nothingman OR Betterman being the worst song on this album just goes to show how great it is.

I wouldn't put Nothingman at the bottom, but it is the song that has fallen the furthest in my appreciation

I would make the case for Spin the Black Circle being the weakest song on the album. Which is also pretty complimentary, overall.

Thejambi · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 4:15 pm

I despise Ed's vocals during the verses of Nothingman. So much so that i'ts the only song I skip on Vitalogy.

Brett · **Joined:** Mon January 07, 2013 5:30 pm **Posts:** 1581

Again, I'm having a difficult time finding what I would consider a "major flaw" for this record. I like the interludes, "Bugs" doesn't play to Eddie's strengths, really, but it gets points for trying, and "Stupid Mop," while weak, is hardly the unlistenable garbage that most seem to peg it as.

I'm weary of "Betterman," so there's that, but, again, it's a good song. A friend of mine credits it, and Brendan O'Brien with elevating the album from being a collection of half-formed jams and sound art. I don't really agree with that sentiment, but I can see those terms being apt for a fair amount of the record's playing time. I guess I just find that to be endearing, and a part of the album's strength and charm.

Jorge · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 4:40 pm

I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.

Heathen · **Joined:** Wed January 30, 2013 4:30 pm **Posts:** 3988

theplatypus wrote:

I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.

For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.

bodysnatcher · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 5:29 pm

This album had 3 drummers!

Kevin Davis · **Joined:** Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm **Posts:** 8524

Heathen wrote:

theplatypus wrote:

I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.

For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.

I would still say he's right, though--it's not an apt descriptor for the album as a whole, only for a few deliberately offbeat tracks that seem to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the album's reputation.

Heathen · **Joined:** Wed January 30, 2013 4:30 pm **Posts:** 3988

Kevin Davis wrote:

Heathen wrote:

theplatypus wrote:

I think the "weirdness" of Vitalogy is somewhat overstated.

For all the talk of how the band was trying too hard to sound weird on the middle period albums, I think Vitalogy is the weirdest this band ever got. There hasn't been anything as "out there" as Stupid Mop since.

I would still say he's right, though--it's not an apt descriptor for the album as a whole, only for a few deliberately offbeat tracks that seem to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the album's reputation.

Oh, sure. It's more a comment on how little sense it makes when people who have Vitalogy as one of their all-time favorite albums see the middle period albums as too experimental/difficult.

Jorge · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 6:00 pm

bodysnatcher wrote:

This album had 3 drummers!

very avant garde

surfndestroy · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 2:21 am **Posts:** 2870

Bugs and Aya Davanita are too long. At nearly three minutes each the aren't musical interludes but full length songs. As full length songs they are both out of place on this record and just not that good.

Not For You is a minute and a half to two minutes too long. There's just not enough musical ideas to warrant a six minute song.

Betterman belonged as the closer on Vs. and a toughed up Hard To Imagine should have taken its place on Vitalogy.

Jorge · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2014 7:37 pm

Aye Davanita is not long enough.

What is Each Album's Major Flaw?: Vitalogy

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