Hail Hail! This is the Pearl Jam Albums Poll

my favorite pearl jam song is "sad," which, wow, i'm still extremely mad that it's a b-side

thats a goodun

I love "Brain of J", the verse riff is one that's weirdly aggro and almost heavy metally for PJ. great chorus too.

PJ never had a lot of Zep worship, Hendrix, Neil Young, etc, were more their thing, but Yield has some songs that dialed-up the Zep a bit more. a little overboard in "Given to Fly" which is basically just the verse of "Going to California"

yeah Jack Irons era brings out some Zep vibes

We got "Glorified G" tonight!

so glad this thread has stayed high

I've listened to nothing but PJ for the past two days because of this thread. Stoked for the eventual trax poll!

My #1 is "I Got Id" but seeing how only Ed and Jack play on it I may put "Corduroy" up top

those are both good candidates

I found Lightning Bolt to be a disappointment (barring the opening tracks) after really liking the previous two

'Brain of J' is an example of an excellent hard'n'fast PJ song. For the most part I don't think they sound beefy enough to pull that sound off, but that and 'Lukin' are great.

In Berlin for the gig on Thursday and I’m excited like a kid at Xmas.. actually my first time in the city and I’m normally diving into the history books pre trip but all I’ve been doing is listening to their discography- from 1991-2006 not a dud I reckon. Last time I saw them was in Trieste a few years ago and they blew me away with a personal top 5 concert -.

sorry man, i know my context is just vastly different but i have to register that i'm just legitimately blown the fuck away that someone can be in berlin or trieste and be "excited like a kid at xmas" by a pearl jam concert in 2018.

i am right there with fionnland in spirit, i would be the same way!

I would be excited, too. I am kicking myself that I was too swamped with work to make their London gigs a few weeks back.

They played here in Krakow last night. I would have gone but I have a newborn. (Not that I blame him...)

caught the 2 recent London shows.... there's really no other mainstream rock band i can think of who can play to crowds of 20,000 most nights worldwide, and still have maybe 50% of people
know every song and for a ton of them nearly every word. it really is a pretty amazing atmosphere seeing them for that reason alone... seeing them last night and how the fuck do the vast majority of fans around me know "the words" to yellow ledbetter in 2018? it's a pretty weird thing.

anyway the show was a rare reschedule due to Eddie having voice issues last month, so they played a pretty hefty 3 hour set that ran 18 minutes over curfew (going on past events at the venue it may cost them about around £180k in fines - thanks guys) and had a ton of fan requests:

Oceans
Nothing as It Seems
Go
Corduroy
Save You
Do the Evolution
Given to Fly
In Hiding
I Am Mine
Green Disease
Even Flow
Daughter (with Dead Moon's "It's Okay" tag)
You Are
Satan's Bed
Can't Deny Me
Mankind
Whipping
Lukin
Rearviewmirror
I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover)
Fatal
Around the Bend
Jeremy
Mind Your Manners
Breath
Crazy Mary(Victoria Williams cover)
Porch
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
Wasted Reprise
Alive
Baba O'Riley (The Who cover)
Yellow Ledbetter
All Along the Watchtower

(that run from Satan's Bed to RVM - woah)

so the 1st london show only had a 9 song overlap with last night.... the first night also had

Of the Girl
Low Light
Animal
Brain of J.
Wishlist
Deep
Severed Hand
Love Boat Captain
Down
Parting Ways
Off He Goes
Sleeping by Myself
Footsteps
Why Go
Better Man
Last Kiss
Black
Rockin' in the Free World

THESE SETLISTS ARE HOT.

argh I forgot they were playing and missed those shows so sick about it

That's an insane London 2 setlist.

Had my second best Pearl Jam gig in Berlin the other week - Waldbühne is such a great venue, lovely sunny day, some fun people in the line waiting and an ace set:

Wash
Sometimes
Corduroy
Why Go
Save You
Given To Fly
Red Mosquito (w/ Danny Clinch)
In My Tree
Even Flow
Wishlist
Habit
Angie (Rolling Stones cover)
Daughter (with Dead Moon's "It's Okay" tag)
Deep
Mind Your Manners
Unthought Known
Lukin
Porch

Encore:

Thin Air
Thumbing My Way
Breath
Do The Evolution
Black (with Todd Rundgren's "Time Heals" tag)
Rearviewmirror

Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)
Alive
Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young Cover, w/ J. Mascis)

The crowd was absolutely wild too, found myself happily enough in a proper pit (Eddie gave us a 5 star review in that regard). Well worth the bruises for the next week. Berlin was p much my favourite city I've visited too.

Pretty much the only band that can pull off these classic rock warhorse covers.

They're good people.

What about Vs.?

Oh I see, sorry — these are just your faves.

on a whim, listened to Yield and Binaural today while grinding through some copy-editing, possibly the first time i've given either a front-to-back listen in twenty years. unfortunately i have nothing new to say: Yield has some great singles and an overall sense of punchy focus, but the back bench of songs isn't their best, while Binaural has some great moody jams but a little too much crunchy mid-tempo rock and even less inspiration in the songwriting. "Nothing As It Seems" still stands out but otherwise i can barely remember what i just listened to.

wow agreed on both counts

love "low light" and "in hiding" iirc though

i may be alone in this but i saw riot act as a return to form at the time and looking at the tracklisting now: dang these songs are for the most part pretty good

don't really get how Vitalogy won this by so much. Definitely a 50/50 album for me. LOVE the ballads and the experimental jiggery-pokery. Happy to leave the clumpy, razor-throated rockers

you would ditch "corduroy"??????

lol Brad i legit thought of you when i was like "if i made a Yield poll, who on ILM in 2020 would definitely show up?"

plenty of songs i dig on that album tbh, even if some of them are just from excessive high-school listening that's burned them into my brain. it's just somehow less than the sum of its parts? or maybe just missing one more big centerpiece song that makes it all feel, idk, important or something. what "Corduroy" and "Better Man" do for Vitalogy in my ears.

yield has always felt to me like a less successful version of no code, but even that is pretty badass

you would ditch "corduroy"??????

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, December 7, 2020 5:37 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't lump Corduroy in with things like 'Spin The Black Circle' or 'Satan's Bed'. That's a good melodic rocker

i love "satan's bed" and "whipping" and it was v surprising for me to learn that ppl do not like them

"spin" is a little too obviously great imo lol

Yield is great! Feels slightly more mature and focused than No Code to me.

I just don't love Vedder's hoarse shouty voice that much (I like Lukin and Brain of J though). Or maybe it's the stiff, ploddy straighahead drums on those Vitalogy rockers... I dunno

re: Yield: i hear the No Codeyness in the guitar tone and the maybe looser, less radio-focused production, but i feel like that's an overall journey they were on from at least Vitalogy to Binaural. Yield feels distinct to me as kinda brighter and cleaner than No Code, but i'm not sure how much of that is me initially hearing it through the "they're back! they're rocking again! please don't give up on alt-rock radio!" marketing at the time.

off Riot Act I'd keep "Can't Keep", "Save You", "Ghost" and "Green Disease". "I Am Mine" is dopey but nice. That's about it.

Whereas the s/t is almost front to back winners

as is Backspacer tbh

ppl still underrating "cropduster" and "you are" i see

"green disease" is so totally amazing it may cause me to overrate the whole project lol

"bu$hleaguer" is pretty embarrassing though i'll cop to that. need to revisit the s/t and backspacer which i remember as very tight records

i've always loved "The Fixer," i should probably dig into whichever album that's from.

backspacer! "the fixer" is like my favorite pj single ever lol

my favorite pearl jam song is "sad," which, wow, i'm still extremely mad that it's a b-side

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, April 13, 2016 10:28 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol this thought just popped into my head, glad i searched the thread before repeating it. the insult of "sad" being a b-side is worse when i remember it was recorded during the binaural sessions (iirc?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjXU8BmVVm0

fuck, this is still the best. those fucking drums!!!!

I've become partial to the new "Comes Then Goes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke3Vpv7fFKs

"Green Disease" is great, imo one of the highlights of their later work is that they seem to want to nab some of the sprightliness and economy of some of their opening acts (eg sleater-kinney, dismemberment plan, supergrass, idlewild)

Ha, the one time I saw Pearl Jam was because Idlewild was opening. Stadium show at U of MT, seats behind the stage... not ideal.

'Corduroy'is the only song I can think of that sounds like Miracle Legion AND the Foo Fighters.
It's not at all a stretch to imagine Mark Mulcahy singing it/not at all a stretch to imagine Dave Grohl writing that riff.

Haha, when I caught Pearl Jam the first time they were my favourite band, Idlewild were supporting and they were my second favourite band. My Dad will forever be my hero for not only letting me skip two days of school but driving me 8 hours each way to see them as he realised how important it was for me.

And 'Cropduster' and 'You Are' get plenty of my love, Brad. Matt Cameron needs to write more damn songs.