Hail Hail! This is the Pearl Jam Albums Poll

http://sleevage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/nocode_-_triangle.jpg

(i haven't heard anything past yield though. i think i bought binaural but honestly can't name a song from it.)

No Code in 2009, Vs. back in the day.

No Code or Yield.

The only one I'm really rooting against here is Ten, though. Not because it's the big popular one, but because of Ament's extensive use of the fretless electric bass.

fretless electric 12 string bass at that... god, what a douche.

It's just the worst sounding amplified instrument in the world. A rock n' roll killer.

haha ten is my favourite by some way actually. vitalogy has some great tracks, but also about six tracks of filth.

fuck, such a difficult one - each album is so different in vibe and texture to the last. mind you, i'm one of the many who gave up after yield (don't know what the reason for this exodus was, as it was a great album).

NO CODE. but fuck it they're all good.

great to see all the support for the album i started my most bonkers ILM thread about: Pearl Jam - No Code

I think I'm gonna go with Vitalogy though

I've never noticed that triangle/eye pattern in No Code before!

I voted for Yield, but Backspacer is rapidly catching up.

i voted for yield too. i could've voted for any of them, but i think yield is the one i'd probably wanna listen to right now. i'd be interested in hearin g backspacer.

Vitalogy. Not as consistent as Yield, but its highlights are the best songs they ever did, like Corduroy.

Vitalogy and Yield are both inconsistent albums with some of their best stuff ever imo, but the former has funny weird loud interesting filler where the latter has bland wishy washy filler

I relistened to "Faithful" a few days ago and remembered what a great sleeper it was.

that's one of those songs that now and then sounds great but usually bores me. "MFC" and "In Hiding" are incredible, though.

No love for Vs.? Was my favourite album back in 93/94. Mind you it hasn't aged that well.

Half of Vs. is great. Daughter, Elderly Woman, Dissident, etc. But the other half, not so much.

I heard "Go" in my friend's car. Boy, talk about awful drum sound.

Since the reissue, I have to vote for 'Ten'. Once they scraped off all those awful effects in the remix, it was a whole new album for me. I could actually picture them all standing in a room playing the music. There's so much energy in that first album...I love what they became with Yield and No Code, where they really honed their songcraft...but the sheer force of opening with 'Once' has to make Ten my pick. But DAMN Backspacers is great.

It's fun hearing Ten without all that Parashar reverb, but it wasn't nearly as enjoyable or illuminating as I'd hoped.

'go' alone makes vs. my choice here.

Vs. has a lot of really great songs, but seems forgotten by time somehow. I'm glad "Rearview Mirror" is still something of a live staple, though.

Yeah RVM is like the sole reason I don't totally dismiss that album as totally just singles'n'fluff.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Going for Yield.

to my ears yield is irredeemably bland and blithe, suffering from uninspiring songwriting, indifferent performances and lacklustre energy levels. i'll never knowingly listen to it again.

After 15 years, I'm giving up trying to like Eddie Vedder's voice. its a shame bacause I think i'd like Pearl Jam otherwise.

Vitalogy is my personal fave even though No Code is probably the best but I think vitalogy needs a vote , but really the 1st 5 are unfuckwithable.

When Yield came out, I knew it would be the last Pearl Jam record I would take any time over. It was a very AOR-styled album on the surface, and yet I voted for it in this poll because despite the superficial blandness it's still crammed with really good tracks, is concentrated as an album statement and yet still manages to get certain experimental bits like "I'm Open" and the bizarre Greek wedding secret track just right. Vitalogy, I've always had a lot of time for - particularly for things like "Pry, To", "Hey Foxymophandlemamatthat's me", ballads like "Better Man" (an amazing track). Still Vitalogy is inconsistent because it juxtaposes rock experimentalism (something they'd work on further with No Code) with hoary old rock tracks that take up 50% of the album and just do their job. The whole thing is uneasy and doesn't sit well. Something that does sit better is "Vs", but as mentioned upthread is the fact that the songs have aged badly. "Ten" is classic rock through'n'through, but I didn't even know there was a remaster, so I'm eager to hear it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i thought no code or ten would win

Anyone read this?

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9825387/pearl-jam-career-overrated-underrated-properly-rated

hmmm

i think i really dislike steven hyden

After 15 years, I'm giving up trying to like Eddie Vedder's voice. its a shame bacause I think i'd like Pearl Jam otherwise.

― tomofthenest, Thursday, 1 October 2009 12:21 (4 years ago) Permalink

After 15 years, I'm giving up trying to like Pearl Jam. its a shame bacause I think i'd like Eddie Vedder otherwise.

(The Eddie Vedder/Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song "The Long Road" from the Dead Man Walking soundtrack is my favorite thing he's ever done. Melancholy perfection.)

that article got really tiresome to read really quickly

grantland's simmonsian obsession with classifying everything is so zzzz to me

That article spends a lot of words to say very little of actual value.

I don't disagree with most of its assertions, except the Ten love.

He's right about Jack Irons, but relistening to Yield this morning, it's a lot patchier than I remember it, and 'flow' is most certainly not its thing.

Also, poor old Jeff and all of his hats.

I love Jeff's hats

I mean if you're going to go 'poor Jeff and his hats' then you may as well go 'poor Stone and his wtf hair'

it's more that, for years, I used to read ppl joking abt how jeff has to always be wearing hats bcz lol male pattern baldness, and then he stopped wearing hats for a bit and it was like woah you have hair

the whole band is pretty follicly blessed for a bunch of guys hovering around 50

jeff wore hats bcz lol seattle

They were terrific last night!

jealous! waiting for west coast tour dates to announce, dying to see them again

they're closer to my whereabouts tomorrow, and I'm very tempted. I'm just sad that the person I saw them with 15 years ago (when I wasn't even old enough to drink) is unavailable.

I registered to vote at that Pearl Jam show too.

I'm thinking of going, but being a weeknight and knowing they'll play 3 hours is almost making it a dealbreaker :/.

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.

Been making my way through the Pearl Jam discography recently. I haven't paid them much attention post-Vitalogy and for whatever reason have decided that now I'm going to explore the rest of it.

Anyway, I just remembered a joke that I made when Yield came out. Upon flipping the CD over and seeing Brain of J as the first track, I asked, What - like Primus Drummer of White Zombie Guitarist?

Thank you and sorry.

Side two of Vitalogy is so much fun. I forgot how great Aye Davanita is.

If a compilation existed of all their attempts to be an art rock band I would buy it.

Compile it here!

I'll need someone else to as I'm only just reacquainting myself with this stuff. But I recently relistened to No Code after many years and it's got me in the mood. I recall Binaural and Riot Act exhibiting this side of the band now and then too.

You two have been busy this morning.

FWIW, I kind of prefer the remixes and remakes of the Ten songs. The 'Redux' mixes are generally better, but the single version of "Even Flow" (a re-recording with Dave Abbruzzese on drums) is definitive IMHO and the single mix for "Jeremy" is the best one they did (even though they do censor out the word "fuck").