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Post by Thorngrub on May 1, 2006 13:35:12 GMT -5
. . . but I have to agree, there can be NO complaints about going for the "raw & gritty" sound they ended up adapting to. Viva le Pearl jamme ~! \m/
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Post by Thorngrub on May 1, 2006 13:43:02 GMT -5
Anyone w/the actual album in their hot & sweaty hands:
NOtice the pic of the band underneath the CD -? Weird, huh. All freakin' covered in blood & gore as if they were fuckin' SAMHAIN, instead. Seemed rather "TOOLish", to me. And decidedly UN-pearl-jammish. Kinda pretentious/artsy.
What happened to the whole brown paper-baggin' it that I heard they were gunna do?
That would have been really radical.
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Post by Paul on May 1, 2006 14:02:07 GMT -5
I thought the same thing w/ the art work; very odd, and very Tool-ish....
I mean the cover is nice and tranquill/ blue/green colors, and you open it up and all hell breaks loose; very, very creepy. It's like something out of the Hellraiser movies! I'm surprised Pinhead isn't in there somewhere...
Once I get the physical album in hand today, I'll look more closely at it, and try to figure out the concept....Every PJ album art work has a theme to it; I don't always know the theme per se' but there is always a theme...
Supposedly this album was going to be a full concept album, w/ song breaks, more filler like songs, narratives, the works (hence the 25 songs recorded for it). There was even talk of it being a double album....I guess since they took 3 and 1/2 years w/ it they decided to strip it down to it's bare elements and save the rest for Lost Dogs Vol. 2....Or perhaps another album in 2007.
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Post by Galactus on May 1, 2006 16:15:04 GMT -5
Yeah the artwork is all horror flick, it's wierd. I can see how some of the songs could fit into a story...I wonder if they'll release the rest of it?
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Post by Galactus on May 1, 2006 16:15:59 GMT -5
I've listened to it three times today too. A fantastic album.
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Post by sisyphus on May 1, 2006 16:41:20 GMT -5
i'm excited for THIS show.
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 8:21:55 GMT -5
i'm excited for THIS show. What show are you going to? 28 Days and counting till DC.... |
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Post by riley on May 2, 2006 8:30:58 GMT -5
Just bought the new disc along with the new TOOL. Probably won't get to it until tomorrow, since TOOL takes precadent, but I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing about this PJ release.
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 8:38:32 GMT -5
Just bought the new disc along with the new TOOL. Probably won't get to it until tomorrow, since TOOL takes precadent, but I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing about this PJ release. Nice, look forward to your thoughts. I think I have a Tool mix on the way; look forward to dissecting it... I played the disc for a friend of mine who isn't big on Pearl Jam (most of my friends here are luke warm when it comes to PJ). The only albums he really likes are Ten and No Code, then some tracks here and there (SOLAT, I Got Shit, Long Road, and a few others)...anywho, he liked 8 of the 13 songs which is the most he's liked since Ten. That's a B- from a guy who's not a zealot, and I'll take that as a positive sign. |
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 8:42:40 GMT -5
Thorns:
I was thinking about what you said yesterday...re: Ten being liquid...Anyway, once you dissect the new one you may really like it. That liquid feeling on Ten comes through Jeff's fret less bass on a lot on the new album. It kinda gives the album a quiet tranquility; it's nice. Songs like "Parachutes", "Come Back", and "Gone" are what I'm thinking about.
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Post by Galactus on May 2, 2006 8:52:25 GMT -5
Paul, Sorry about the delay on the Tool mix. It's coming though I promise.
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 9:05:12 GMT -5
Paul, Sorry about the delay on the Tool mix. It's coming though I promise. no worries, i got new pj, and new hank 3 to go through...i just appreciate you getting it out to me  |
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 10:24:58 GMT -5
more reviews......
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Houston Chronicle
May 1, 2006, 8:24PM
Sick to death of war
Neil Young, Pearl Jam use music to vent their anger
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Eleven years have passed since grunge alumnus Pearl Jam and folk-rock enigma Neil Young — two acts from two generations — were linked by Mirror Ball, a collaborative album filled with furious guitar interplay and lyrics that tipped into social commentary. Today, each act releases a new album updating that combustible mix: Pearl Jam's Pearl Jam and Young's Living With War.
Though Pearl Jam and Young made these albums apart, the spirit of their new recordings reflects that of Mirror Ball. Both acts are war-weary, so they again turn up the amps and try to make a difference through music.
Young is 60 and coming off last year's somber Prairie Wind, a casual, country-tinged recording. Here his rage is uncontainable and direct, vented through songs such as Looking for a Leader.
Opener After the Garden starts the rant: "Won't need no shadow man," Young sneers, "running the government."
He then gets more pointed and personal on Let's Impeach the President and the garage-rock screecher Shock and Awe.
Living With War was recorded with a basic quartet, augmented by a 100-member choir that gives the title track a churchy feel. Young caps the set with an a cappella run through America the Beautiful.
This quickly produced protest album will undoubtedly make listeners angry. Whether that anger is directed at Young or the U.S. government, well, that depends on the listener.
Pearl Jam, Young's old running buddy of a band, was once a brash young group with a message. But Eddie Vedder and Co. use softer strokes on their new album, which, as the title suggests, is a back-to-basics affair.
Stripping away the experimental sounds that cluttered Riot Act four years ago, Pearl Jam returns to the riff-heavy stadium-rock sound of its 1991 debut, Ten. But unlike Ten, Pearl Jam finds Vedder having outgrown the internalized turmoil of his youth and turning his anger toward more worldly affairs.
The roar of desperation and loss in Vedder's voice on Comatose and Life Wasted represents Pearl Jam's angry lob from the trenches. But other songs opt for something closer to the "make love, not war" credo of the Summer of Love.
One such track, Unemployable, is built on an easy groove; it's a twirling girl and a Volkswagen bus away from genuine freedom rock.
Much like PJ's celebrated early work, Life Wasted and Marker in the Sand are built around scratchy, accessible guitar loops and memorable riffs. The first single, World Wide Suicide, has Vedder singing in a weathered preacher-man quiver. "I felt the earth on Monday," he sings. "It moved beneath my feet, in the form of a morning paper."
Pearl Jam's members are all in their 40s except guitarist Stone Gossard who turns 40 this summer. They've struck a prime combination of experience and energy that gives Pearl Jam the same renewed spirit that Young enjoyed at a similar age with his classic Freedom.
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 10:28:13 GMT -5
From Philly:
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Philly Daily News: A
Pearl Jam back, of course, doing things their way
By JONATHAN TAKIFF
takiffj@phillynews.com 215-854-5960
It's "their way or the highway" for notable music acts offering new wares today.
Answering only to their own muse, Pearl Jam has taken almost four years to settle into a new recording deal and produce another studio album, though they've put out more than 70 authorized concert "bootlegs" in the interim!
Finally comes the self-titled "Pearl Jam" album for J Records (A), a Clive Davis-steered label usually hellbent on delivering radio-friendly hit singles.
So what has the band given them to "work?" How 'bout a string of bristling, bitter rants on moral decay, death, dismemberment, economic turmoil and the suppression of personal freedom, stoked with a dual-guitar-rocking, blood-'n'-guts-spilling approach.
Some songs are artfully obtuse, as only the band's growling, mush-mouthed singer/composer Eddie Vedder can be. (Who else would write about a "preternatural other flame, with the power to maintain," as he does in the gross-out "Severed Hand"?)
But at least we do get an illustrated booklet of lyrics to help decipher the Allen Ginsberg-like howls. And even without the study guide, it's pretty clear who's given the orders and who's deserving of blame on the likes of "World Wide Suicide," a fiery lament about war dead that's the first single from the set.
Yes, that tune kicked butt on Pearl Jam's "SNL" appearance and agitated a freaky murder scene in "CSI." And how cool is it that the group gave away hundreds of thousands of downloads of the song on their Web site?
So I'm thinking it doesn't really matter if some corporate rock radio stations have a problem playing this Bush whacker. Pearl Jam's playing their own game and winning on their own terms.
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Post by Paul on May 2, 2006 10:33:45 GMT -5
USA Today (3&1/2 out of 4 stars)
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USA Today
Pearl Jam (* * *1/2) The grunge-era survivors who never lost their moral compass finally rediscovered their rip code. The urgent, guitar-shredding rock measures up to the intensity of the Seattle band's well-known political stands. Both aspects coexist in ear-popping harmony on this welcome return to the boxing ring that produced 1993's Vs. and 1994's Vitalogy. Life in these disunited States provides ample fodder for the band's scalding attacks on the dehumanizing systems of corporations (Unemployable) and the military (Army Reserve). World Wide Suicide, already frying the airwaves with indignation, is a stormy anti-war rant tailor-made for Eddie Vedder's howling rasp. Unapologetically political, Pearl Jam's tunes, fueled on dread, defiance and determination, wouldn't get past the leaflet stage without the music's muscular pounding and the volcanic guitars of Mike McCready and Stone Gossard. —Edna Gundersen
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