Vitalogy could be an amazing EP!

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Zoots

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Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, in retrospect, would have been much better as an EP methinks! :hmm:

Something like this.....?

1. Spin The Black Circle
2. Not For You
3. Tremor Christ
4. Nothingman
5. Corduroy
6. Better Man
7. Immortality

:drool:

Discuss.
 
I've never properly listened to vitalogy outside of better man. I probably should since I have the distinct feeling it could be the only PJ record outside of Ten that I would listen to on a regular basis. PJ's later stuff just doesn't interest me much.
 
Half of it is fucking brilliant... the half that I just posted. And the other half is just trash! I mean.. Bugs? Stupid Mop? Pry To? Cmon! :yuck:
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
I agree but I think Last Exit should be on there too, and bugs as a hidden track...it's funny.

I don't mind Last Exit as much as the others I left out... but STBC makes for a kick ass opener though! :rockon:

edit: That's true.. Bugs is kinda funny... 'should I trick them? should I eat them?...' :lol:
 
The problem with this album was the lack of creativity by McCready, Gossard and Ament. Which in turn became an album of Eddie songs (someone should've taken all the guitars away from Eddie and told him to just stick to singing damn it).
 
I think it would have been perfectly good as a full album, just minus the weird little experimental tracks. Everything else on the album is among my favorite PJ material.

1. Last Exit
2. Spin The Black Circle
3. Not For You
4. Tremor Christ
5. Nothingman
6. Whipping
7. Corduroy
8. Satan's Bed
9. Better Man
10. Immortality
 
This not for yoU!
fuck you!@
this is not for you!!!!

Yeah. Some good times there. The song about the mop made me want to commit suicide and I wasn't even depressed at the time.
 
I actually love the entire album except for Stupidmop (or, as it also seems to be called, Heyfoxymophandlemama, it's me). Pry, To doesn't really do much for me, but it is less than a minute, so who cares.

I actually enjoy Bugs and Aye Davanita.

Just pretend Immortality is the last song, and it's great.
 
Jeez, is no one going to defend this album? Aren't there any true blue PJ fans on the site? The album is certainly not perfect, and I could certainly do without something generic like Satan's Bed, but it's far more than an EP. You could make the greatest single album ever out of The White Album but it's not worth losing all the little musical experiments.

Every song on an album doesn't have to be a single. While I wouldn't just call up Pry, To for an individual listen, it contributes to the overall ebb and flow of the entire recording. I'm amazed that instead of praising Pearl Jam for trying new things and trying to break out of the grunge mold, they get criticized for not having enough songs that are radio-worthy. That's bullshit. I LOVE hearing Aye Davanita. And people accuse Vedder of taking himself too seriously yet begrudge him Bugs. Doesn't bother me. And Whipping may not be a fantastic song musically, but it's about the guy who shot someone at an abortion clinic and carries a lot of thematic weight.

The most important thing though, is defending Stupid Mop, which is just brilliant to me. It's like Revolution #9, which many Beatles fans despise, but it shows the artist using the studio to forge something outside the normal boundaries of what we would call a song. Let's not forget that much of this album was inspired by or a reaction to the suicide of Kurt Cobain, which affected the band enormously, Vedder most of all as he was put in a similar position by the media. The recordings of the woman talking about suicide are chilling, and if you can't respect what the band was trying to do here that's unfortunate. The album ends with the woman admitting that she has thought about killing herself, and is extremely powerful.

Don't even get me started on No Code, which is in my opinion one of the best albums of the 90's.
 
I haven't really listened to No Code at all. And I absolutely love the experimental side of U2... not to mention Revolution 9. :drool: But somehow I haven't been able to get into the experimental side of Vitalogy. See, I definitely wouldn't want them to just make an album full of radio-friendly songs like Better Man, Nothingman and Corduroy. But the experimental tracks have to be interesting and not just overly pretentious ramblings. There's a lot of things going on in Revolution 9 with orchestra bits, conversation, some weird soundtrack noises, king lear being read out etc... On the other hand, Stupid Mop just seems to ramble on forever with not much variety. I think I'll give it another listen. :shrug:
 
lazarus said:
Jeez, is no one going to defend this album? Aren't there any true blue PJ fans on the site? The album is certainly not perfect, and I could certainly do without something generic like Satan's Bed, but it's far more than an EP. You could make the greatest single album ever out of The White Album but it's not worth losing all the little musical experiments.

Every song on an album doesn't have to be a single. While I wouldn't just call up Pry, To for an individual listen, it contributes to the overall ebb and flow of the entire recording. I'm amazed that instead of praising Pearl Jam for trying new things and trying to break out of the grunge mold, they get criticized for not having enough songs that are radio-worthy. That's bullshit. I LOVE hearing Aye Davanita. And people accuse Vedder of taking himself too seriously yet begrudge him Bugs. Doesn't bother me. And Whipping may not be a fantastic song musically, but it's about the guy who shot someone at an abortion clinic and carries a lot of thematic weight.

The most important thing though, is defending Stupid Mop, which is just brilliant to me. It's like Revolution #9, which many Beatles fans despise, but it shows the artist using the studio to forge something outside the normal boundaries of what we would call a song. Let's not forget that much of this album was inspired by or a reaction to the suicide of Kurt Cobain, which affected the band enormously, Vedder most of all as he was put in a similar position by the media. The recordings of the woman talking about suicide are chilling, and if you can't respect what the band was trying to do here that's unfortunate. The album ends with the woman admitting that she has thought about killing herself, and is extremely powerful.

Don't even get me started on No Code, which is in my opinion one of the best albums of the 90's.

I'm a pretty big PJ fan and have been since day one and the only PJ albums I can't get into are the last two. Anyways, I just wanted to clearify that Vitology was released before Cobain's murder. I remember watching their Saturday Night Live performance a couple of weeks after Cobain's murder where they performed Not For You, Daughter, and Rearview Mirror. The mood was surreal and Eddie had written the letter K with a marker on his t-shirt over his heart. They played with a lot of passion as always but Eddie clearly didn't seem like himself. As far as their music goes I prefer their first two albums the most (TEN is a masterpiece). I'd have to blame the over-hype of the grunge scene and Niel Young for their tamed down music through the years.
 
Achtung Joshua! said:

As far as their music goes I prefer their first two albums the most (TEN is a masterpiece). I'd have to blame the over-hype of the grunge scene and Niel Young for their tamed down music through the years.

:yes: Completely agree! esp. about TEN and the death of grunge. :tsk:
 
Achtung Joshua! said:


I'd have to blame the over-hype of the grunge scene and Niel Young for their tamed down music through the years.

I think their music eventually evovled because they matured over the years...similar to how the Beatles music matured.

While TEN was very good for the time, YIELD is their masterpiece imo.
 
Achtung Joshua! said:
Anyways, I just wanted to clearify that Vitology was released before Cobain's murder. I remember watching their Saturday Night Live performance a couple of weeks after Cobain's murder where they performed Not For You, Daughter, and Rearview Mirror. The mood was surreal and Eddie had written the letter K with a marker on his t-shirt over his heart. They played with a lot of passion as always but Eddie clearly didn't seem like himself. As far as their music goes I prefer their first two albums the most (TEN is a masterpiece). I'd have to blame the over-hype of the grunge scene and Niel Young for their tamed down music through the years.

Vitalogy was absolutely NOT released before Kurt died. THe suicide happened in the spring of '94, and Vitalogy was not released until the fall. While the majority of the writing was completed beforehand, something like Immortality is clearly inspired by the incident. There's even a quote on the lyric page which is Vedder directly referring to his relationship with Kurt. I don't have it in front of me so I can't quote it exactly.

Plus, I'd be surprised if the decision to call the album Vitalogy and the whole concept around the album didn't come out of what happened earlier in the year.

Also, the samples in Stupid Mop addressing suicide--that ain't no coincidence.

One last thing--Ten is far from a masterpiece. Some good songs, but way overproduced and too uniform-sounding. It's really an insult to Pearl Jam to say that their earliest work was somehow their most accomplished. Versus was a total improvement and they added a lot to their sound with that one. But I really feel it wasn't until albums 3 & 4 that they really started carrying a lot of weight as artists.
 
to back up Lazarus, Vitalogy came out a full 8 months after Cobain died.

I love Ten, Vs, Vitalogy, No Code and Yield. All brilliant in their own respects. The last two were just subpar, especially Binaural which I think is absolutely terrible.
 
lazarus said:


Vitalogy was absolutely NOT released before Kurt died. THe suicide happened in the spring of '94 and Vitalogy was not released until the fall. While the majority of the writing was completed beforehand, something like Immortality is clearly inspired by the incident. There's even a quote on the lyric page which is Vedder directly referring to his relationship with Kurt. I don't have it in front of me so I can't quote it exactly.




PJ was performing songs from Vitalogy during their tour in early 94, before Cobain died(April 8th??)...and before the album was released. Most of the songs were written and being played live. In fact, Immortality was performed on April 12th of 94...days after the suicide. Vedder has said that Immortality lyrics were not inspired by Cobain, although the lyrics could eerily be about him.
 
U2DMfan said:
to back up Lazarus, Vitalogy came out a full 8 months after Cobain died.

I love Ten, Vs, Vitalogy, No Code and Yield. All brilliant in their own respects. The last two were just subpar, especially Binaural which I think is absolutely terrible.

I agree, the last two albums were subpar. I still think that Riot Act is the worse of the bunch.
 
The OOTS said:
I really enjoy No Code as well. But, I'd stil rank it behind one of my all time favorites from the 90s...Yield!

No Code is underrated, but Yield that is just brilliant and it's so under the radar.

I hate genres, because all genres die and then the bands in those genres are left to fend for themselves. PJ made some brilliant albums in the 90's, however their last few albums have been disjointed and muddle in my opinion.
 
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