Skip to main content

October 23, 2018: Happy 25th to Vs.

Hi Brad and Brad,

I am officially completely caught up on the podcast.  I began listening on July 30th and it has taken me about two and a half months to get all 64 episodes in.  All of the awesome stories during PJ story time, the album reviews (except the much-anticipated Yield that I anxiously await), the Deep Thoughts by Brad Blazek and lastly the slide whistle!  On Friday, the album Vs. turned 25, which is exactly 12 years after I was born.  To commemorate what I consider to be the most "flawless" album in the catalog, I decided to give my own track-by-track review.  For the longest time, I had considered this my 2nd favorite to Yield and feel that if I went through and ranked every studio album track, almost every one on Vs. would make my top 50.  Below I ranked my favorites on the album from 1-12 and then give my all-time studio rankings some of which I shared on a previous email.  I include some retrospect from the album review given in Episode 33, especially the infamous "Elderly Woman" claim.

Track My Ranking on Album All-Time Ranking (Studio Albums) Thoughts on Track
Go 6 Top 50 Second favorite opener in their catalog (Brain of J), love the end of the track with how intense Dave A is.
Animal 5 Top 50 Mike McCready is awesome on this track, will always remember their performance at the VMAs, best live version of this track.
Daughter 7 Top 50 It's a "power" ballad if you can call it that.  I can't imagine a live show without Daughter and a tag to follow.
Glorified G 3 Top 50 I actually named my Fantasty Football teams the "Glorified Gs" on several occasions.  I line up with the message of the song.  Dave A stands out on this track as he does throughout the album.
Dissident 9 Top 50 This was my ring tone for a while!  Despite Blazek's disdain for the beginning guitar riff, I thought it was one of their most recognizable for a long time.
W.M.A. 2 #8 Drums and bass are incredible.  This may not be a fair comparison, but it takes me back to John Bonham's performance on "in My Time of Dying."  He just dominates that track for almost 8-9 minutes, and I feel Dave A does that for the entire 6 minutes of this track.  
Blood 8 Top 50 I can never crank this track loud enough.  I love the chaos at the end of the track.  Eddie is at the height of "rawness" at this point of the album.
Rearviewmirror 1 #5 Came to appreciate this track more after listening to you guys.  I feel it may be their best "pound-for-pound" studio track both musically and lyrically.  A lot of personal sentiment for me right now.
Rats 11 Top 50 Jeff's bass is incredible on this track.  I rank it above his bass on W.M.A.  Love the lyric to this song and the critcism of human society.  Still holds today and probably always will.
Elderly Woman 10 Top 50 Somewhere, behind the counter of an Amaco gas station!  Best moment of Single Podcast Theory!  Excellent ballad that's easy to listen to and sing along to.  I do agree it's an outlier and sometimes I forget it's on the album.
Leash 12 Top 100 This is a great spot for this track.  Very intense.  Redundant, yes.  However, I do like it when they put a hard rocker right before a slow-burn closer.
Indifference 4 Top 50 Favorite closer of any of the studio albums.  Lyrically this is such a deep track and it cuts me deep at times.  Would be my ideal closer at a live show.
 
I briefly mentioned that I just turned 37 on Friday.  Yesterday I received a package from my father-in-law and my wife's stepmother.  They both have a great appreciation for music and know of my love for this band.  Needless to say, I was floored by what I opened.  A framed photo of Eddie and Ernie Banks from the 2013 Wrigley concert.  If I remember correctly (please tell me if I'm wrong) the Let's Play Two documentary said this was one of the last (if not the last) public appearance for Mr. Cub.  This is one of the most thoughtful gifts I have gotten, because they are aware of how Pearl Jam has helped me over the past few months try to cope with the emotions that I have gone through.  I wanted to share this with you guys, especially Blazek since he was there and is a Cubs fan.

Forced to endure, what I could not forgive,

Chris

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 17, 2010: RIP Mozart for Guitar

Hi Brad and Brad, I first want to mention that I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did while listening to you two and Clint Wells go on about spoonfuls of flour and uncooked spaghetti.  I almost had to pull my car over as I was driving home during that part of the episode!   Since Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6th, I've been listening to a lot of Van Halen.  I didn't really get into them until 10-15 years ago, but I consider them to be one of my favorite bands of all-time.  Eddie was truly an innovator on shredding guitar solos and may be my favorite lead guitarist ever.  I saw Mike's comment on Pearl Jam's Twitter feed referencing how he began playing guitar shortly after their first record came out.  He goes so far to say "it sounded like Eddie was from another planet" and "Eddie was like Mozart for guitar.  Changed everything and he played with Soul." I know the guys have covered Van Halen here-and-there and I looked
Post a Comment
Read more

December 26, 2020: Someday at Christmas

Hi Brad and Brad, First, I hope you guys have had a Happy Holidays.  Secondly, I really enjoy your solo episodes.  They have a deejay format to them which also feels personable in getting to know each of your lives and what has influenced you to be who you are now. I hadn't taken the time to get to know Someday at Christmas until after listening to BradB's recent episode.  Pearl Jam does a great job in covering the song, and I prefer Stevie Wonder's version over the Jackson 5.  Especially, after reading the lyrics and reading some interpretations of the song.  At the time the song was released, the Vietnam War was still underway.  The lyrics seem to voice opposition to the war itself, but also express the hope for racial and economic equality.  Unfortunately, that message still resonates strongly.   Stevie Wonder was one of the artists that shaped my musical interests when I was a teenager.  I'm very glad the guys chose to cover this song for a Christmas single and have
Post a Comment
Read more

December 31, 2020: Low Light

Hi Jessi and Kate, I have been way behind on my podcasts the last several weeks.  The main reason is because myself and a friend started our own podcast!  It's not Pearl Jam themed , however it's consumed a decent amount of my week preparing for each recording.  So we now have a hit on the Dink-O-Meter for both of you.  First Jessi and now Kate!  I can't remember if I have proposed the Dink-O-Meter to you yet, but I have it as a three-tiered system: Dinky: Just your average dinky, will only skip if streaming Rinky-Dinky: Automatic skipper, even when listening to vinyl Stinky-Dinky: It's like nails on a chalkboard to you Based on Jessi's response to Parachutes, I have that somewhere between Rinky-Dinky and Stinky-Dinky.  I would have to let Jessi be the final judge on that.  For Kate's remarks to Low Light, I have it somewhere between Dinky and Rinky-Dinky, however I'm inclined to believe it's closer to Dinky because I wasn't able to note as many hot
Post a Comment
Read more