Releases - Studio Albums

awesome.

Simply the best album

Just from looking at the beautiful, bright-colored collage cover artwork for this record, you can tell instantly this is going to be a special album; a different album. And it is. The lyrics are introspective, uplifting, and energetic, as is much of the singing and music. I think this is PJ's most pensive, calming, diverse, and best album hands down. Side A, for me, is arguably the best side of any album I have ever heard (side A of Animal Collective's 'Feels' is up there too). In my opinion, Jack Irons' drumming on this album is unmatched by any other Pearl Jam album, or most any other album I've ever heard. Specifically his drumming on 'who you are', 'in my tree', and 'present tense', where he doesn't overuse the symbols, but rather purposefully plays them as exclamation points, giving more emphasis and power to the songs. There also is, melodically speaking, a wonderful flow to the album where each song seems to effortlessly roll into the next, beginning with 'sometimes,' the calmest, most beautiful opening track of any PJ album. And the songs that rock, with the exception of 'habit' and 'lukin,' are transcended by eV's beautiful singing, which creates a powerful, positive energy that I don't feel as strongly on recent albums when he's screaming on the harder rock songs. I don't know much, but I know when I find myself going through a time, this is the first record I look for.

Maybe only people who love the album bother to post. I waited in line to buy No Code at midnight and I remember my intial response being disappointment. That being said, It is still better than most of the crap on the radio at any given moment. And really this is the 1st PJ album that had to grow on me. It's still my least favorite PJ CD, but Sometimes, Who You Are, Present Tense, In my Tree, and Off He Goes are all GREAT songs.

Pearl Jam's best album and my favorite of all time from any band.

present tense is changing my life. used to be ashamed of the past but now i've come to terms with it and forgave myself. it does make more sense to live in the present tense :) incredible album.