Pearl Jam Albums

Frankmagnet

Just started getting into Pearl Jam. Wat albums would ye recommend as their best?
Cheers lads

Karl Hungus

I'd say Ten and Vs are great albums to start with.

Frankmagnet

Karl Hungus wrote:

I'd say Ten and Vs are great albums to start with.

Thats where i will start so.

Thank You

Timans

Greatest band ever my friend, greatest band ever.

Ten, Vs to start off with. ONLY album that isn't brilliant by Pearl Jam for me is Vitalogy. So don't be put off by that album.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Timans speaks the truth, my favourite band but if you're just getting into them then Vitalogy wouldn't be the best as it is quite experimental in a way. I personally love No Code but again I'd say you're best off with Ten and Vs. to start, and maybe the new album too(called Pearl Jam). Their live performances are really where they come into there own though, unfortunately i doubt they'll be back any time soon

Earthhorse

Ha! I came in to this thread to say Vitalogy. It's their best and, yes, there's some experimental stuff on it but lots of accessible songs too.

Either that or Yield.

If you're getting into them then you must know some songs? Why not just get the album they're one?

Frankmagnet

Earthhorse wrote:

Ha! I came in to this thread to say Vitalogy. It's their best and, yes, there's some experimental stuff on it but lots of accessible songs too.

Either that or Yield.

If you're getting into them then you must know some songs? Why not just get the album they're one?

Ye know few of the songs cos one of my mates brought the greatest hits album into work. Really liking it and want to get into other stuff and not just the hits.

joenailface

all of them...just seriously all of them a personal fav is no code but they're all fantastic dagnabit!

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I would link you to the pearl jam forum where you can download old bootlegs for free and I'm fairly sure it's legal as they are allowed do it because the boots are not on sale anymore and it's the official site, but I'd rather not get in trouble here.

friend and foe

to start with, i'd go for ten and yield.
then versus, no code and riot act.

i'd steer clear of vitalogy for the moment, although it is absolutely incredible, it's not exactly gonna draw in brand-new fans as opposed to surprise and delight existing/experienced listeners

greatest band in the world... fact

Mr E

I got Live at the Gorge last week, and there is some brilliant stuff there (7 CDs!)

spaceboy

Best band in the world ever,no argument
went to see them a few weeks ago in wembley arena,great gig.
Get all the albums you won't be dissapointed, but I suppose start off with Ten & Vs or maybe the best of "rearviewmirror " could be a good starting point,personally no code,Vitology & yield are my favs

eoin5

Ten and Vs would be the best studio albums to start with and Live on two Legs is a good overview of all their stuff.

fortuneg

Yield is their best in my opinion, but you really can't go too far wrong with any of their albums (except maybe Riot Act).
Ten is their masterpiece according to 99% of people you'll talk to (99% of whom will have never heard any of their other albums).

Start from the start and work your way through them is my advice, each one is fantastic in it's own right (bar Riot Act;) )

Mushy

Yield is definately a brilliant one to get into. That, along with Ten or Vs are great. Try and download some of their gigs from recent shows from their site, mixture of a lot of things in there. Definately one of the greatest bands. Actually, dont be put of by their last album either, its actually very good. Now to try and download that Belgium show

EDIT How do you download the shows from their site again, or do ya have to wait until it says something beside the gig you want?

Blisterman

Personally I don't like Vitalogy at all, so I'd avoid that one for the time being. As other people have said, start with 10, or possibly get their greatest hits.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Mushy wrote:

EDIT How do you download the shows from their site again, or do ya have to wait until it says something beside the gig you want?

No Mushy they stopped doing the boots for this tour for some reason, so i don't think you'll be able to get the one from Belgium.

Edit-Forget that
Edit2-After reading the sticky here regarding the issue, i think it's actually alright if i post this http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=213441

Neo#

I have all their albums. My favourite would be ten. VS is fantastic too. You should listen to them in the order they came out! Thats what I did.

John

I'm a Yield fan myself but Pearl Jam have a lot of great stuff, you can't go wrong with any of the early albums. Not strictly a Pearl Jam album but one I'd recommend is Mirrorball. It's a Neil Young album but Pearl Jam are his backing band for it, excellent stuff.

Frankmagnet

Thanks for all the help lads. Got ten today and played it all day in work. Excellent stuff, think I am officially hooked

smackbunnybaby

Neo# wrote:

I have all their albums. My favourite would be ten. VS is fantastic too. You should listen to them in the order they came out! Thats what I did.

good advice

redmosquito

I will say that once you get into them you will find that Vitalogy is probably their best work and Yield is amazing, but starting in order is a good idea, you need to really like them to fully enjoy Binaural and Riot Act, Avacado (self titled) last year is far more accesable album to a casual fan than the previous two albums.

What you need to do is get into bootlegs, greatest live band in the world. Im up on about 350 shows on cd and about 70 on dvd at the moment, I can help you start out if ya want, or anyone for that matter!

friend and foe

i've always found riot act to be a fairly accessible album... that said, i was a huge fan when it came out but yeah, it'd be one of my favourites...

redmosquito

Riot Act is a good album with some really good tracks (and a few not so great tracks), but you also have to take into account the state of mind of the band when most of the songs for that album were written, you could say its a very emotional album.

It wouldnt be my first reccomendation for someone who wants to start to listen to PJ but I also dont understand how some people can utterly slate the album.

jefreywithonef

I'd probably recommend starting off with Ten too (even if there's no need to anymore!) even though I think it's massively overrated. Contains some great tracks though, like Once, Black and Garden.

My favourite Pearl Jam album is Vitalogy and, while I didn't initially rate it as highly as I do now, it's still pretty accessible.

Never liked Vs. until last week (must have been like my fifth or sixth listen :eek:) for some reason. No Code and Pearl Jam both pretty good too.

And Redmosquito, point me in the right direction regarding the live shows!

redmosquito

Well, there is torrenting first off all, where you'll get a lot of shows.

Secondly, places like:

http://thearmyreserve.blogspot.com/

have direct downloads in FLAC and mp3 of certain shows.

Thirdly, I have a load of older boots as well as every official boot from 2000, 2003 (might have a slight problem with these), 2005 and 2006. So thats hundreds more boots if you wanna pm me with any requests and I can sort you out.

Along with that, I have a load of boot dvd's if your interested, just let me know and ill send you a list of them if you want some viewing pleasure!!!

Mushy

Monzo, never dis Ten. Porch FTW! Cant believe I heard it live.

Redmosquito, that armyreserve site, does it take sometime for them to get bootlegs up? Just really want the Werchter show.

redmosquito

Well, if there's a boot of the show circulating, they will probably have it up soon. There are no official boots for the 07 tour so only audience recordings or radio/webcasts recordings.

The Red Mosquito board is down for the last while and the trading post there is where you'd most definately find it if its around, you might have to wait another while.

aidan24326

It often surprises me that alot of Pearl Jam fans go with vitalogy as their favourite. I do agree it has some great songs and one or two underrated ones (like tremor christ) but overall it's a patchy album with definitely one or two tracks that could have been left in the studio.

For me it would be Yield,Vs,Ten,No Code,Vitalogy. Found Riot Act disappointing. Perhaps it will grow on me eventually (admittedly I could give it more airtime).

For a newcomer to the band best to start with the earlier stuff and work through. There's a big back catalogue to get through Frankmagnet, enjoy! Superb band, but you really have to see them live to appreciate it fully.

Some of their songs take on a whole new dimension when played live, songs that mightn't immediately grab you on cd. They also tend to play a wide selection of their songs on tour, varying the setlist from night to night.

davyjose

Timans wrote:

ONLY album that isn't brilliant by Pearl Jam for me is Vitalogy. So don't be put off by that album.

Still some great songs on it though - betterman, Immortality

I'd throw in No Code as well. Simple but Brilliant!

Double C

Yield is probably the most accessible, along with Ten. I don't understand why people are dissing Vitalogy, it's a work of art, it starts off really strong and gets better and better. Satan's Bed is the hidden gem on that one.

Binaural and Riot Act aren't great overall but Insignificance and You Are (Matt Cameron is god) are two of my favourite PJ songs.
No Code is a little dinger of an album, some beautiful tracks on it.

Start at the start and work your way through and you won't be disappointed.

joenailface

i dont get the hatred most people have for riot act and vitalogy they are both amazing and beautiful albums but i guess each to their own

also to fortuneg i agree with you whole heartedly that most people who claim to love pj are 'ten fans' as opposed to 'pearl jam fans' but still ten is a masterpiece of modern music and a joy to listen to.

to the original poster im glad you got ten and enjoyed it, seriously though if you are a true lover of music you will not be dissapointed by any pearl jam album you buy, my suggestion for a screening process is if you want to buy an album by them is to buy the cheapest one in the shop, if two or more are the same price buy them in alphabetical order, because seriously there is no best pearl jam album or era and there is no point where the music gets any less good or idealy just buy them all in one go because you wont be dissapointed or perhaps just buy the 2006 dublin show from pearl jams website because i was there and enjoyed almost every song they played (im not a thin lizzy fan ) and it should give you a good idea of their styles throughout the years honestly i dont think you can go wrong no matter what you do hahaha unless you dont buy any more that is

friend and foe

i picked up the pearl jam live at the gorge 7-disc boxset over the weekend.

three live shows, one from september 2005 and two back to back shows from july 2006... amazing setlists spanning every era of pj and one or two covers thrown in for good measure (crazy mary & i won't back down)

it's only 39.95 in golden discs in jervis, ask at the counter they should still have some and there's 100 songs on it.... you won't get better value than that friends

redmosquito

joenailface wrote:

or perhaps just buy the 2006 dublin show from pearl jams website

All them bootlegs are gone now again, Basecamp has taken them down, but if anyone is looking for it I can sort them out!

Earthhorse

One thing I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet is Pearl Jam's extensive collection of b-sides and rarities. I'm not sure I would recommend Lost Dogs, the official 2 disc collection of same, but it's a convenient starting point if you don't want to go on the hunt for singles or soundtracks. The problem with Lost Dogs is that there's a large amount of filler tracks. Black, Red, Yellow, Whale Song, and a good few others...well, let's just say there's a reason they're b-sides.

On the other hand you'll scratch your head as to why some material, like Sad and Down, didn't make it onto albums. It's also missing some stuff, like Last Soldier, Untitled, I Got Sh*t (though I guess that's technically neither a b-side nor rare) which are better than some of the tracks I mentioned above.

Anyway, theskyiscrape is a great resource for learning more about Pearl Jam and it's well worth tracking down some of the less well known stuff as it does contain some gems.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Earthhorse wrote:

On the other hand you'll scratch your head as to why some material, like Sad and Down, didn't make it onto albums. It's also missing some stuff, like Last Soldier, Untitled, I Got Sh*t (though I guess that's technically neither a b-side nor rare) which are better than some of the tracks I mentioned above.

Yeah i know what you mean, Sad and Down and the likes are great songs but the song that i feel most deserved to be on an album, i.e Ten, is State of Love and Trust, which did make it on to the greatest hits however. Again, though, probably the best way of hearing a lot of these songs, and the covers(I'm thinking the likes of It's Ok, Throw your arms around me, Crazy Mary etc.) is from the live stuff. <snip>

redmosquito

State of Love and Trust was recorded for the Singles soundtrack, around the same time the re-done (and so much better) Even Flowwas recorded with Dave A. Some other songs like Breath (also on the soundtrack) were also recorded around then

fortuneg

redmosquito wrote:

State of Love and Trust was recorded for the Singles soundtrack, around the same time the re-done (and so much better) Even Flowwas recorded with Dave A. Some other songs like Breath (also on the soundtrack) were also recorded around then

Easily my favourite PJ song!

redmosquito

fortuneg wrote:

Easily my favourite PJ song!

Will always be a classic!!

John

Links to live bootlegs are normally against the charter but am I correct in assuming that Pearl Jam encourage open taping? Can someone post a link to confirm this? If not, I really don't want to take chances with an artist on Sony and will have to delete the posts discussing bootlegs.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I'll try and find something now, i'm fairly certain it's alright though

Sorry i can't find anything definitive, I'll remove the ones i posted if i can

John

I'm fairly certain they're ok too but I really want it in writing to be sure

decob

pullled from a thread on pj's own forum... with links to previous boots..

Alright! This is a continuation of the 'Let's Trade' thread, with a few minor tweaks. First off, some ground rules...

1. Do NOT, under any circumstance, post a link to a show from the 2005 or 2006 tours, which is available through Basecamp.

2. Do NOT, under any circumstance, post a link to a show released from 'The Vault'. There are only 2 shows currently: 12-31-92 NYC, and 11-30-93 Las Vegas

3. The same can be said for any officially released shows still available (Live At Easy Street, New Years Eve 1992, Beneroya Hall 2003)

4. As both the 2000 and 2003 shows are no longer available to purchase, both may now be freely shared.

redmosquito

decob wrote:

pullled from a thread on pj's own forum... with links to previous boots..

The 2005 and 2006 shows can now be legally traded, the have been taken down from basecamps website and will not be going back up.

These recordings are now legally allowed be traded, I will find and post a link to this later on, gotta rush back to work now, running late!!

John

That's cool then. As you were!

Mushy

Back here with some good news(for me anyway).

Finally found a download for Werchter, will be done soon. Josh with QOTSA...it'll be sweeeeet.

On to more pressing matters, I finally got Yield yesterday. By jaysus, its one hell of an album, I might even go as far as saying that I prefer it more than Ten. Apart from the main hits that are on it(GtF, DtE, BoJ), the other songs are brilliant. Really like Pilate aswell. Such a good album, so if the OP is looking for any more recommendations still, go for this one.

redmosquito

Yield really is fantastic!!!

I find it an album you can listen to at any time, no matter what kinda mood im on/in Yield always sounds damn great.
Low Light is great, and MFC is just a good song that always brightens up my day!!
In Hiding might just be the best song on the album!

fortuneg

redmosquito wrote:

Yield really is fantastic!!!

I find it an album you can listen to at any time, no matter what kinda mood im on/in Yield always sounds damn great.
Low Light is great, and MFC is just a good song that always brightens up my day!!
In Hiding might just be the best song on the album!

Very true, whenever i look through my iPod & don't feel like listening to any of the 100+ albums on it Yield is most often the first port of call!

cole9

good choice, great album, one of my all time favourites

Bald? er, dash!

redmosquito wrote:

What you need to do is get into bootlegs, greatest live band in the world. Im up on about 350 shows on cd and about 70 on dvd at the moment, I can help you start out if ya want, or anyone for that matter!

Second that... have excess of 300 also... every setlist is different. IMO, their live performances are far better than the original studio versions, especially the Ten, Vs., Vitalogy era stuff