In Spring 2000, sometime after “Nothing As It Seems” was released as a single, but before the album dropped, several friends, some Pearl Jam fans, some just casually, outright denounced their fandom. They metaphorically turned in their PJ fan club card, destroyed their Christmas singles and burned their Vitalogy Health Club paper model car (remember that one? what a b*tch to put together). Seriously though, it was downright amazing how violently opposed people were to that one little song.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t in love with it. In fact, I listened to it several times in a row to try and find anything redeeming about it. Mike McCready’s guitar work finally started to stick out, but what a terrible choice for a lead single! Of course, at this point, it shouldn’t have been a surprise for fans. Pearl Jam had been and was still deliberately sabotaging their fame by refusing to make videos, fighting Ticketmaster, etc. Look at their choice of singles from other albums: “Spin The Black Circle” was a quick, catchy little lead single, but it was the B-Side, “Tremor Christ” that got more play and attention prior to Vitalogy’s release. As big as PJ was in 1994, can you imagine how insanely popular a single and subsequent video for “Better Man” would have been? Vitalogy might have even topped Ten in sales.
It doesn’t have much foresight to know what that would have led to, of course. If Pearl Jam was already trying to trim the fat off their audience to leave casual fans behind, releasing a video for “Better Man” (featuring Eddie singing on top of a snowy mountain or something ridiculous) would have achieved undesirable results.
This brings me to one of the biggest reasons (besides the actual music of course) that PJ has long remained one of my favorite bands: integrity. Sure, they could have done a lot more to sell a lot more records, but they didn’t. Obviously Sony had a lot to do with why most of us know about the band to begin with, but we’ve all seen a lot of bands jump through a lot of hoops in the name of the almighty dollar.
Binaural, however, was light years (pun semi-intended) beyond all this, however. In terms of both the music and how Pearl Jam was marketed. A perfect example of this is them releasing “Nothing As It Seems” as the lead single, then performing “Grievance” on Letterman. (Watch it here) Bands almost always, without fail, play their current single on TV appearances. It was that performance of “Grievance” that took my interest level from ho-hum to holy sh*t! I know a lot of PJ fans will back me up on this.
Binaural is the one record for me that I find about as flawed as I do perfect. Music, or most art in general is one of the few places where contradictions not only exist, they thrive. “Flawed” and “perfect” at the same time though? Sure. For every fault I have with the record, there’s the opposite, the anti-matter if you will, that cancels it out. Logically, especially to me, this would result in a mediocre record. Sadly, I think a lot of PJ fans find binaural to be just that. In May, 2000, after opening it up, putting on headphones and tuning out the rest of the world for that first listen, I know I loved the record. It reminded me of the first time I listened to Vs, but only in the sense that I was immediately hooked.
Fast forward a couple years and I felt as though I’d fallen out of love. I was skipping so many songs, that I actually took three or four songs, compiled them with some B-sides and burned a CD. That was my version of Binaural for the couple years that would follow.
Then at some point in 2003, we got the Binaural internet leaks. “Letter To The Dead,” “Education” and “Fatal.” Wow! Did these come from the same sessions? Why weren’t these on the album? I could think of three songs I’d immediately yank off without thinking twice if it meant including these.
Then some clever fans pointed back to a press release that talked about the original Binaural track listing. Then after the B-sides collection, Lost Dogs, was released, we could all make our very own original Binaural! Sure I could do that. I have done it. And since you already know how much I loved this record from day one, I’m going to go into how I feel about Binaural today. Not any altered version, not the original track listing...the real deal.
Breakerfall. Originally titled “Breakherfall,” one has to wonder why the subtle change, but I wondered the same thing about Yield’s opening track: “Brain of J,” was originally “Brain of JFK.” Either way, this song is just as relevant today as ever. Along the lines of “Go” from Vs., this song is short, it rocks and has the urgency and power that PJ fans have come to expect. A great album opener and I love it when this song starts a show as well.
God’s Dice, Evacuation. Upon first listening, I loved the way Binaural opened with this 1-2-3 punch, but over time, “God’s Dice” and “Evacuation” both feel like filler more than anything else, and tracks 2 and 3 are no place to have filler on a record. Like “Breakerfall,” they’re short and to the point, but I wonder what the point really is on these songs. Interestingly, I don’t mind hearing them live, but the two, especially “Evacuation,” are weak in the lyric department and overall just fall flat.
Light Years. There’s a demo of this track floating around out there that leaves me torn. The demo is damn-near a completely different song, save for the music in the bridge. I wish, I wish, I wish I could hear a finished version of the demo, but as it stands, the album cut is still pretty untouchable. A bittersweet, understated song about mourning the loss of someone special, but it’s not sad. It’s hopeful. When this song is played live, sometimes it comes seamlessly out of “Lukin,” the 60 second punk rocker off No Code. On paper, this sounds like it would be a train wreck, but credit drummer Matt Cameron for pulling it off. “Light Years” is still one of my favorite songs off Binaural
Nothing As It Seems. Earlier, I wrote about how difficult it was to swallow this song. Like a fine wine, it gets better all the time. I still don’t really know where the narrator is coming from lyric-wise, but to me, this song exists for Mike McCready to make everyone wet themselves. The bridge is an incredible piece of music, not unlike the bridge/outtro of No Code’s “Present Tense.”
Thin Air. My fiancé really likes this song. It’s a Stone Gossard song disguised as a PJ song and that’s just fine. I don’t really feel much different today than I did the day I first heard it. Ed usually goofs the lyrics live, but on the record it is a nice, air-y little piece between the two super serious “Nothing As It Seems” and “Insignificance.”
Insignificance. A lot of people compare this to “Rearviewmirror” on Vs. I don’t quite here it, but one can’t deny the sheer power of the two as to what they have in common. A protest song about pacifists drinking away their last few minutes on earth together while singing along to a protest song. I wish this one had a little bit harder of an edge to it, because I don’t think it’s aged very well and something a little heavier might have extended the shelf life.
Of The Girl. This song gets better all the time for me. I didn’t really notice it much the first few times around, but it’s a total highlight for me now. Like a lot of Vedder-penned lyrics, the characters in this song are at a crossroads. The chorus of “How he makes his getaway” seems to suggest a man leaving his longtime love, but I’m not so sure. I think he’s making his getaway, but his partner is along for the ride. This could be the same couple from Yield’s “MFC.”
Grievance. I can’t decide if this is the prequel or sequel to “Insignificance,” but it definitely has the same mood. I don’t know if this song could have improved over time because it was pretty damn strong to begin with.
Rival. Eh, never was a big fan. The subtitle was “Growing Up Gay In Littleton,” according to the liner notes, an obvious reference to Columbine. If you listen with headphones, the dog growling at the beginning is a little bit of a mindf**k.
Sleight Of Hand. Seems to be the brother of “Of The Girl.” A similar mood, a similar desperate situation; someone just wanting to break out of the rut they’re in make a change. If only they could take the chance and walk into the unfamiliar, the unknown. A very atmospheric song, it could almost be an instrumental and still be just as interesting. It’s not really a ballad, and it’s certainly not what you’d call experimental, but it’s somewhere in between the two. I’d like to see PJ do more along these lines.
Soon Forget. How can anyone not like song? Some fans feel like Ed jumped the shark when he threw in lyrics like “Counts his money every morning / the only thing that keeps him horny,” or “He’s lying dead, clutchin’ Benjamins / never put the money down,” but I feel this adds to the social commentary aspect. It’s an obvious nod (or disapproving head shake) to Seattle’s richest man, Bill Gates. It’s a fun song that’s always a good sing-a-long when played live.
Parting Ways. I feel like this song could have benefited from another minute or two of buildup, or maybe on the back end, but either way, it’s always just felt rushed. While I really dug it at some point, I know feel like it’s a rather weak album closer, considering the emotional intensity of some of their other album closers (“Immortality,” “Indifference,” “Release”)
Bottom line: the concept of binaural recording preceding this record seemed novel, and whether or not the intention was to actually record the whole thing binaurally, that wasn’t the actual outcome. Only a few songs utilized the technique in the end. Between that, the rumors they didn’t get along with producer Tchad Blake and the last minute switcharoo on the track listing (leaving off songs that were stronger than some that made it), this album is a mess. But still, a beautiful, perfectly flawed mess.
2000 rating: 9/10
2009 rating: 7/10
Original track list 2009 rating: 9/10
Anyway, here it is:
