Pearl Jam - Yield (1998) poll

Strong nostalgia for this one. I was a young 17 year old with low self esteem. I'd just started A-levels at a sixth form in Cambridge which felt like it was miles away and where I knew no one. In the evenings I would get the train to Stevenage to do a horrible telesales job selling double glazing. I started my first "relationship". It lasted 4 weeks and I got ignored then dumped on a school cultural visit to Greece. Not the happiest time, looking back. I was lonely and lacking in confidence. I would soon find a new group of friends who were great and made me feel good. This was the album that soundtracked that transitionary time

I would vote No Way or Push Me, Pull Me. But this is a strong record all the way through. Not crazy about Do The Evolution. I don't listen to PJ for their hoary rockers; but Brain Of J is lots of fun and is a great way to kick off the album. Second side is MOR in the best possible way; just a bunch of ex-rock kids getting to grips with being adults

I love Low Light and All Those Yesterdays and Pilate and Do the Evolution and Wishlist —but MFC fucking goes SO hard! especially live, i used to forget occasionally but now it’s in my top tier of somgs

Push Me, Pull Me is probably my favourite - along with Red Bar the only proper evidence of their art-rock side - cus it's a load of old squelchy exciting noise. But then Given to Fly was my favourite PJ single for years

WHO'SSSSSSS GOT THE BRAIIIIN OF JFKKKK

Brain of J is also narrowly my favourite opening song

VG - MFC is the one I always forget on this one, but you're right. It's like a follow-up to Rearviewmirror - this great panoramic vibe to it

All Those Yesterdays is top tier PJ balladeering

Wishlist finds an unlikely fan in my septuagenarian father, who when he heard me playing it remarked that "I wish I was the messenger and all the news was good" was a killer line

Their most relaxed album to date, real songwriting chops. "Wishlist" and "Given to Fly" are top-tier PJ, "All Those Yesterdays" comes close. But I voted for "Faithfull" because of its quiet changes.

"expecting to fly" was the first Pearl Jam single i really liked. a lot of yield has this lost, lonely, yearning feel that really stood out to me.

I bought this CD when it came out and was probably my last one from this band. I remember liking it a lot at the time, will have to revisit before voting.

Just learned that the hidden track is known as "Hummus". A pleasing coincidence considering my.aforementioned recollective association with a miserable school trip to Greece

voted for "MFC," love that one

a few weeks ago, a guest host on World Cafe played "Wishlist" but referred to Yield as the band's FOURTH album, which really irritated me. then like a week later on the same station a local DJ on the same station talked about Matt Cameron leaving PJ and played..."Wishlist" again! not a Matt Cameron track!

Even though this is my second favourite PJ album, and one I return to possibly the most often these days, I never bothered with Binaural or anything after that. I guess by that time I was at uni, and felt I had grown out of US alt-rock, gravitating towards electronic music and hip-hop. Grunge was definitely not a cool thing to be into c2000.

But it does make me wonder if I should give these later album a go. I think I tried to listen to Binaural a little while ago and nothing stuck. Apparently it's meant to be a bit more experimental than Yield (which in my mind is plenty, if subcutaneously, strange), but it sounded very straightahead

Nice to have an excuse to revisit this one. I was in 10th grade and it was my first "new" PJ, though by this point I think I had acquired the previous three and knew them pretty well. The "they're rocking again!" marketing undersold how well they'd folded in the more varied palettes of Vitalogy and No Code.. a bit like R.E.M. did with New Adventures, after Monster. In this case, I think, the Yield mix of elements kinda became their fundamental sonic turf in the years ahead: crunchier, roomier, with space to spread out live. Of course, I missed that transition, in my version of dog latin's story - Binaural came out right as I graduated high school, I never really connected with it, and I moved on to other things.

Oddly, on today's listen, Yield is really reminding me of some of the latter-day Tom Petty records that scott took us through last year. I feel like Tommy was reaching for the kind of seasoned, laid-back quality of things like "Wishlist," and "Low Light," which I found a little "boring" back then but which are actually lovely songs and recordings. Instead, I was originally hooked in by the loudest rockers like "Do the Evolution" and "Brain of J." I can't really stand the former now, while the latter works precisely because it has the gentler section leavening things. "Given to Fly" negotiates that shift as a classic "quiet verse, loud chorus," and quite effectively so. It's certainly the one that will get stuck in my head most from this album. The fool-on-the-hill narrative is a little trite but when Eddie puts some gusto into the delivery, the lyrics land beautifully.

I still think this is a "consistent B- to B+, but no As" kind of CD. Not a bad thing to be!

Pulling the lever for "Given to Fly," just over "In Hiding" and "Low Light" (which are both better-developed but have never given me goosebumps).

Yield came out right at a time when my Pearl Jam fandom was briefly waning: my attentions were pretty heavily focused on Australian music at the time & I was less and less grunge- pilled & looking away from the bands that had captivated me as a teen. Putting away childish things etc. So when I heard the first single “Given To Fly” on the radio. I was fucking PISSED OFF because all I heard at first blush was a “Goin To California” ripoff
and i was immediately like, welp they’re cooked I’m done I’m far too mature and urbane for this etc etc.

They announced the tour for the album and they were playing at a stadium ~literally down the road from my house, I coukd have easily walked ~ and I said no eff these guys I dont want to get a ticket i’m not going.

i was in a fairly nascent online friendship w Mr Veg at the time & when i told him all the above he just gave me a “rmde”, burned me a copy of Yield onto cd and put it in the mail - something like “just hang onto it in case you change your mind later.”

Of course I did come back around. OF COURSE I LOVE THIS ALBUM NOW.
And, of course, I still kick myself for blowing off that 98 Yield show aaaaargh

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pearl-jam/1998/centre-court-melbourne-australia-4bd667f6.html

but hey
we learn and we grow

for context I was 22 at the time)

damn, pretty killer setlist, too!

i dont want to talk about it

j/k

Given To Fly. I basically wrote a crappy novel inspired by it at uni.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fce0CUrFmGU

A sign language performance of Given to Fly

Vintage TV used to show that version a lot. Was my introduction to the song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

pretty good spread!

i am bummed wishlist didnt get any love, it’s a sentimental fave

Two people voted for "Hummus" though, lol. I do love that one. It's impressive too that these guys were good enough musicians to be able to pastiche that style so successfully.

Along with Wishlist, I'm surprised No Way didn't get a vote - definitely one of my favourites on the whole album, and up there with Push Me, Pull Me and Faithful which also surprisingly only scored pretty low.

Gah, forgot to vote, I'm not really a PJ fan but I have a lot of time for this album and No Code. Would've gone for Low Light or Pilate I think.

i do love "In Hiding," i was pretty excited to hear that on the radio once in the waning days of random Pearl Jam deep cuts getting airplay.

"Do The Evolution" still cracks me up, i remember when the album came out and my brother and i were like 'this is almost like them doing a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song'

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

looking back at some of my own songwriting, seems I've been subconsciously influenced by the "I'm the first mammal to wear pants, yeah" line on more than one occasion

surprised to realize "In Hiding" was not even a 'promotional' single - 99X gave it a real honest push for a brief spell. it was a waning time for alt-rock's biggest acts, and alt-rock radio hadn't really found its next gear yet. so i'm sure the entire establishment wanted very much for this album to do better, and for THIS to be the track that crystallized audience enthusiasm. no dice. and then hilariously the next year it's their charity cover of an early-60s dead-teenager ballad that technically gives them their biggest hit ever. (obvious asterisk for their enormous, omnipresent first hits, sidelined by Billboard physical-singles rules etc.)

"In Hiding" did chart so it's possible there was some manner of label promo. "Better Man" and "Corduroy" got SO much more airplay than any of Vitalogy's 3 official singles that it wouldn't surprise me if Epic was quietly doing some kind of radio promotion for the more accessible Pearl Jam songs while the band got to make their sometimes quirkier picks for retail singles.

makes a lot of sense!

Pearl Jam - No Code (1996) poll

^^ almost missed the new thread!