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Any idea if the 10 Club edition is supposed to come with any decent downloadable extras later on down the line? Am I missing something here? From what I can tell we can just download some wallpaper, look at some photos and browse concerts that are for sale.

 

 

 

Found the answer to my own questions, if anyone is interested. Apparently Pearl Jam sent out an email that I did not receive:

 

 

The Target version of the CD and the iTunes version contain 2 free concert downloads chosen from a list of 11 PJ shows. Stay tuned for details on free concert downloads from the vault through the Ten Club version of the CD.

 

Sounds promising.

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Found the answer to my own questions, if anyone is interested. Apparently Pearl Jam sent out an email that I did not receive:

 

 

The Target version of the CD and the iTunes version contain 2 free concert downloads chosen from a list of 11 PJ shows. Stay tuned for details on free concert downloads from the vault through the Ten Club version of the CD.

 

Sounds promising.

They were very vague about the delivery details on all fronts. I am not pleased with the distribution this time around.

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They were very vague about the delivery details on all fronts. I am not pleased with the distribution this time around.

same as usual

they sent the 10c versions out a day or two earlier-most that pre-ordered from the 10c had it before every one else

 

and have faith

there will be free downloads for the 10c pre-orders, probably a better selection!

 

just a little late and less than forthcoming with details-as usual

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Just picked it up at Target today (why the Sunday release date?). I had to ask someone for it, who then realized that it was supposed to come out today and started stocking them.

 

Aside from the Pearl Jam cover, the artwork for the last three albums has been horrible.

the band has become very indulgent when it comes to the artwork (i.e. they let ament do his thing or another artist)

some of the new artwork is cool, some of it, not so much

but i would not say its hideous

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Just picked it up at Target today (why the Sunday release date?). I had to ask someone for it, who then realized that it was supposed to come out today and started stocking them.

 

Aside from the Pearl Jam cover, the artwork for the last three albums has been horrible.

 

Was the Sunday release meant for Target stores only? I got my copy at Newbury comics which is anything but "Big Box"

 

For the artwork, this album instantly made me think of...

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QNq0NdpCuCQ/SZmig048EZI/AAAAAAAADds/z2HcVOPPlx8/s320/The+Offspring+-+Americana+(1998).jpg

 

http://www.showmejoe.com/research/Offspring_AmericanaBack.jpg

 

Through 2 listens I give the artwork a F and the album a B, bordering on a B+

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johhny guitar is the best song on the record IMHO (except for that damn fade out)

classic vedder vocals and a punkish riff

And I love just breathe.

 

Ditto on these comments.

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the "vault" shows are all from like '04-'05-'06-'08 and have all been released already. it's lame

thats just for the target and record store versions

they have not yet opened the link for the 10c version

 

and that list you mention includes two of the best shows in the last few years

grand rapids 06

hartford 08

 

a nice little bonus imho

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For those of you who are interested, the only thing different about the Target and Ten Club versions is the packaging. The Ten Club version is in a "book" style and contains some artwork that's also included on the vinyl, whereas the Target version is standard packaging.

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For those of you who are interested, the only thing different about the Target and Ten Club versions is the packaging. The Ten Club version is in a "book" style and contains some artwork that's also included on the vinyl, whereas the Target version is standard packaging.

 

 

That email I quoted the other day almost sounds like the "vault" shows for the indie/10C edition will be different from the Target shows. Perhaps we're talking '90's shows - something worthy of the term "vault."

 

I'm probably wrong, but a girl can dream.

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I'm still waiting for my 10c copy to arrive :(

 

I did get my hands on a copy though and have been listening. I still think Got Some is the best song on the ablum, but i do love amongst the waves, just breathe, and force of nature a lot too.

 

Some of these may be better live. A lot of folks seem to love unthought known and it just has not captured me yet.

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I'm still waiting for my 10c copy to arrive :(

 

I did get my hands on a copy though and have been listening. I still think Got Some is the best song on the ablum, but i do love amongst the waves, just breathe, and force of nature a lot too.

 

Some of these may be better live. A lot of folks seem to love unthought known and it just has not captured me yet.

yeah

im not big on unthought known HATE the piano-coldplay anyone?

 

bummer about the 10c copy

 

Johnny guitar is my fav on this record. Vedder lets it rip on that song.

 

Seattle show tonight.

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I've heard a couple of tracks on radio, couldn't tell you which ones, but both sounded great!

 

I was never actually a massive PJ fan but still seem to have most of their albums and a live DVD. This one shall be keenly added to that collection.

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yeah

im not big on unthought known HATE the piano-coldplay anyone?

 

bummer about the 10c copy

 

Johnny guitar is my fav on this record. Vedder lets it rip on that song.

 

Seattle show tonight.

 

again you mention a coldplay comparison for "unthought known". are you deaf, or do you just think that a rock band incorporating a piano makes them sound like coldplay? surprised you like wilco, they use a lot of piano.

...sorry if that was a little harsh, not really trying to start a message board argument, but that statement is just ridiculous. it sounds like PEARL JAM! and that song is going to be epic live. easily a standout track on the album.

 

 

...i had to edit this, i didn't even read the whole thing, just saw the coldplay comparison again. anyway, i see now that you are going to the seattle show tonight? hopefully they play "unthought known". if they do, please come back and let us know how it sounded live.

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still waiting for my 10c copy to arrive... :realmad

 

anyway i like the album. It won't be a special pj album to me but it has some cool songs.

 

So far i would rank them like this:

 

Got Some

Force of Nature

Amongst the Waves

Just Breathe

Unthought Known (this one has really been growing on me)

The End

Supersonic

The Fixer

Gonna See My Friend

Johnny Guitar

Speed of Sound

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I like this quite a bit. Much better than anything they have done since Yield. Pitchfork doesn't seem to think so though...

 

4.9

 

If you're between the ages of, say, 25 and 35, chances are you either significantly overrate or underrate Pearl Jam. Either you carry a certain nostalgist's sentiment for one of your early rock touchstones (I fall into this camp), or you view them as the root of all that was overwrought and evil about mid-to-late-90s guitar music. Sure, everyone knows PJ sold eleven trillion albums between 1991 and '94, but still I imagine it's difficult for relative young'uns to reconcile how strong an opinion so many people in a specific demographic have about a group that hasn't been commercially or critically relevant for over a decade.

 

Backspacer, the group's 10th studio album, seems to suggest in its tossed-off 37 minutes that Pearl Jam have no greater concern and regard for what they do than the rest of the world can muster. Virtually the whole record settles into the same formula the band's been dutifully churning out since the dawn of the millennium-- lively but almost utterly hookless riff-driven hard rock. Lather, rinse, repeat. And when I say "riff-driven" I really mean "almost entirely riff-dependent," because musically the riffs themselves are typically the only things worth your attention.

 

PJ's long-dormant punk and hardcore proclivities (ugh, "Lukin") have been rising to the surface with greater regularity in recent years, and I'll admit in short bursts this bulldozing approach can be somewhat satisfying. The opening four songs kick-start and then keep up a certain pleasing level of propulsiveness, with the goofily fast-and-loose "Gonna See My Friend" (hey, is that an actual bassline I hear?) and Thin Lizzy-ish double entendres of "Johnny Guitar" being particularly listenable. Sooner or later, however, you remember these guys wouldn't know a melody if it bit them in the ass. What's worse, this chugging blitzkrieg negates the power of the band's greatest weapon, Eddie Vedder's voice, which can display its craggy richness and masculine grace only when the band isn't trying to break land-speed records. (I know some folks hate Ed's singing, but it mostly seems like they're reacting to the fact that his voice launched a thousand Nickelbacks, which is like hating "The Simpsons" because of "Family Guy" or "American Dad".)

 

The gentle "Just Breathe" might seem like the perfect opportunity for Vedder to finally dust off those resonant pipes, but instead he sings the tune with a distractingly country-ish catch in his voice, plus the tune is numbingly syrupy and the lyrics, after a promisingly pointed start ("I'm a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love") devolve into tedium. The same hit-or-miss sensitivity marks "The End"-- Vedder inexplicably finds it necessary to remind us he's "just a human being" on one song and "just another human being" on the other-- but at least "The End" manages to land on the right side of affecting thanks to its painfully honest depiction of romantic dissolution ("This is not me/ You see/ Believe/ I'm better than this/ Don't leave"). Still, we have to rely on "Amongst the Waves" to deliver anything remotely resembling the soaring anthemics that used to be a PJ trademark (what I wouldn't give for a "Light Years" even). The back half of the album sure isn't inclined to help, largely abandoning even the modest steamrolling enjoyment of the record's initial jolt in favor of thoroughly forgettable mid-tempo dreck, save for "Speed of Sound", which nonetheless sounds like a band trying to be the Ramones minus the fun.

 

It's an extremely odd thing to say about a band that for three or four years was the biggest rock megalith on the planet, but nowadays Pearl Jam are the very definition of anonymously workmanlike, seemingly plugging along with their heads down from one colorlessly unimaginative album to the next. Once upon a time this was a group that was on top of the world and yet still took all kinds of bizarre chances, recording shit like lengthy tape experiments and songs about bugs-- often ridiculously self-indulgent, sure, yet always surprising. Now, paradoxically, with the spotlights long since extinguished, Pearl Jam seem content to do things by the book.

 

— Joshua Love, September 22, 2009

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again you mention a coldplay comparison for "unthought known". are you deaf, or do you just think that a rock band incorporating a piano makes them sound like coldplay? surprised you like wilco, they use a lot of piano.

...sorry if that was a little harsh, not really trying to start a message board argument, but that statement is just ridiculous. it sounds like PEARL JAM! and that song is going to be epic live. easily a standout track on the album.

 

 

...i had to edit this, i didn't even read the whole thing, just saw the coldplay comparison again. anyway, i see now that you are going to the seattle show tonight? hopefully they play "unthought known". if they do, please come back and let us know how it sounded live.

whoa nelly!!!

:blink

take it easy man I am deaf so be kind-

 

just kidding

 

Sorry, but I close my eyes and I can hear Chris Martin singing this song-its got that over-produced grand arena rock sound which I just dont like-same with amongst the waves. I enjoy the piano with some bands, but not PJ.

 

I was not at the show last night, but I did see some vids of unthought, and the keys were almost non-existent-perhaps I will like it better when I hear it live. I loved when ed played it solo acoustic in new jersey last year. The production on the fixer, unthought and amongst are not to my liking tis all. But hey, Im glad you enjoy them.

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