210 - Neil Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

I can see how someone would really enjoy this album. Several songs are a quiet stroll through meditations of love, loss, and anguish. The violin/fiddle solo in "Running Dry" emotes so much to my ears. But I'm just not a big fan of Neil's falsetto. Don't get me wrong, I actually do like it in small doses - a song here and there. But once you put two songs back to back, I start to lose interest.

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere starts off strong with the fuzzy guitar riffs, handclaps, and harmonized vocals of "Cinnamon Girl." Then things slow down a bit with the title track. And then...the album comes to an abrupt stop to me. "Round and Round (It Won't Take Long)" has a title that lies. The song does take long. It is slow, repetitious, and nearly six minutes long. I would probably like it if it was only two minutes long and merely complain about the sluggishness.

As I've struggled to find the words to articulate exactly what it is that bothers me about Neil Young, it all seems to boil down to the plodding aspect of many of the songs on the album. I have a clear preference for the rocking songs here, but some of them tend to wander in ways or for durations that can test my patience.

Songs I Knew I Liked: None

Songs I Now Like: "Cinnamon Girl" (I don't recall hearing the original before, only covers.), "Down By the River" (I was somewhat familiar with the song previously, but found it to be a favorite while listening to the album)

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: "Round and Round (It Won't Be Long)"- Honestly, I'd enjoy the song if it was only two minutes long instead of nearly six minutes long, "Running Dry (Requiem For the Rockets)"

209 - Pearl Jam - Ten

For a point of clarification, I listened to the 2008 remaster of the album BUT NOT the remix that was done by Brandon O'Brien for the reissue.*

While Nirvana burst onto the scene and declared that a change was happening in rock, Ten deserves credit for pushing "grunge" music to the masses and keeping the mainstream's attention on the various bands from Seattle. Pearl Jam embraced more classic rock tropes than any other grunge band and thus got both critical flack and public love for that approach. Eddie had a way of wearing these influences on his sleeve, but it seems even more clear to me now how Ten blends Neil Young with The Who.

One of the things that grabbed my attention when the album originally was released was the stories behind some of the lyrics. I didn't know at the time that Eddie had created a trilogy with "Once," "Alive," and another song not on the album, but as I laid in bed listening to Ten I frequently envisioned it being performed as a rock opera with my shuffling around the songs from side 1 into my own idea of a story (the mother-son story, entrance of a teen love interest for the son, and a resulting mental snap, and the shooting discussed in "Jeremy"). But side 2 was a rare listen to me.

I find today that my opinion hasn't changed much over time. The first half had me completely gripped and the second side was pretty good but there's a dead spot in the middle for me - "Garden" and "Deep" that "Oceans" and "Release" can't overcome. Overall, the guitars battle with each other with the bass pushing everything along, the drums frequently get thrashed with abandon, and Eddie's growl is something you love or hate about the guy.

Songs I Knew I Liked: "Once," "Evenflow," "Alive," "Black," "Jeremy," and "Oceans"

Songs I Now Like: "Release" and the instrumental&mumbling that bookends the album

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: "Garden" and "Deep"


* The band apparently weren't big fans with how the album was mixed and amount of reverb used. When the 2008 re-release was done, they had a new person mix the album and remove the muddiness. As far as the use of reverb on the original, during the course of my listening sessions, I found it to be integral to how I wanted the music to sound. The constant bit of echo on the vocals gives the music a feel of being in a space such as an armory or small civic center/arena. I do want to say that I did watch/listen to a video on YouTube that swapped back and forth between the two versions of "Alive" and the feel of the song came across much different to me all cleaned up, the guitars cranked, and the drums pushed back in the mix.