So If There Were No Angels, Would There Be No Sin? Pearl Jam - Yield

 

The band read Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael while writing and recording the album. Mike McCready said the title Yield is reflective of just that … yielding to getting older and wiser, comfortable with not taking the angry side to things and just letting go. ~Doing the Evolution RockDaily.com. 1998

Yield, the fifth album from Pearl Jam released on February 3^rd, 1998 was straight up rock with a side of literary mixed with some existential reflection. With Eddie Vedder sitting back and allowing the band to take on some of the writing, Yield is an amalgam of the styles, stories, and feelings of the whole band. Even the musical production was more of a team effort. Lyrically, this is a wonderful, poetic, literary, and contemplative album. Musically, it is way more structured and polished. And these are both good things.

Ament stated that everybody really got a little bit of their say on the record...because of that, everybody feels like they're an integral part of the band. Weisbard, Eric, et al. Ten Past Ten. Spin. August 2001.

 The critics noticed Pearl Jam's maturity on this album and many were thankful for it. It wasn't written for the radio, this album was written for the band and for those who grew with Pearl Jam from the angry flannel Dr. Marten days. 

They want you to hear Yield as an album rather than as a pop-culture event, distancing themselves even further from their anthem mongering, trauma-sharing, flannel-flaunting youth. Pearl Jam might not be the generational spokesmodels they used to be, but they’ve grown up to be a looser, livelier band, writing sharper tunes to fit their dense, intricate guitar fuzz. Before, the band’s best songs were the change-of-pace ballads: the brawny acoustic strumming of “Daughter,” “Nothingman” and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” Yield marks the first time Pearl Jam have managed to sustain that mood for a whole album. ~Rolling Stone Yield by Mark Shefield March 1998~

On a personal note. When I think of or hear any song from this album, I think of a long car ride with doubt and fear and the red dashboard lights of a Pontiac on an early fall night. Isn't amazing how music does that?

 

Let’s break down Yield track by track.

Brain of J

Opening is very reminiscent of Vs. We’re being told what to believe, how to behave, this is one of the heavier songs on the album and should not be used to judge the vibe of the album. 

Faithful

A song about understanding, being tired, and constantly controlled. Yelling, crying, believing.

No Way

A matter-of-fact kind of song (and music) that is about just accepting that you don’t have to keep trying to prove yourself. It’s a song that builds as if a crowd begins to grow one by one in the same feeling on a march to a park.

Given to Fly

The song everyone says sounds like Led Zeppelin’s Goin’ to California … meh, possibly. I can hear it faintly but any comparison ends there for me. However, this is one of the most beautiful and powerful songs on the album. It’s to the person whose been beat down and counted down for the count.

The song begins deceivingly peaceful and you’re hit with that wave of the ocean, that fist to the jaw, still wanting to help others feeling imprisoned and trapped, all freed into flight as the song again slows.

Wishlist

Simple

Beautiful

I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me

I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me

I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good

I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro’s hood

Pilate

One of the literary inspired songs on the album.  Jeff Ament was having a re-occurring dream about a dog on his porch. In Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, Pilate’s best friend is his dog Banga…if you were wondering what Like Pilate I have a dog was referring to. It’s an interesting and very artistic interpretation and comparison of his own dream and Pilate.

This masterpiece of a book also inspired Patti Smith in her album, Banga – so highly recommend this book.

Do the Evolution

Second song inspired by a novel. This time it was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

It’s happened. Everything in this song has happened. Technology has taken over everything as has greed and corruption.  The End.

The Color Red

We’re all crazy. Very Schroeder keyboard circusy here.

MFC

Throwback to Vs for me for the sound alone. This is the perfect pissed off, get out of town, driving song.

 

Low Light

Aments reply to his own dream and confusion as to the dog dream.

I’ll find my way from wrong, what’s real.

The dream I see

 

In Hiding

Inspired by Charles Bukowski’s habit of hiding away for days, this song is sweeping in feeling. The feeling of the song is 180 degrees different from holding one's breath and shutting down.

Push Me, Pull Me

Another contemplative song on this album that questions everything and the “push and pull” of questioning existence.

 

All Those Yesterdays

This song is essentially saying, why don’t you relax.