Related Directory Categories
- Albums and Frames (79)
- Wedding (27)
- Reports and Photo Albums (19)
- Albums (12)
- Albums (11)
- Flip Albums (8)
- Albums and Frames (7)
- Arch Allies (4)
- Richard D. James Album (4)
- Live-Plus (3)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Binaural (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Binaural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Pearl Jam | |||||
| Released | May 16, 2000 | ||||
| Recorded | September 1999 – January 2000 at Studio Litho, Seattle, Washington | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | ||||
| Length | 52:05 | ||||
| Label | Epic | ||||
| Producer | Tchad Blake, Pearl Jam | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Pearl Jam chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Singles from Binaural | |||||
|
|||||
Binaural is Pearl Jam's sixth studio album, released on May 16, 2000 through Epic Records. As of 2007, Binaural has been certified gold in the United States.
Contents |
For this album Pearl Jam brought in producer Tchad Blake, known for his use of binaural recording. The album's title is a reference to the binaural recording techniques that were utilized on several tracks. These tracks can usually be identified by a warm sound to the music, such as the acoustic "Of the Girl" as well as an asterisk next to the name on the track list. Binaural was the first album since the band's debut that was not produced by Brendan O'Brien, although O'Brien was called in later to remix several tracks.
This is the first Pearl Jam studio album following the departure of drummer Jack Irons, and features Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden, which at that time had recently disbanded. Eddie Vedder has admitted that while working on the album he suffered from writer's block, which made it difficult for him to come up with lyrics.[1] This apparently inspired the secret track "Writer's Block" that appears at the end of the album. Vedder had written music for several songs, but was having trouble coming up with lyrics. He decided to not write any more music, and to focus only on lyrics, even banning himself from playing guitar. Unable to write more lyrics, Vedder said he saw a ukulele and thought "that's not a guitar" and wrote the song "Soon Forget" using the ukulele.[2]
Binaural found the band dabbling with experimental art rock. The album is the band's first to not contain any cursing in the lyrics, despite the ferocity of some of the music and subject matter. "Soon Forget" is heavily influenced by The Who song "Blue, Red and Grey" (from The Who by Numbers LP). Eddie thanks Pete Townshend on the lyric sheet. Additionally, the intro to the opening track "Breakerfall" uses the riff from the song "I Can See for Miles" by The Who. Guitarist Stone Gossard penned the lyrics for three songs on the album ("Thin Air", "Of the Girl", and "Rival"), and bassist Jeff Ament for two ("Gods' Dice" and "Nothing As It Seems").
The cover art image for this album is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of the Hourglass Nebula. Hubble Space Telescope photos of the Helix Nebula and Eagle Nebula are also featured in the inside cover and liner notes for this album, respectively. The photos were used with the permission of NASA.[3]
Binaural sold 226,000 copies during its first week of release and debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Binaural became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status. The album achieved gold status in the US,[4] selling just over 700,000 copies.
Binaural included the singles "Nothing As It Seems" and "Light Years". "Nothing As It Seems" reached #3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The song "Grievance" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2001.[5] The album's 2000 tour spawned an enormous collection of official bootleg releases, thereby setting the record for the number of albums one band sent to the Billboard Top 200 simultaneously.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
All information taken from All Music Guide.[6]
- "Breakerfall" (Eddie Vedder) – 2:19
- "Gods' Dice" (Jeff Ament) – 2:26
- "Evacuation" (Matt Cameron, Vedder) – 2:56
- "Light Years" (Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Vedder) – 5:06
- "Nothing As It Seems" (Ament) – 5:22 *
- "Thin Air" (Gossard) – 3:32
- "Insignificance" (Vedder) – 4:28
- "Of the Girl" (Gossard) – 5:07 *
- "Grievance" (Vedder) – 3:14
- "Rival" (Gossard) – 3:38 *
- "Sleight of Hand" (Ament, Vedder) – 4:47 *
- "Soon Forget" (Vedder) – 1:46 *
- "Parting Ways" (Vedder) – 7:17
- Contains the hidden track "Writer's Block"
- Asterisk (*) denote the use of binaural recording techniques
When the tracklisting for Binaural was first released in late March 2000, it was quite different from the final version.[7] Some tracks that were originally on the album were dropped and not released until the Lost Dogs compilation and "Gods' Dice" was added to the final version. The original version looked like this:
- "Breakherfall"
- "Insignificance"
- "Evacuation"
- "Letter to the Dead"
- Later renamed to "Sad"
- "Rival"
- "Grievance"
- "Light Years"
- "Of the Girl"
- "Thin Air"
- "Nothing As It Seems"
- "Fatal"
- "Sleight of Hand"
- "Soon Forget"
- "In the Moonlight"
- "Parting Ways"
- "Education"
All information taken from various sources.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Australian Albums Chart | 1 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 1 | |
| The Billboard 200 | 2 | |
| Top Canadian Albums | 2 | |
| Top Internet Albums | 2 | |
| German Albums Chart | 4 | |
| UK Albums Chart | 5 | |
| Irish Albums Chart | 6 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Nothing As It Seems" | Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | Australian Singles Chart | 7 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | UK Singles Chart | 22 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | Irish Singles Chart | 27 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | New Zealand Singles Chart | 42 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | US The Billboard Hot 100 | 49 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | 3 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | US Modern Rock Tracks | 10 | |
| "Nothing As It Seems" | German Singles Chart | 98 | |
| "Light Years" | Canadian Singles Chart | 13 | |
| "Light Years" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | 17 | |
| "Light Years" | US Modern Rock Tracks | 26 | |
| "Light Years" | UK Singles Chart | 52 |
All information taken from All Music Guide.[20]
- Eddie Vedder – guitar, vocals, ukulele
- Stone Gossard – guitar
- Jeff Ament – bass
- Mike McCready – guitar
- Matt Cameron – drums
- April Cameron – viola
- Justine Foy – cello
- Mitchell Froom – keyboard, harmonium
- Pete Thomas – percussion
- Wendy Melvoin – percussion
- Dakota – canine vocal
- Tchad Blake, Pearl Jam – production
- Brendan O'Brien, Tchad Blake – mixing
- Matt Bayles – engineering
- Ashley Stubbert, Adam Samuels – 2nd engineers
- R. Sahai, J. Trauger, WFPC2 science team, NASA – front cover
- R. O'Dell, K.P. Handron, NASA – inside cover
- J. Hester, P. Scowen, NASA – booklet cover
- Jerome Turner – album concept
- Jeff Ament – inside photography
- Tchad Blake – portraits
- Liz Burns – assistance with NASA photos
- ^ Gabriella. "Interview with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam". NYRock.com. August 2000.
- ^ Vedder, Eddie. "KROQ Interview with EV 5/12/2000". KROQ-FM. May 12, 2000.
- ^ Ament, Jeff. "CFOX radio's Jeff O'Neil with Jeff Ament and Mike McCready". CFOX-FM, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. May 11, 2000.
- ^ Gold and Platinum Database Search. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
- ^ 43rd Grammy Awards. Rockonthenet. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Binaural. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ "Binaural Tracklisting!". fivehorizons.com. March 29, 2000.
- ^ Pearl Jam – Billboard Albums. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ Pearl Jam - Binaural. Billboard. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ Chartverfolgung / Pearl Jam / Longplay. musicline.de. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ EveryHit.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
- ^ PEARL JAM - BINAURAL (ALBUM). New Zealand-charts.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ Pearl Jam Artist Chart History. Billboard. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
- ^ Pearl Jam – Billboard Singles. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ PEARL JAM - NOTHING AS IT SEEMS (SINGLE) (4284). Australian-charts.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ The Irish Charts - All there is to know. Irishcharts.ie. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ Chartverfolgung / Pearl Jam / Single. musicline.de. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=771927#771927. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ PEARL JAM - NOTHING AS IT SEEMS (SONG). New Zealand-charts.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ Binaural: Credits at All Music Guide. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
| Preceded by Affirmation by Savage Garden |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album May 22, 2000 |
Succeeded by Mad Season by Matchbox Twenty |
| Preceded by Bardot by Bardot |
RIANZ number-one album May 28, 2000 |
Succeeded by Play by Moby |