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No Code

Pearl Jam - No Code Audio CD

A fair review of the Pearl Jam "No Code" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Pearl Jam reviews here, or go back to the Pearl Jam tabs.

Band: Pearl Jam
Title: No Code
Rating:

Release Date: 1996-08-27
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Sometimes 2: Hail Hail 3: Who You Are 4: In My Tree 5: Smile 6: Off He Goes 7: Habit 8: Red Mosquito 9: Lukin 10: Present Tense 11: Mankind 12: I'm Open 13: Around the Bend

My absolute favorite Pearl Jam album
Their collection wouldn't be complete without it obviously, but this album adds a little something extra and just makes it different from all the others. All Pearl Jam fans need this album. My favorite song is "Red Mosquito" and I find myself listening to this album when I just need something random and off the wall to listen to. And the album cover alone is enough to keep you interested. Again, different but genius. Well done, PJ.

Pearl Jam In Experimental Mode
The line-up now included the founding members Jeff Ament on bass, Eddie Vedder on vocals/guitar, Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Mike McCready on lead guitar plus new drummer Jack Irons, a former member of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The fourth album from the group "No Code" came out in 1996 and it continues with the experimentation that the band started with 1994's "Vitalogy". As with "Vitalogy", the thirteen compositions selected for release were recorded during multiple sessions and using many different studios in the time span of July of '95 until May '96.

The group chose a rather unusual way of starting the album: a two-minute and a half number written by Vedder on his own titled "Sometimes". Lyrically it brings forward the issue of spirituality. It is a very strange and experimental song with an arrangement that does not follow the usual verse/chorus/verse structure. Unlike the album openers on the three previous LPs, this one is very quiet and moody. The melodies provided by the guitars give off a mysterious feel and a somewhat dark atmosphere to the track. It has always been one of my favorites! After the fade-out, the crunchy chords of "Hail, Hail" come rushing in without warning. Musically, it could be considered modern garage rock! The verse and the chorus blend perfectly and towards the later half, a new arpeggio sequence is introduced that runs until the end. For a change comes the eastern-influenced "Who You Are" where drummer Irons gets a songwriting credit. His polyrhythmic percussion dominates the track. A flawless performance from him for sure! However another example of Irons' songwriting and drumming abilities comes with "In My Tree". The verses here have a slight pop feel while the chorus feels a little more aggressive. Before its concluding fade-out, the guitar was filtered through a Leslie organ speaker. The pace slows down considerably for "Smile". The combination of the bright, electric rhythm guitar chording with the harmonica gives off a Neil Young vibe here, and it really works. This is another highlight!
Watch out for song number six "Off He Goes". This is an acoustic masterpiece written by Vedder himself! His emotional singing couldn't have been more appropriate given the laid back nature of this track. In the middle, between the second and the third verse, you'll hear a short gentle guitar solo interlude from McCready. For me this song always seems to end rather quickly even though it clocks at 6:01! The mood shifts with "Habit", another garage rock sounding composition also provided by Vedder that could have easily fitted on "Vs. ". Fans of that album will surely enjoy this one. The most remarkable facet for me are the soft harmony background vocals in that part where the drumming stops and the chords are left to ring out and towards the end. The arrangement left room for McCready to deliver a feedback/bluesy solo right before the fade out.
"Red Mosquito" finds McCready playing with a lead guitar tone that is slightly reminiscent of Robbie Krieger of The Doors but the verses and chorus are surprisingly much more melodic. A worthy addition to the LP that was written by all five members! The fast paced, one-minute "Lukin'" follows using a chord pattern that would have been right at home on a Nirvana song! Excellent! Before you blink, it's over and the ballad "Present Tense" starts. During the slow verse/chorus part, the guitars have an atmospheric set up. The tempo picks up somewhat in the middle and Vedder adds what sounds like a tribal chant for a few seconds while Ament manages to play a few slaping bass lines. Very interesting song that's actually hard to describe! The band prepared a surprise with "Mankind": for the first time, another member of the group gets to sing the lead vocals! Gossard did a fine job here on this punk-pop sounding tune. For me, one of their most underrated!
The psychedelic composition "I'm Open" was a collaboration between Irons and Vedder, who speaks through the verses and sings only the chorus. The lyrics have a surrealistic vibe describing a man who is locked in a room with no doors. The instrumentation is very atmospheric, laid-back, and trippy. Definitely, one of the groups' most unusual songs! Closing out the LP comes "Around The Bend" with Irons providing another inventive percussion pattern with some acoustic guitar and piano on top. It has a lullaby feel, and Vedder successfully applies the soft vocal delivery required. Great finish!

If you want to hear the experimental side of this Seattle group, then this album should do the trick!
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later.

Gets better with time.
At the time it was an unintentional purchase (forgot to send back one of their release of the month cards) but I thought that I would give it a listen just so it wasn't a waste of money. I got this CD when it first came out through Columbia House. At first it didn't stack up to previous Pearl Jam releases. But after listening to it a few times I started to like it, then over the years, fall in love with the album. It's almost a friend now, about once a month I have to pop it back in my CD player and it's just. . . about as near perfection as an album can be. It's honest and that's just so rare.

Take five steps backward, look around, re-focus
The cover of No Code confounds and confuses, as does the album in it's entirety. Apple, outlet, Dennis Rodman's eye, pool ball, rotting teeth, zipper. This album was released during a time when no one seemed to be able to quite figure out the point or overall goal of Pearl Jam in rock music. Jumping from mainstream rock anthems to hard rock, grunge, acoustic balladry, blues, classic rock revival, experimental junk rock, and back again within the span of one album, let alone their entire career, made Pearl Jam a hard band to pin in any area, and upon first listens, some songs or albums may appeal to some listeners and not others. Pearl Jam are a band that writes and plays whatever they feel like, exploring a wide range of issues, while still maintaining artistic integrity and an excellent sense of pure rock and roll. No Code is arguably Pearl Jam's most diverse, jumpy, and spontaneous album to date, and probably the most prone to being misunderstood. What the hell is Pearl Jam trying to say with this set of thirteen seemingly unrelated songs? What the hell are Pearl Jam all about anyway?

My experience with Pearl Jam has stretched through my entire lifetime, since I was very young and my mother played the records and I heard them on the radio, to my childhood when she stuck with the band when the media did not, to my early high school years when I rediscovered the band and countless songs and hooks that colored my childhood, to now when I am progressively rounding up all the stray material and learning why exactly I enjoy them. When I popped No Code into my stereo years ago, probably six years after it was actually released, I recognized some of the songs and did not recognize others. This scramble of familiarity made things all the more confusing, yet kept me that much more interested and willing to stick with the album.

I began asking myself questions, because that is exactly what adolescents do. They ask themselves questions that they can't answer, mostly because they are too lazy and don't want to work hard enough to find the answers. Why do I like this album? Why does the album juxtapose (well, maybe I didn't know words THAT big) hard rockers awkwardly next to quiet ballads? Why does Who You Are, the song that sounds like it SHOULD be the opener, come third in the line? Who is Jerome Turner? Why does Eddie narrate the lyrics to I'm Open? Is Lukin even a word? Why did this album only come with nine Polaroids with song lyrics on them, not even coving all the songs? And what is with all this cover art, indecipherable phantasmagoria?

It took me several years of occasional listening to unwrap No Code and get to the point where I enjoyed it fully. The songs that stood out on first listen were Hail Hail and Off He Goes, simply because I recognized them. Experiences like the ones I had with these songs were the reason that I started to get so interested in music in the first place. The nostalgia, rushes of memories, and sense of vague familiarity were what made many albums in my mothers collection feel like buried treasure. Although I gravitated to those songs in particular, there were several more that struck me as outwardly fantastic, such as the other single Who You Are. The aforementioned song is nothing short of a masterpiece for Pearl Jam and an accurate representation of No Code. It swirls into view with a pounding beat and is dotted with many tidbits of foreign instrument, such as steel drums and sitars. The sitar is used again to it's full potential by the time the song has revealed it's winning hook and cemented it's place in the listeners ears. That paired with a wonderful guitar solo makes it one of the finest songs on the album.

This excellence is not lonely. It's easy for me to say that every song on this album is really great, but from a commercial standpoint, Pearl Jam knew how to put their best foot forward with No Code by producing three singles which would become radio staples. Hail Hail, Who You Are, and Off He Goes are all fantastic songs in their own right, and all coming from three completely different directions. Hail Hail is one hell of a riff rocker, Who You Are is an eclectic anthem, and Off He Goes is a gentle acoustic ballad that rivals Daughter in sheer quality. These songs would be enough to reel in the casual listener, which would then be hit hard with all the other great things Pearl Jam has to say here. Every song is finely tuned and unique; Sometimes is a reflective prayer, In My Tree is a driving explosion of glorious sound, Habit is as angry and rhythmic as the preceding album Vitalogy's Spin The Black Circle, and I'm Open is poetry recited over gentle ambient chords and soft beats. This album has about as much continuity and order to it as a fleeting stage one dream.

And yet somehow it works. No Code ends with Around The Bend, a deceptively simple lullaby of tropical style. This ending is deceptive, but ultimately satisfying and beautiful. The listener naturally expects some kind of stylistic answer or solution within that last song, and this might be yet another unsatisfying venture on the first listen. But like the whole album, it opens up with a little time. This is the brilliant code that is communicated through the album perfectly, that is, there is no code. The second you start to pin down a pattern or style in Pearl Jam, they will undoubtedly change or surprise you. The only way to fully appreciate No Code, and Pearl Jam, is to take several steps backward and look at the full picture. Pearl Jam are an excellent band that make whatever music they want to, with whatever message they feel. The entire notion that Pearl Jam cast away their fan base by becoming more experimental is a sad misconception. Pearl Jam never attempted to alienate anyone. It is not their fault that they have a strong desire to push their creative boundaries, and it is not their fault that their true fans were revealed in the process. In any case, No Code is the keystone to Pearl Jam's discography, and the picture of excellence by which the rest of their albums should be judged, even their earlier, more revered works such as Ten. It might not make any sense at first, but that makes it all the more fun. No Code is a puzzle which can be solved in a number of ways, all yielding the same solution, a transcendent masterpiece.

Smart mid-career triumph
It certainly fulfills the mellow contract Vedder signed which Vitalogy had been hinting towards, and though we see some rough spots straining to fulfill the musical wishes of fans past, present, and future (in particular their former heavy-rocking screamers which impressed on V take a beating here) the album remains a well-rounded snapshot of a thoughtful band in flux, in no small part from so many of the impressive transitions McCready and company impart on unsuspecting formulas. Arguably their last great work. .

You can see a complete list of all Pearl Jam discography, or go back to the Pearl Jam tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.