Absolutely! Jack Irons truly added another dimension to the songs. This is far and away my favorite album. Great review, you need to do Yield next! It's my second favorite, once again Jack added so much to songs like Given to fly, Brain of J, No Way, Do the Evolution, Faithfull and Wishlist.
Stone Gossard does the vocals for Mankind. I've always thought of it as PJs ode to Mike Watt who was indeed a member of an 80s punk band Minutemen but the song kind of reminds me of his work in his band Firehose from around the mid 90s
Off He Goes still just absolutely destroys me. Heartbreaking and beautiful. So great to see you continuing to check out Pearl Jam one of my all time favorite bands!!
No Code and Yield are my favorite PJ albums and both would rank highly on my list of favorite albums of the 90s. The "grunge" is largely gone and it's just good melodic alt-rock. They're really diverse collections of songs with a lot of introspective lyrics.
Been waiting for this reaction and enjoyed it! At the time No Code was made Pearl Jam was working closely with Neil Young (check out his 1995 album “Mirror Ball” which was a collaboration with Pearl Jam) and I think the influence old Uncle Neil had on the band is evident on No Code. Up next for your Pearl Jam reactions is the “Yield” album from 1998. Looking forward to it!
My first listen to this album was during that Covid lockdown year. There were lots of Pearl Jam albums I haven't listened to at the time, and I had lots of free time.
YES MOLLY!!!....Always Loved 'No Code' one of my absolute fave PJ albums!!!...Cant wait for you to listen to 'Yield' by them too. ...Keep up the amazing content Molly, you are one of the very best around when it comes to pure/honest reactions.
Great review! This CD was college for me, I listened to this so many times... really love it. So many memories and this was wasnt far away. I really like the arrangement of this CD, the mix of energy and pace and chill and relaxing really works.
No code is one of Pearl Jam's most overlooked gems and more people need to give that a listen. Especially with songs like Hail Hail, and Who we are. Now to ask this question, which album do you like the most? My pick has to be Ten. Has to be! It's the album that defined my teen years, it's just an absolute classic. Vs is in 2nd, and a toss up between virology and their newest album Dark Matter for 3rd.
PJ is still a frickin great band. I do recommend listening to the band that literally spawned PJ: Mother Love Bone. Andrew Wood's untimely passing led to some of his former bandmates to link up with Eddie Vedder and form PJ.
Love this one & thank you for sharing this! They put out “Who You Are” as the first radio single & some just didn’t get it so this is a real demarcation line in their history. Luckily I decided to do my first album review in our HS newspaper about it so I had to listen several times. And Smile was an early favorite for me too! And definitely please check out their next album called Yield. Jack Irons drums on that one too so it’s essential PJ listening imo.
This was definately Pearl Jam at their most experimental. They went through a phase where they didn't want everything they did to be praised. They wanted to shake things up and you can tell from the first song. They usual opened with a rocker and this one didn't. It's a great album.
Jack Irons is the drummer on this album and really influences the sound of this album but also the vibe moving forward. The next three albums are where Matt Cameron rejoins the band since Temple of the Dog.and really where Pearl Jams music matures. Yield, Binaural, and Riot Act are next.
10:53 That is “Slide guitar” where instead of pressing your fingers onto the fretboard and using the frets to determine the pitch of the note, you use a hard object, typically a glass or metal tube that goes over one of your fingers, and the position of that object on the string(s) determines the pitch. This lets you slide it up and down the guitar neck to create that seamless change in pitch. Typically the guitar will be tuned totally different from standard to allow for playing chords with the slide
i know this is unrelated to the video, but your Instagram posts are really beautiful. they remind me of these simple yet meaningful paintings you'd find in a museum.
Lots of people have probably beaten me to it but: Mike McCready plays slide guitar using a Zippo lighter on Red Mosquito Stone Gossard sings the lead vocals on Mankind Jeff Ament uses a bowed upright bass on I'm Open
i hope you do their next album Yield . it features my all time favorite Pearl Jam song. the No Code cd was cool as it came with polaroid type pictures and each cd had different ones. they were the pics that made up the cover of cd.
Pearl Jam's next (5th) album is called "Yield" and it's a personal favorite. So please do that one some day. Thank you for this one; always nice to see people check out your favorite music... 😀
Underrated album of theirs. Always enjoyed it. I will say if you miss the straightforward rock sound of earlier Pearl Jam, you should enjoy the next album, Yield. So yes, you should continue on with their discography. PJ is one of those bands where you should continue the journey all the way to the present day. There's all kinds of gems I'm sure you'd enjoy. :)
"Binaural," would be cool. Definitely not my favorite album of theirs, but has some decent songs and one of my absolute favorite Pearl Jam songs "Thin Air."
Binural and riot act are my 2 favorite PJ albums but no code and yeild have a place in my top still.. my band covers present tense and off he goes also
I think No Code was the apex in Pearl Jam trying to push things in wild directions from the grunge tag that Seattle bands at the time were being labelled. While I don’t listen to them as much as Nirvana or Alice In Chains, I respect them a ton for albums like this :) Edit: Stone Gossard (one of the guitarists) does the vocals on Mankind
Definitely a turn in Pearl Jam’s sound, but this album grows on you until you wake up one day and realize it’s a masterpiece. This was the album that saved Pearl Jam from Pearl Jam, led by the wise sage of Jack Irons on drums. Hail, Hail might be my favorite PJ song ever, then again in all fairness I have 10 of those. Monster album and if you’re willing to give it multiple listens it will reward you with some of their best work.
Hi Molly, It would be great if you were the first to do a review of a TAD album. They were the creative heart of the scene. Kurt Danielson was the best bass player. TAD was heavy in every sense of the word. He started out as a drummer - like Dave Grohl and Phil Collins - and was great friends with Kurt Cobain. TAD - God's Balls - Satan's Chainsaw is a favorite, other strong songs are Boiler Room, Hollow Man, Tuna Car, Daisy. TAD - 8-Way Santa - standouts are Red Eye Angel, Halcyon Nights, Emotional Cockroach, Particle Accellerator. TAD - Live Alien Broadcasts - Paregoric, all the songs are good. All the songs are heavy, well crafted, creative, and basically were the core of the Grunge sound, along with Skinyard, Green River, Melvins and Gravel.
No Code was a big change for Pearl Jam back in the day but it’s become one of my favourite Albums of theirs. In My Tree and Off He Goes are two of my favourites. Smashing Pumpkins Machina soon? 😊
I can see this being a grower, it's definitely a different style for Pearl Jam but a lot of great tracks on No Code. I'll definitely try and get to Machina really soon! I'd love to hear more from the Smashing Pumpkins :)
@ yeah it’s definitely a grower but once it really clicks with you it’s an amazing Album. I think it’s actually holds up today better than any of their other Albums. Mankind is a Stone Gossard song btw and he’s on vocals.
No Code is a great, restrained album. It may take a couple listens to fully appreciate it. FYI, "Mankind" is sung by Stone Gossard (guitarist), not Eddie :-). Definitely keep going, the next album, Yield, is fantastic (has more rocking/punky songs as well). It's the one that got me into Pearl Jam as a 12 year old.
I wasn't a big fan of this album when I was younger but as I got older it became one of my favorites by them. Also I will say at least react to the next album Yield and maybe even the Unplugged set.
I'm probably not covering any new ground here but this is the album that fractured the initial fan base. If you liked No Code you probably followed the band to the present, but for a lot of fans this is when the band lost them. While I can't deny the raw power of the first 2 albums, I love where they went with Vitalogy and No Code. No Code debuted a new drummer named Jack Irons. This is the album where Vedder really changed up his vocals. I personally believe it was a combination of all the copycats at this point in time plus I have a feeling he blew out his voice during the VS/Vitalogy tour.
Yeah, honestly, after VS, i found myself drawn to only about 1 in 7 Pearl Jam songs. Many of the grunge era bands evolved and changed in new directions, but Pearl Jam seemed to choose folk and bluegrass and adult contemporary paths to define themselves and lean away from their original sound. This is fine, it's just not my cup of tea.
Like I said... Pearl Jam went into a 'Grateful Dead' phase of their sound on 'No Code'... and fans were disappointed that the grunge rock sound was mostly missing. So, the record debuted at #1 and dropped off the charts, selling somewhat over platinum in the US. I could tell that u found this record somewhat underwhelming... Their 1998 album 'Yield' went back to a hard rock sound but it hardly sold better, debuting at #2 in the US and sold platinum (1 million copies)... Pearl Jam lost ground to newer bands at the time, like KoRn... Creed ... Limp Bizkit... Marilyn Manson... Tool... The same thing happened to Queensryche after they switched from their brand of modern, progressive metal... into an adult rock sound after 2000. Their singer Geoff Tate called the shots and it was later revealed that those Queensryche records released from 2006 to 2011 were done by studio musicians and not the band members. After Geoff Tate was fired in 2012, Queensryche hired a younger metal vocalist Todd LaTorre and rejuvenated their metal sound on their newer records. Pearl Jam released 'Binaural' in 2000 and it was similar to 'No Code' but w/ more indie punk rock sound on some songs... Their 2002 album 'Riot act'... was another experimental foray into 'Grateful Dead' musical territory and the record sold disappointingly at half million copies in the US (It sold well in Australia, charting at #1 there) Pearl Jam did take an admirable stance against the 2003 Gulf War... vocally opposing the US invasion of Iraq by the W. Bush administration w/ the track 'Bu$hleaguer' (Track #12 on 'Riot Act') Pearl Jam did return to their hard rock roots w/ their 2006 self-titled album... and their 2009 album 'Backspacer'... which debuted at #1 in the US.
Do you get album reactions from users/patreons or from your own making? Seems like most of your reactions are from a very specific demographic of people, and not much branching out
The only album I didn’t like by Pearl Jam too much influence by Neil Young who’s a terrible singer - made some heaters though. Hail Hail is traditional Pearl Jam classic sound. On my best of play list I only kept Who You Are Present tense In my tree On my Pearl Jam Animated playlist (rockin comp) I included Hail, Hail Lukin Habit Not a good album but individually each song has its own Merits.
I could never get in to this album. It seems deliberately trying to push away the grunge fans. Lots of Pearl Jam fans love this album, but it just not one of my favs. I think the next album Yeald is much better and easier listen. No Code is very divisive. People either love it or hate it. I am in the latter.
For nearly 30 years this has been my favorite Pearl Jam record. It's an absolute masterpiece thanks to the drumming of Mr Jack Irons.
I noticed the drumming really standing out on this album too, he's a fantastic musician.
@@mollyesanbornJack Irons is also on the next studio album, Yield. A beautiful Pearl Jam album.
Respect for this viewpoint. I resisted this for a long time cuz I thought they did Dave A dirty. But this album is phenomenal.
Absolutely! Jack Irons truly added another dimension to the songs. This is far and away my favorite album.
Great review, you need to do Yield next! It's my second favorite, once again Jack added so much to songs like Given to fly, Brain of J, No Way, Do the Evolution, Faithfull and Wishlist.
@RobertBoyd-j6w Yup. No Code is my favorite record but Yield is their best record.
Yay! More Pearl Jam! Can't wait for you to get to Yield, It's my favorite.
Some one of real taste, my fave too
Stone Gossard does the vocals for Mankind. I've always thought of it as PJs ode to Mike Watt who was indeed a member of an 80s punk band Minutemen but the song kind of reminds me of his work in his band Firehose from around the mid 90s
Off He Goes still just absolutely destroys me. Heartbreaking and beautiful. So great to see you continuing to check out Pearl Jam one of my all time favorite bands!!
In 'Red Mosquito', Mike McCready used a lighter in place of a slide on his guitar for the sound you're hearing - Nick.
This just made an awful day MUCH better. Thank you so much 🙏
No Code and Yield are my favorite PJ albums and both would rank highly on my list of favorite albums of the 90s. The "grunge" is largely gone and it's just good melodic alt-rock. They're really diverse collections of songs with a lot of introspective lyrics.
Eddie is ICONIC. Jeff Ament and Mike McCready and Stone Gossard are guitar legends. More Pearl Jam, please. 🤞✌️
My favorite Pearl Jam album
Such a great album.
Damn I miss the 90s.
Been waiting for this reaction and enjoyed it! At the time No Code was made Pearl Jam was working closely with Neil Young (check out his 1995 album “Mirror Ball” which was a collaboration with Pearl Jam) and I think the influence old Uncle Neil had on the band is evident on No Code. Up next for your Pearl Jam reactions is the “Yield” album from 1998. Looking forward to it!
No Code is my absolute favorite album, but I do hope you do Yield next, too, because it's great as well!
My first listen to this album was during that Covid lockdown year. There were lots of Pearl Jam albums I haven't listened to at the time, and I had lots of free time.
YES MOLLY!!!....Always Loved 'No Code' one of my absolute fave PJ albums!!!...Cant wait for you to listen to 'Yield' by them too. ...Keep up the amazing content Molly, you are one of the very best around when it comes to pure/honest reactions.
Off He Goes. What a song ❤
Great review! This CD was college for me, I listened to this so many times... really love it. So many memories and this was wasnt far away. I really like the arrangement of this CD, the mix of energy and pace and chill and relaxing really works.
Amazing album
No code is one of Pearl Jam's most overlooked gems and more people need to give that a listen. Especially with songs like Hail Hail, and Who we are. Now to ask this question, which album do you like the most? My pick has to be Ten. Has to be! It's the album that defined my teen years, it's just an absolute classic. Vs is in 2nd, and a toss up between virology and their newest album Dark Matter for 3rd.
Gracias por seguir reaccionando a Pearl jam una de mis bandas favoritas, saludos desde Argentina
yay the beautiful Molly good band reaction
PJ is still a frickin great band. I do recommend listening to the band that literally spawned PJ: Mother Love Bone. Andrew Wood's untimely passing led to some of his former bandmates to link up with Eddie Vedder and form PJ.
Yay. No Code
Love this one & thank you for sharing this! They put out “Who You Are” as the first radio single & some just didn’t get it so this is a real demarcation line in their history.
Luckily I decided to do my first album review in our HS newspaper about it so I had to listen several times. And Smile was an early favorite for me too! And definitely please check out their next album called Yield. Jack Irons drums on that one too so it’s essential PJ listening imo.
This was definately Pearl Jam at their most experimental. They went through a phase where they didn't want everything they did to be praised. They wanted to shake things up and you can tell from the first song. They usual opened with a rocker and this one didn't. It's a great album.
Jack Irons is the drummer on this album and really influences the sound of this album but also the vibe moving forward. The next three albums are where Matt Cameron rejoins the band since Temple of the Dog.and really where Pearl Jams music matures. Yield, Binaural, and Riot Act are next.
Jack irons plays on yield. Cameron joined after the album was released
Finally! Thanks for listening.
cool reaction. Best wishes for you in the festive season and New Year.
"Who You Are" and "Present Tense" are my jams from this record. I didn't get into as much of their earlier albums. Love your analysis!
10:53 That is “Slide guitar” where instead of pressing your fingers onto the fretboard and using the frets to determine the pitch of the note, you use a hard object, typically a glass or metal tube that goes over one of your fingers, and the position of that object on the string(s) determines the pitch. This lets you slide it up and down the guitar neck to create that seamless change in pitch. Typically the guitar will be tuned totally different from standard to allow for playing chords with the slide
i know this is unrelated to the video, but your Instagram posts are really beautiful. they remind me of these simple yet meaningful paintings you'd find in a museum.
Can’t believe I missed this! I’ve been getting into Pearl Jam lately too
Lots of people have probably beaten me to it but:
Mike McCready plays slide guitar using a Zippo lighter on Red Mosquito
Stone Gossard sings the lead vocals on Mankind
Jeff Ament uses a bowed upright bass on I'm Open
i hope you do their next album Yield . it features my all time favorite Pearl Jam song. the No Code cd was cool as it came with polaroid type pictures and each cd had different ones. they were the pics that made up the cover of cd.
Pearl Jam's next (5th) album is called "Yield" and it's a personal favorite. So please do that one some day. Thank you for this one; always nice to see people check out your favorite music... 😀
Underrated album of theirs. Always enjoyed it.
I will say if you miss the straightforward rock sound of earlier Pearl Jam, you should enjoy the next album, Yield. So yes, you should continue on with their discography. PJ is one of those bands where you should continue the journey all the way to the present day. There's all kinds of gems I'm sure you'd enjoy. :)
In "I'm Open", Jeff is playing a fretless bass with a bow. That's the deep tone you're hearing.
I've always thought this was a very underated album in their catalogue.
Kind regards from Poland🇵🇱
Thanks for watching!
This one is art to me 😊😊
Nothing like 90’s Pearl Jam
"Binaural," would be cool. Definitely not my favorite album of theirs, but has some decent songs and one of my absolute favorite Pearl Jam songs "Thin Air."
"In My Tree" is a nod to the Beatle's Strawberry Fields Forever "no one I think is in my tree, it must be high or low"
I'm anxious to see your reaction to Yield, their most underrated album.
Yield isn't underrated. Anything after Yield is underrated though
Binural and riot act are my 2 favorite PJ albums but no code and yeild have a place in my top still.. my band covers present tense and off he goes also
You should do When The Kite String Pops by Acid Bath!
That album is at the top of my list! I'll try and get to it within the next couple of weeks, can't wait to hear it.
@ it’s incredible! You’ll love it :)
@@PopTartMan-dk2qqseconded! One of the best albums from the Sludge/Stoner Metal world :)
Next " Yield "
it took some to me to get used to No Code, then it clicked!
the voice in "mankind" is stone gossard (guitar player), ;D
I think No Code was the apex in Pearl Jam trying to push things in wild directions from the grunge tag that Seattle bands at the time were being labelled.
While I don’t listen to them as much as Nirvana or Alice In Chains, I respect them a ton for albums like this :)
Edit: Stone Gossard (one of the guitarists) does the vocals on Mankind
Definitely a turn in Pearl Jam’s sound, but this album grows on you until you wake up one day and realize it’s a masterpiece. This was the album that saved Pearl Jam from Pearl Jam, led by the wise sage of Jack Irons on drums. Hail, Hail might be my favorite PJ song ever, then again in all fairness I have 10 of those. Monster album and if you’re willing to give it multiple listens it will reward you with some of their best work.
This is the album when they started using more musical styles and variations with their sound
Hi Molly,
It would be great if you were the first to do a review of a TAD album.
They were the creative heart of the scene. Kurt Danielson was the best bass player. TAD was heavy in every sense of the word. He started out as a drummer - like Dave Grohl and Phil Collins - and was great friends with Kurt Cobain.
TAD - God's Balls - Satan's Chainsaw is a favorite, other strong songs are Boiler Room, Hollow Man, Tuna Car, Daisy.
TAD - 8-Way Santa - standouts are Red Eye Angel, Halcyon Nights, Emotional Cockroach, Particle Accellerator.
TAD - Live Alien Broadcasts - Paregoric, all the songs are good.
All the songs are heavy, well crafted, creative, and basically were the core of the Grunge sound, along with Skinyard, Green River, Melvins and Gravel.
Definitely a favourite. Yield's great as well, although maybe their last great album.
No Code was a big change for Pearl Jam back in the day but it’s become one of my favourite Albums of theirs. In My Tree and Off He Goes are two of my favourites. Smashing Pumpkins Machina soon? 😊
I can see this being a grower, it's definitely a different style for Pearl Jam but a lot of great tracks on No Code. I'll definitely try and get to Machina really soon! I'd love to hear more from the Smashing Pumpkins :)
@@mollyesanbornbasically if it’s got the classic lineup of Billy, James, Darcy & Jimmy then it’s worth listening to :)
@ yeah it’s definitely a grower but once it really clicks with you it’s an amazing Album. I think it’s actually holds up today better than any of their other Albums. Mankind is a Stone Gossard song btw and he’s on vocals.
No Code is a great, restrained album. It may take a couple listens to fully appreciate it. FYI, "Mankind" is sung by Stone Gossard (guitarist), not Eddie :-). Definitely keep going, the next album, Yield, is fantastic (has more rocking/punky songs as well). It's the one that got me into Pearl Jam as a 12 year old.
Around the bend is s lullaby
Mankind is Stone Gossard on vocals. ✌️
I wasn't a big fan of this album when I was younger but as I got older it became one of my favorites by them.
Also I will say at least react to the next album Yield and maybe even the Unplugged set.
I'm probably not covering any new ground here but this is the album that fractured the initial fan base. If you liked No Code you probably followed the band to the present, but for a lot of fans this is when the band lost them. While I can't deny the raw power of the first 2 albums, I love where they went with Vitalogy and No Code. No Code debuted a new drummer named Jack Irons. This is the album where Vedder really changed up his vocals. I personally believe it was a combination of all the copycats at this point in time plus I have a feeling he blew out his voice during the VS/Vitalogy tour.
Yeah, honestly, after VS, i found myself drawn to only about 1 in 7 Pearl Jam songs. Many of the grunge era bands evolved and changed in new directions, but Pearl Jam seemed to choose folk and bluegrass and adult contemporary paths to define themselves and lean away from their original sound. This is fine, it's just not my cup of tea.
His vocals sound different on mankind because it isn't Eddie singing.
🤠
Burzum self titled album
Thanks for the suggestion :)
@@mollyesanborn your welcome
Like I said... Pearl Jam went into a 'Grateful Dead' phase of their sound on 'No Code'... and fans were disappointed that the grunge rock sound was mostly missing. So, the record debuted at #1 and dropped off the charts, selling somewhat over platinum in the US.
I could tell that u found this record somewhat underwhelming...
Their 1998 album 'Yield' went back to a hard rock sound but it hardly sold better, debuting at #2 in the US and sold platinum (1 million copies)... Pearl Jam lost ground to newer bands at the time, like KoRn... Creed ... Limp Bizkit... Marilyn Manson... Tool...
The same thing happened to Queensryche after they switched from their brand of modern, progressive metal... into an adult rock sound after 2000. Their singer Geoff Tate called the shots and it was later revealed that those Queensryche records released from 2006 to 2011 were done by studio musicians and not the band members.
After Geoff Tate was fired in 2012, Queensryche hired a younger metal vocalist Todd LaTorre and rejuvenated their metal sound on their newer records.
Pearl Jam released 'Binaural' in 2000 and it was similar to 'No Code' but w/ more indie punk rock sound on some songs... Their 2002 album 'Riot act'... was another experimental foray into 'Grateful Dead' musical territory and the record sold disappointingly at half million copies in the US (It sold well in Australia, charting at #1 there)
Pearl Jam did take an admirable stance against the 2003 Gulf War... vocally opposing the US invasion of Iraq by the W. Bush administration w/ the track 'Bu$hleaguer' (Track #12 on 'Riot Act')
Pearl Jam did return to their hard rock roots w/ their 2006 self-titled album... and their 2009 album 'Backspacer'... which debuted at #1 in the US.
Great stuff.
If you're bored unthought known is them at their best.
I think No Code was the last great PJ record. It’s a bit hit or miss from here on, even though I love Binaural
Do you get album reactions from users/patreons or from your own making? Seems like most of your reactions are from a very specific demographic of people, and not much branching out
Not their best album. But not bad either. You get to see the more delicate side of Pearl Jam.
Will you react to LOVE AND DEATH albums???
(Head's sideband from Korn)
Now you mention it YES WEEZER LIKE lol I don’t like weezer
The only album I didn’t like by Pearl Jam too much influence by Neil Young who’s a terrible singer - made some heaters though.
Hail Hail is traditional Pearl Jam classic sound.
On my best of play list I only kept
Who You Are
Present tense
In my tree
On my Pearl Jam Animated playlist (rockin comp) I included
Hail, Hail
Lukin
Habit
Not a good album but individually each song has its own Merits.
I could never get in to this album. It seems deliberately trying to push away the grunge fans. Lots of Pearl Jam fans love this album, but it just not one of my favs. I think the next album Yeald is much better and easier listen. No Code is very divisive. People either love it or hate it. I am in the latter.
No code might be their best record, so much genres and experimenting