Binaural (album)

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Binaural
Studio album by Pearl Jam
Released	May 16, 2000
Recorded	September 1999 - January 2000 at Studio Litho, Seattle, Washington
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	51:58
Label	Epic
Producer(s)	Tchad Blake, Pearl Jam
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Entertainment Weekly (B) 5/19/00, p.74 The Music Box 7/00 NME (9/10) 5/13/00, p.33 Q 7/00, p.121 Robert Christgau (Honorable Mention *) link Rolling Stone 6/8/00 Spin 7/00, p.149
Pearl Jam chronology
Live on Two Legs (1998)	Binaural (2000)	Riot Act (2002)

Binaural is Pearl Jam's sixth studio album, released on May 16, 2000. The album's title is a reference to the binaural recording techniques that were utilized on several tracks. Binaural sold 226,000 copies during its first week of release and would end up selling just over 700,000 copies, becoming the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Album design 3 Track listing 4 Original Tracklisting 5 Sample clip 6 Singles 7 Album charts 8 Singles charts 9 Certifications 10 Credits 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Overview

Several tracks on Binaural were recorded using binaural recording techniques, hence the title. These 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.

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. The album is also the band's first to not contain any swear words in the lyrics, despite the ferocity of some of the music and subject matter. 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 says he saw a ukulele and thought "that's not a guitar" and wrote the song "Soon Forget" using the ukulele.^[2] "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.

Binaural included the singles "Nothing As It Seems" and "Light Years". The haunting "Nothing As It Seems" reached #3 on the Mainstream Rock Charts while the hard-hitting "Grievance" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2001. 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.

[edit] Album design

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]

[edit] Track listing

1. "Breakerfall" (Vedder) – 2:19
2. "Gods' Dice" (Ament) – 2:26
3. "Evacuation" (Cameron, Vedder) – 2:56
4. "Light Years" (Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 5:06
5. "Nothing As It Seems" (Ament) – 5:22 *
6. "Thin Air" (Gossard) – 3:32
7. "Insignificance" (Vedder) – 4:28
8. "Of the Girl" (Gossard) – 5:07 *
9. "Grievance" (Vedder) – 3:14
10. "Rival" (Gossard) – 3:38 *
11. "Sleight of Hand" (Ament, Vedder) – 4:47 *
12. "Soon Forget" (Vedder) – 1:46 *
13. "Parting Ways" (Vedder) – 7:17
    • Contains the hidden track "Writer's Block"

• Asterisk (*) denote the use of binaural recording techniques

[edit] Original Tracklisting

When the tracklisting for Binaural was first released in late March 2000, it was quite different from the final version. 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:

1. "Breakherfall"
2. "Insignificance"
3. "Evacuation"
4. "Letter To The Dead"
   • Later renamed to "Sad"
5. "Rival"
6. "Grievance"
7. "Light Years"
8. "Of The Girl"
9. "Thin Air"
10. "Nothing As It Seems"
11. "Fatal"
12. "Sleight Of Hand"
13. "Soon Forget"
14. "In The Moonlight"
15. "Parting Ways"
16. "Education"

[edit] Sample clip

[edit] Singles

• "Nothing As It Seems" / "Insignificance" (2000)
• "Light Years" / "Grievance" (Live) / "Soon Forget" (Live) (2000)

[edit] Album charts

Album	Year	Chart	Position
	2000	The Billboard 200	No. 2
	2000	Top Canadian Albums	No. 2
	2000	Top Internet Albums	No. 2
	2000	German Albums Chart	No. 4
	2000	UK Albums Chart	No. 5
	2000	Irish Albums Chart	No. 6

[edit] Singles charts

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	Canadian Singles Chart	No. 1
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	Australian Singles Chart	No. 7
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	UK Singles Chart	No. 22
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	Irish Singles Chart	No. 27
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	US The Billboard Hot 100	No. 49
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	US Mainstream Rock Tracks	No. 3
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	US Modern Rock Tracks	No. 10
2000	"Nothing As It Seems"	German Singles Chart	No. 98
2000	"Light Years"	Canadian Singles Chart	No. 13
2000	"Light Years"	US Mainstream Rock Tracks	No. 17
2000	"Light Years"	US Modern Rock Tracks	No. 26
2000	"Light Years"	UK Singles Chart	No. 52

[edit] Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA	Gold	June 21, 2000

[edit] Credits

Pearl Jam:

• Eddie Vedder - Guitar, Vocals, Ukulele
• Stone Gossard - Guitar
• Jeff Ament - Bass
• Mike McCready - Guitar
• Matt Cameron - Drums

Additional musicians:

• April Cameron - Viola
• Justine Foy - Cello
• Mitchell Froom - Keyboard, Harmonium
• Pete Thomas - Percussion
• Wendy Melvoin - Percussion
• Dakota - Canine Vocal

Additional Personnel:

• Produced by Tchad Blake and Pearl Jam
• Mixed by Brendan O'Brien and Tchad Blake
• Engineered by Matt Bayles
• 2nd Engineers - Ashley Stubbert, Adam Samuels

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Binaural Lyrics

Pearl Jam
Jeff Ament | Stone Gossard | Mike McCready | Eddie Vedder | Matt Cameron
Boom Gaspar | Dave Krusen | Matt Chamberlain | Dave Abbruzzese | Jack Irons
Discography
Albums: Ten | Vs. | Vitalogy | No Code | Yield | Binaural | Riot Act | Pearl Jam
Live Albums and Compilations: Live on Two Legs | Official Bootlegs | Lost Dogs | Live at Benaroya Hall | Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003 | Live in NYC 12/31/92 | Live at Easy Street
Videos: Single Video Theory | Touring Band 2000 | Live at the Showbox | Live at the Garden
Singles: "Alive" | "Even Flow" | "Jeremy" | "Oceans" | "Go" | "Animal" | "Daughter" | "Dissident" | "Spin the Black Circle" | "Immortality" | "Not For You" | Merkin Ball | "Who You Are" | "Off He Goes" | "Hail, Hail" | "Given to Fly" | "Wishlist" | "Last Kiss" | "Nothing As It Seems" | "Light Years" | "I Am Mine" | "Save You" | "Love Boat Captain" | "Man of the Hour" | "World Wide Suicide" | "Life Wasted"
Related content
Articles: Green River | Grunge music | Mother Love Bone | Bad Radio | Temple of the Dog | Soundgarden | Singles | Brad | Mad Season | Neil Young | Three Fish | Wellwater Conspiracy
Categories: Grunge musicians | Pearl Jam | Pearl Jam Albums | Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs | Pearl Jam Songs | Pearl Jam Tours
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