.gif)
Binaural (album)
Encyclopedia
Binaural is the sixth studio album
by the American alternative rock
band Pearl Jam
, released on May 16, 2000 through Epic Records
. Following a full-scale tour in support of its previous album, Yield
(1998), Pearl Jam took a short break before reconvening toward the end of 1999 to commence work on a new album. The music on the record featured an experimental
sound, evidenced on songs that utilized binaural recording
techniques.
Binaural debuted at number two on the Billboard 200
. The album became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status. The album's 2000 tour spawned an enormous collection of official bootleg releases
. The album has been certified gold
by the RIAA
in the United States.
, known for his use of binaural recording
. Binaural recording techniques were utilized on several tracks, such as the acoustic
"Of the Girl." The songs are also identified with an asterisk next to the song names in the lyric book. This was the first Pearl Jam studio album following the departure of drummer Jack Irons
, and features drummer Matt Cameron
of Soundgarden
, who had previously drummed on Pearl Jam's U.S. Yield Tour
. Binaural was recorded in late 1999 and early 2000 in Seattle, Washington at Studio Litho, which is owned by guitarist Stone Gossard
.
Similar to the process for Yield
, the band members worked on material individually before starting the recording sessions together. Lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
called the making of the album "a construction job." Binaural was the first album since the band's debut that was not produced by Brendan O'Brien
. Gossard stated that the band "felt like it was time to try something new," and that they "were ready for a change." Regarding Blake, Gossard said, "He was just there for us the whole time, wanting us to create different moods." The album was initially mixed at Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles
, California
with Blake; however, the band proved to be dissatisfied with how the mixes turned out, wanting the songs to sound "heavier." The band then turned to its former producer O'Brien, who was called in to remix several tracks at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia
. It was with O'Brien that the band determined the final sequencing of the album.
During the making of the album the band ran into several problems. 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. This apparently inspired the hidden track
"Writer's Block" that appears at the end of the album, starting at 6 minutes and 50 seconds on the track "Parting Ways". Vedder had written music for several songs, including "Insignificance" and "Grievance", but was having trouble coming up with lyrics for the songs. 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. Guitarist Mike McCready
went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription drug
s. Gossard said that "because Mike wasn't all there, and there was a 'get-to-know-you' thing with Matt, everyone wasn't on the same page."
art rock
. The album opens with three up-tempo songs before growing more diverse. Jon Pareles
of Rolling Stone
said, "Apparently as tired of grunge
as everyone except Creed
fans, Pearl Jam delve elsewhere: jumpy post-punk
and somber meditations, tightly wound folk rock
and turbulent, neopsychedelic
rockers that sound like they boiled out of jam sessions. The album reflects both Pearl Jam's longstanding curse of self-importance and a renewed willingness to be experimental or just plain odd." Vedder explained, "We'd rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that's easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it."
A few songs on the album show classic rock
influences. The intro to the opening track "Breakerfall" uses a guitar riff similar to The Who
song "I Can See for Miles
" (from the 1967 album, The Who Sell Out
). The song "Nothing as It Seems
" has been compared to the style of Pink Floyd
. Additionally, "Soon Forget", which features Vedder playing a ukulele
, is heavily influenced by The Who song "Blue, Red and Grey" (from the 1975 album, The Who by Numbers
). Vedder thanks Pete Townshend
on the lyric sheet.
Bassist Jeff Ament
wrote the lyrics for two songs on the album ("Gods' Dice" and "Nothing as It Seems"), and Gossard for three ("Thin Air," "Of the Girl" and "Rival"). The album is lyrically darker than the band's previous album Yield, with Gossard describing the lyrics as "pretty somber." Vedder addressed the social criticism contained in the album's lyrics by stating, "I think what everyone's looking for, y'know, is freedom...That's part of being comfortable in your own skin. I know I had a problem with being told what to do, and had a problem with being mentally and physically constricted. All of humanity is searching for freedom and I think its important to know when you have it, too." Ament stated that "Gods' Dice" is about "judging anybody who has any sort of belief system whether they believe in God or not." Vedder called "Evacuation" a "song about change." Ament said he wrote "Nothing as It Seems" about his childhood growing up in a rural area of Northern Montana
. Vedder stated in an interview that the moral of "Insignificance" is "the ineffectiveness of political struggle." Vedder took inspiration from the 1999 World Trade Organization protests
in Seattle when writing "Grievance", and said the song is about the dangers of technology. Gossard has said that the song "Rival" is his reflection upon the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
. The album was the band's first to not contain any profanities in the lyrics, despite the ferocity of some of the music and subject matter.
copies during its first week of release and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200
album chart. It was held off the top spot by the Britney Spears
album, Oops!... I Did It Again
. Binaural became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status. Binaural has been certified gold by the RIAA
, and, as of December 2002, has sold 718,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
.
Binaural received generally favorable reviews from music critics according to Metacritic
, where it holds a 69 after 16 reviews. NME
gave Binaural a nine out of 10. In the review, Binaural is called "a seething, furious album; a declamatory statement against cynicism and passivity and the simple injustices of everyday life." It’s also said that "even when the band slow the pace, the songs are coloured by a heartfelt intensity." Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
gave the album four out of five stars, saying, "The songs are sharper, the production is layered, and the performances are as compassionate as ever, resulting in their finest album since Vitalogy
." Time reviewer Christopher John Farley
said that the album is "less impatient and rage filled than much of Pearl Jam's earlier work." Farley added that "Pearl Jam, rather quietly, is building a long-term career to rival the rock legends of the past." Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a B+. He said, "Weighty subjects...[give] Pearl Jam's introspective lyrics and stone-faced rock a refreshing edge." He added, "If PJ long ago lost the zeitgeist, at least they've kept a hold on their hearts." Critic Robert Christgau
described the album as "Rock as inner struggle, eternally externalized."
Spin
gave the album seven out of 10 stars. The review said, "Everything you want is still there—goofy experimentalism, guitar frenzy, Eddie's self-abusive wail. It's just more solid, more clear." Q
gave the album three out of five stars. The review said, "Grunge may have died, but Pearl Jam it seems will never be slayed." Rolling Stone
staff writer Jon Pareles
gave the album three out of five stars, saying that the album "comes across as part of an extended conversation among the five band members...and fans loyal enough to check in for Pearl Jam's latest musings on love, death and social responsibility." The Guardian
also gave the album three out of five stars. In the review it’s stated that Pearl Jam "are dignified, musicianly, sincere... and a teensy bit dull." The review observed that "Vedder's affecting vocal angst drowns in a sea of pessimistic riffola." The review called Binaural "a warts-and-all album; it has grabbers, songs that sink in slowly and a few absolute duds."
Two singles were released from Binaural. The lead single "Nothing as It Seems
" entered the Billboard Hot 100
at number 49, and reached number three on the Mainstream Rock charts. The album's other commercially released single, "Light Years", did not chart on the Hot 100, but it did place on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. At the 2001 Grammy Awards, "Grievance
" received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance
.
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
. Regarding the artwork, Ament said, "The reason that we went with Tchad [Blake] is because he provides an amazing atmosphere to songs....So, I think we wanted the artwork to represent that....One of the themes that we've been exploring...is just realizing that in the big scheme of things, even the music that we make when we come together, no matter how powerful it is, it's still pretty minuscule. I think for me the whole space theme has a lot to do with scale. You know, you look at some of those pictures, and there are thirteen light years in four inches in that picture."
The album's title is a reference to the binaural recording techniques that were utilized on several tracks. Binaural literally means "having or relating to two ears." Regarding the choice of the title, Gossard said, "When we looked up the word 'binaural,' it meant to listen with both ears. So it seemed like a fitting title for the album."
Pearl Jam promoted the album with tours in Europe
and North America
. Pearl Jam's 2000 European tour ended in tragedy on June 30, 2000, with an accident at the Roskilde Festival
in Denmark
. Nine fans were crushed underfoot and suffocated to death as the crowd rushed to the front. After numerous requests for the crowd to step back, the band stopped playing and tried to calm the crowd when the musicians realized what was happening, but it was already too late. The two remaining dates of the tour were cancelled, and the band seriously considered retiring after this event. Pearl Jam was initially blamed for the accident, but the band was later cleared of responsibility.
A month after the European tour concluded, the band embarked on a two-leg North American tour. The first leg of the tour focused on the East Coast of the United States
, and then the band moved to the Midwest
and the West Coast
for the tour's second leg. On performing after the Roskilde tragedy, Vedder said that "playing, facing crowds, being together—it enabled us to start processing it." On October 22, 2000, the band played the MGM Grand in Las Vegas
, Nevada
, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first live performance as a band. Vedder took the opportunity to thank the many people who had helped the band come together and make it to 10 years. He noted that "I would never do this accepting a Grammy or something." The tour's final night took place on November 6, 2000, in Seattle, Washington at KeyArena
where the band performed for more than three hours. The European and North American tours were documented by a long series of official bootlegs
, all of which were available in record stores as well as through the band's fan club. The band released 72 live album
s in 2000 and 2001, and set a record for most albums to debut in the Billboard 200 at the same time. Following the conclusion of the 2000 tour, the band released Touring Band 2000
, a DVD which featured select performances from the North American legs of the tour.
"Writer's Block" at 6:49.
* Asterisk denote the use of binaural recording
techniques
Japanese bonus disc
* Live tracks recorded at the 1999 Bridge School Benefit
.
, and "Gods' Dice" was added to the final version. The original version is as follows:
DVD ("Thunderclap", "Foldback", and "Harmony") come from the early Binaural sessions. Several songs were rejected from the album that eventually found their way on to the 2003 Lost Dogs
collection of rarities. These include "Sad", "Hitchhiker", "In the Moonlight", "Education", "Fatal", and "Sweet Lew". "Sad", originally called "Letter to the Dead", was called "a great pop song" by Ament, but he said the song did not fit the album because the band does not "really [write] very many pop records." "Sweet Lew", about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
, was cut from Binaural because it did not fit the album according to Ament. "Fatal" was producer Tchad Blake's favorite song to come out of the recording sessions. "Strangest Tribe" and "Drifting" were also recorded around the time of the album's recording sessions, and both songs were released on the band's 1999 fan club Christmas single as well as Lost Dogs.
Additional musicians and production
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, released on May 16, 2000 through Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
. Following a full-scale tour in support of its previous album, Yield
Yield (album)
Yield is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code , Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up...
(1998), Pearl Jam took a short break before reconvening toward the end of 1999 to commence work on a new album. The music on the record featured an experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
sound, evidenced on songs that utilized binaural recording
Binaural recording
Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is often created using a technique known as "Dummy head...
techniques.
Binaural debuted at number two on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. The album became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status. The album's 2000 tour spawned an enormous collection of official bootleg releases
Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs
The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...
. The album has been certified gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in the United States.
Recording
For its sixth album, Pearl Jam brought in producer Tchad BlakeTchad Blake
Tchad Blake is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician.He has worked with numerous artists and musicians, including State Radio, Apartment 26, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Brazilian Girls, Sheryl Crow, November 2nd, Travis, Marike...
, known for his use of binaural recording
Binaural recording
Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is often created using a technique known as "Dummy head...
. Binaural recording techniques were utilized on several tracks, such as the acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
"Of the Girl." The songs are also identified with an asterisk next to the song names in the lyric book. This was the first Pearl Jam studio album following the departure of drummer Jack Irons
Jack Irons
Jack Steven Irons is an American musician who is best known as the original drummer of the American rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as the former drummer for Eleven and Pearl Jam. He has also worked with Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Spinnerette...
, and features drummer Matt Cameron
Matt Cameron
Matthew David "Matt" Cameron is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the American rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...
of Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
, who had previously drummed on Pearl Jam's U.S. Yield Tour
Yield Tour
The Yield Tour was a concert tour by the American rock band Pearl Jam to support its fifth album, Yield.-History:Pearl Jam promoted Yield with tours in Oceania, and North America in 1998. Following the tour of Australia and before its summer tour of North America began, drummer Jack Irons left the...
. Binaural was recorded in late 1999 and early 2000 in Seattle, Washington at Studio Litho, which is owned by guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
.
Similar to the process for Yield
Yield (album)
Yield is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code , Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up...
, the band members worked on material individually before starting the recording sessions together. Lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
called the making of the album "a construction job." Binaural was the first album since the band's debut that was not produced by Brendan O'Brien
Brendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
. Gossard stated that the band "felt like it was time to try something new," and that they "were ready for a change." Regarding Blake, Gossard said, "He was just there for us the whole time, wanting us to create different moods." The album was initially mixed at Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
with Blake; however, the band proved to be dissatisfied with how the mixes turned out, wanting the songs to sound "heavier." The band then turned to its former producer O'Brien, who was called in to remix several tracks at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. It was with O'Brien that the band determined the final sequencing of the album.
During the making of the album the band ran into several problems. Vedder has admitted that while working on the album he suffered from writer's block
Writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
, which made it difficult for him to come up with lyrics. This apparently inspired the hidden track
Hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
"Writer's Block" that appears at the end of the album, starting at 6 minutes and 50 seconds on the track "Parting Ways". Vedder had written music for several songs, including "Insignificance" and "Grievance", but was having trouble coming up with lyrics for the songs. 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
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
and thought "that's not a guitar," and wrote the song "Soon Forget" using the ukulele. Guitarist Mike McCready
Mike McCready
Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription drug
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...
s. Gossard said that "because Mike wasn't all there, and there was a 'get-to-know-you' thing with Matt, everyone wasn't on the same page."
Music and lyrics
Binaural found the band dabbling with experimentalExperimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
art rock
Art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
. The album opens with three up-tempo songs before growing more diverse. Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said, "Apparently as tired of grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
as everyone except Creed
Creed (band)
Creed is an American rock band formed in 1995 in Tallahassee, Florida. Becoming popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band has released three consecutive multi-platinum albums, one of which has been certified diamond, and has sold over 28 million records in the United States, with an...
fans, Pearl Jam delve elsewhere: jumpy post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
and somber meditations, tightly wound folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and turbulent, neopsychedelic
Neo-psychedelia
Neo-psychedelia is music that emulates or is heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the 1960s. It began to be revived among British post-punk bands of the later 1970s and early 1980s and was taken up by groups including bands of the Paisley Underground and Madchester scenes, as well as...
rockers that sound like they boiled out of jam sessions. The album reflects both Pearl Jam's longstanding curse of self-importance and a renewed willingness to be experimental or just plain odd." Vedder explained, "We'd rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that's easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it."
A few songs on the album show classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
influences. The intro to the opening track "Breakerfall" uses a guitar riff similar to The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
song "I Can See for Miles
I Can See For Miles
"I Can See for Miles" is a song written by Pete Townshend of The Who, recorded for the band's 1967 album, The Who Sell Out. It was the only song from the album to be released as a single, on 14 October 1967...
" (from the 1967 album, The Who Sell Out
The Who Sell Out
-Track listing:All songs written by Pete Townshend except where noted. The between song jingles apparently have no official titles and are not listed anywhere on the original album packaging, though they are listed in the inner booklet of the 1995 remaster.Side one...
). The song "Nothing as It Seems
Nothing As It Seems
"Nothing as It Seems" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by bassist Jeff Ament, "Nothing as It Seems" was released on April 25, 2000 as the first single from the band's sixth studio album, Binaural . The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...
" has been compared to the style of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
. Additionally, "Soon Forget", which features Vedder playing a ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
, is heavily influenced by The Who song "Blue, Red and Grey" (from the 1975 album, The Who by Numbers
The Who by Numbers
The Who by Numbers is the seventh album by English rock band The Who, released on 3 October 1975 in the United Kingdom through Polydor Records, and on 25 October 1975 in the United States by MCA Records...
). Vedder thanks Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
on the lyric sheet.
Bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
wrote the lyrics for two songs on the album ("Gods' Dice" and "Nothing as It Seems"), and Gossard for three ("Thin Air," "Of the Girl" and "Rival"). The album is lyrically darker than the band's previous album Yield, with Gossard describing the lyrics as "pretty somber." Vedder addressed the social criticism contained in the album's lyrics by stating, "I think what everyone's looking for, y'know, is freedom...That's part of being comfortable in your own skin. I know I had a problem with being told what to do, and had a problem with being mentally and physically constricted. All of humanity is searching for freedom and I think its important to know when you have it, too." Ament stated that "Gods' Dice" is about "judging anybody who has any sort of belief system whether they believe in God or not." Vedder called "Evacuation" a "song about change." Ament said he wrote "Nothing as It Seems" about his childhood growing up in a rural area of Northern Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. Vedder stated in an interview that the moral of "Insignificance" is "the ineffectiveness of political struggle." Vedder took inspiration from the 1999 World Trade Organization protests
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
in Seattle when writing "Grievance", and said the song is about the dangers of technology. Gossard has said that the song "Rival" is his reflection upon the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
. The album was the band's first to not contain any profanities in the lyrics, despite the ferocity of some of the music and subject matter.
Release and reception
Binaural sold 226,000Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart. It was held off the top spot by the Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
album, Oops!... I Did It Again
Oops!... I Did It Again
Oops!...I Did It Again is the second studio album by American pop singer Britney Spears. The album was released on May 16, 2000 by Jive Records. The album became a commercial success after debuting at top position on the U.S. Billboard 200 selling over 1,319,193 units during its first week...
. Binaural became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach platinum status. Binaural has been certified gold by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, and, as of December 2002, has sold 718,000
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
.
Binaural received generally favorable reviews from music critics according to Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, where it holds a 69 after 16 reviews. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave Binaural a nine out of 10. In the review, Binaural is called "a seething, furious album; a declamatory statement against cynicism and passivity and the simple injustices of everyday life." It’s also said that "even when the band slow the pace, the songs are coloured by a heartfelt intensity." Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
gave the album four out of five stars, saying, "The songs are sharper, the production is layered, and the performances are as compassionate as ever, resulting in their finest album since Vitalogy
Vitalogy
Vitalogy is the third studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 22, 1994 through Epic Records. Pearl Jam wrote and recorded Vitalogy while touring behind its previous album Vs....
." Time reviewer Christopher John Farley
Christopher John Farley
For the late comedian and SNL actor, see Chris Farley.Christopher John Farley is a Jamaican-born American journalist, columnist, and author.-Early life and education:...
said that the album is "less impatient and rage filled than much of Pearl Jam's earlier work." Farley added that "Pearl Jam, rather quietly, is building a long-term career to rival the rock legends of the past." Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a B+. He said, "Weighty subjects...[give] Pearl Jam's introspective lyrics and stone-faced rock a refreshing edge." He added, "If PJ long ago lost the zeitgeist, at least they've kept a hold on their hearts." Critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
described the album as "Rock as inner struggle, eternally externalized."
Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
gave the album seven out of 10 stars. The review said, "Everything you want is still there—goofy experimentalism, guitar frenzy, Eddie's self-abusive wail. It's just more solid, more clear." Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album three out of five stars. The review said, "Grunge may have died, but Pearl Jam it seems will never be slayed." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
staff writer Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
gave the album three out of five stars, saying that the album "comes across as part of an extended conversation among the five band members...and fans loyal enough to check in for Pearl Jam's latest musings on love, death and social responsibility." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also gave the album three out of five stars. In the review it’s stated that Pearl Jam "are dignified, musicianly, sincere... and a teensy bit dull." The review observed that "Vedder's affecting vocal angst drowns in a sea of pessimistic riffola." The review called Binaural "a warts-and-all album; it has grabbers, songs that sink in slowly and a few absolute duds."
Two singles were released from Binaural. The lead single "Nothing as It Seems
Nothing As It Seems
"Nothing as It Seems" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by bassist Jeff Ament, "Nothing as It Seems" was released on April 25, 2000 as the first single from the band's sixth studio album, Binaural . The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...
" entered the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at number 49, and reached number three on the Mainstream Rock charts. The album's other commercially released single, "Light Years", did not chart on the Hot 100, but it did place on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. At the 2001 Grammy Awards, "Grievance
Grievance (song)
"Grievance" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Grievance" is the ninth track on the band's sixth studio album, Binaural .-Origin and recording:...
" received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...
.
Packaging
The album's cover art is a modified Hubble Space TelescopeHubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
photo of the Hourglass Nebula
Hourglass Nebula
The Engraved Hourglass Nebula is a young planetary nebula situated in the southern constellation Musca about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by Annie Jump Cannon and Margaret W. Mayall during their work on an extended Henry Draper Catalogue...
. Hubble Space Telescope photos of the Helix Nebula
Helix Nebula
The Helix Nebula is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs or 700 light-years...
and Eagle Nebula
Eagle Nebula
The Eagle Nebula is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from its shape which is resemblant of an eagle...
are also featured in the inside cover and liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
for this album, respectively. The photos were used with the permission of NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. Regarding the artwork, Ament said, "The reason that we went with Tchad [Blake] is because he provides an amazing atmosphere to songs....So, I think we wanted the artwork to represent that....One of the themes that we've been exploring...is just realizing that in the big scheme of things, even the music that we make when we come together, no matter how powerful it is, it's still pretty minuscule. I think for me the whole space theme has a lot to do with scale. You know, you look at some of those pictures, and there are thirteen light years in four inches in that picture."
The album's title is a reference to the binaural recording techniques that were utilized on several tracks. Binaural literally means "having or relating to two ears." Regarding the choice of the title, Gossard said, "When we looked up the word 'binaural,' it meant to listen with both ears. So it seemed like a fitting title for the album."
Tour
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Pearl Jam's 2000 European tour ended in tragedy on June 30, 2000, with an accident at the Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. Nine fans were crushed underfoot and suffocated to death as the crowd rushed to the front. After numerous requests for the crowd to step back, the band stopped playing and tried to calm the crowd when the musicians realized what was happening, but it was already too late. The two remaining dates of the tour were cancelled, and the band seriously considered retiring after this event. Pearl Jam was initially blamed for the accident, but the band was later cleared of responsibility.
A month after the European tour concluded, the band embarked on a two-leg North American tour. The first leg of the tour focused on the East Coast of the United States
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, and then the band moved to the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
and the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
for the tour's second leg. On performing after the Roskilde tragedy, Vedder said that "playing, facing crowds, being together—it enabled us to start processing it." On October 22, 2000, the band played the MGM Grand in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first live performance as a band. Vedder took the opportunity to thank the many people who had helped the band come together and make it to 10 years. He noted that "I would never do this accepting a Grammy or something." The tour's final night took place on November 6, 2000, in Seattle, Washington at KeyArena
KeyArena
KeyArena at Seattle Center , is a multipurpose arena, in Seattle, Washington. It is located north of downtown in the entertainment complex known as Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World's Fair, the Century 21 Exposition...
where the band performed for more than three hours. The European and North American tours were documented by a long series of official bootlegs
Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs
The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...
, all of which were available in record stores as well as through the band's fan club. The band released 72 live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
s in 2000 and 2001, and set a record for most albums to debut in the Billboard 200 at the same time. Following the conclusion of the 2000 tour, the band released Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...
, a DVD which featured select performances from the North American legs of the tour.
Track listing
I "Parting Ways" contains the hidden trackHidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
"Writer's Block" at 6:49.
* Asterisk denote the use of binaural recording
Binaural recording
Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is often created using a technique known as "Dummy head...
techniques
Japanese bonus disc
* Live tracks recorded at the 1999 Bridge School Benefit
Bridge School Benefit
The Bridge School Benefit is an annual non-profit charity concert held in Mountain View, California, every October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The concerts are all organized by musician Neil Young and his wife, Pegi....
.
Original track listing
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 2003 rarities compilation, Lost DogsLost Dogs (album)
Lost Dogs is a two-disc compilation album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 11, 2003 through Epic Records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA in the United States.-Overview:...
, and "Gods' Dice" was added to the final version. The original version is as follows:
- "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"
Outtakes
Three instrumentals featured on the Touring Band 2000Touring Band 2000
Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...
DVD ("Thunderclap", "Foldback", and "Harmony") come from the early Binaural sessions. Several songs were rejected from the album that eventually found their way on to the 2003 Lost Dogs
Lost Dogs (album)
Lost Dogs is a two-disc compilation album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 11, 2003 through Epic Records. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA in the United States.-Overview:...
collection of rarities. These include "Sad", "Hitchhiker", "In the Moonlight", "Education", "Fatal", and "Sweet Lew". "Sad", originally called "Letter to the Dead", was called "a great pop song" by Ament, but he said the song did not fit the album because the band does not "really [write] very many pop records." "Sweet Lew", about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
, was cut from Binaural because it did not fit the album according to Ament. "Fatal" was producer Tchad Blake's favorite song to come out of the recording sessions. "Strangest Tribe" and "Drifting" were also recorded around the time of the album's recording sessions, and both songs were released on the band's 1999 fan club Christmas single as well as Lost Dogs.
Personnel
Pearl Jam- Jeff AmentJeff AmentJeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, inside photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film... - Matt CameronMatt CameronMatthew David "Matt" Cameron is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the American rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Stone GossardStone GossardStone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Mike McCreadyMike McCreadyMichael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitar - Eddie VedderEddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
– guitar, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
; credited as "Jerome Turner" for album concept
Additional musicians and production
- Matt BaylesMatt Bayles-Information:Bayles is known for his work with bands such as Isis, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Botch, Mastodon, The Fall of Troy, Minus The Bear, Burnt by the Sun and Norma Jean....
– engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including... - Tchad BlakeTchad BlakeTchad Blake is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician.He has worked with numerous artists and musicians, including State Radio, Apartment 26, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Brazilian Girls, Sheryl Crow, November 2nd, Travis, Marike...
– productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
, portraitPortraitthumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s - Liz Burns – assistance with NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
photos - April Cameron – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- Dakota – canine vocal
- Justine Foy – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
- Mitchell FroomMitchell Froom-Career:Froom began his career as a keyboard player in Sonoma County, California. The band Crossfire featured two keyboards players; Mitchell on one side of the stage and brother David on the other with Gary Pihl on guitar...
– keyboardElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion... - K.P. Handron, R. O'Dell, NASA – inside cover
- J. Hester, P. Scowen, NASA – booklet cover
- Wendy Melvoin – percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- Brendan O'BrienBrendan O'Brien (music producer)Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
– mixing - Pearl Jam – production
- R. Sahai, J. Trauger, WFPC2 science team, NASA – front cover
- Adam Samuels, Ashley Stubbert – second engineers
- Pete Thomas – percussion
Album
| Chart (2000) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
2 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
2 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
2 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
2 |
| Top Internet Albums | 2 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
4 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Vl) Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
5 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Wa) Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
34 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
5 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
5 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
6 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
6 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 8 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
8 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 10 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
12 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
21 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Main |
US Mod |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
GER Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
IRE Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
ITA Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
NLD MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
NOR VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
SWE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
SWI Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | "Nothing as It Seems" | 49 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 98 | 27 | 6 | 33 | 5 | 42 | 40 | 83 | 22 | |||||||||||||||
| "Light Years" | — | 17 | 26 | — | — | — | 25 | — | — | — | — | — | 52 | ||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||