Afternoon Baseball

I'm listening to this right now, and have been more over the past couple of months. Couple reasons why this album should not have been ignored: The singles weren't radio-friendly enough, but are excellent songs (especially "Nothing As It Seems"). The production is fantastic. The bass and drumming is rich and deep, the acoustic guitars, fuzz and wah distortion all find their own places among the mix, and with headphones or surround sound, you feel the sounds coming from all different directions.
Read more...The vocals are very laidback, but they shape what are some of the strongest live songs out of the 100 or so that Pearl Jam will perform on any given tour. "Of The Girl," "Light Years," "Rival," and "Insignificance" are prime examples. Live, the tempos pick up without any instrumental or vocal loss, and the intensity and coolness go way up.

Some sparse songs ("Of The Girl," the touching "In Thin Air" and the dark, haunting "Nothing As It Seems") are actually well-crafted and recorded well, unlike some of the I'm-retaining-credibility-by-not-giving-a-shit treatment on parts of No Code and Yield.