Tenth vs 10

I was pleased when I saw I had the chance to listen to two albums that I have not heard in a long long time. Both are by bands that I don't really care for, but I would consider both great albums.

The Stones have never grabbed me in a way that I always knew they should. With a body of work that is so influential and creative, you'd think I'd have room for them in my heart. But alas, for some strange reason, no. The only album I have is Hot Rocks, and that does the job for me.

Pearl Jam, on the other hand, does not invoke any feelings of failure on my part to appreciate their work. I think they've done some great stuff as well, but after all these years, I only have a lowly dubbed tape of 10 sitting in a moving box that will probably never be unpacked.

But that's just the bands. The albums are what we're judging, and on all accounts, they both might deserve to move on. I listened to both albums back to back (Sticky Fingers first, then 10), and enjoyed pretty much everything from both albums.

Here's what I noticed: The production difference between the two is amazing. Sticky Fingers sounded like I played it on a realistic tape recorder from the 70's. Nothing wrong with that though. Jagger doesn't do the blues all that well.. go figure (a statement I refused to back up with any evidence at all). When the first track of 10 started, I was let-down, I wanted more Stones.

But again, 10 was great too. Really enjoyed hearing the tracks again, I could immediately picture Eddie Vedder shaking and barely moving his mouth, and all that good stuff. But at the end, there was no sense of loss.

My intent was to listen to both albums more than once, but I didn't get to it due to the heartache of last night.

So, since this was so close, I had to list the pros and cons of each, to determine which album was going to move on.

Pros:
Sticky Fingers... Wild Horses: GnR used to play this live.
Pearl Jam... Friends of Neil Young
Pearl Jam... Fought Ticketmaster
Stones... Played a show in Oshawa at the same venue I used to play hockey in... that makes them peers (right!?, I think maybe.)

Cons:
Pearl Jam... The alternateen nation along with Nirvana
Stones... Windows 95
Pearl Jam... First result on a search for "Pearl Jam tickets" is for ticketmaster
Stones... GnR did Sympathy for the devil... poorly.

As, you can see, this isn't an easy choice when being so objective.
We'll have to go to the ultimate level... have you been covered by Dread Zeppelin... ah the true decider!

Dread's second album (5,000,000* *tortelvis fans can't be wrong) cover was modeled on "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!".

The Winner: Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers.*




*come on, it's a 40 year old classic, 10 might be good, but it isn't that good.