No Code

Pearl Jam

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 1996)
• Original Release Date: August 27, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002BFZ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  Mini-Disc  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (280 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,467 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Though it contains none of the band's radio staples, No Code may be the one Pearl Jam record that holds up start to finish. Partly this is because of the songs, which like the hypnotic "Who Are You" are unusually straightforward. But it's also because this is the most musically varied effort of the band's career: "Hail, Hail" is a full-tilt firestorm, but the quiet "Sometimes" is a hesitating, slow burn. And while "Smile" has a Crazy Horse roar, the unplugged setting of "Off He Goes" lets the song breathe and the emotions sink in. --David Cantwell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UNDERRATED GEM!, February 18, 2002

By	Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I remember getting this disc as a birthday present the year it came out. Much like the cover artwork, at first it seemed weird and too jumpy, but after repeated listens, it all started to fall in place.

While I'm admittedly not the biggest Pearl Jam fan out there, my comments may seem a bit worthless to bigger fans, But...this album is a masterpiece. It's dark, moody, eerie, ambient, reflective, searching, brutal and peaceful all at the same time, which leads me to some degree to believe that this is Pearl Jams's biggest artistic statement. It starts with the quiet, dark and ambient Sometimes. Then it bursts into the explosive Hail, Hail, which is followed by the hypnotic, middle-eastern Who You Are, which features an elf-like choir sound brought on by the vocal overdubs. It's weird but excellent. In My Tree is hard to describe actually, but it's somewhat catchy and groovy. Smile is a mid-tempo rocker. Off He Goes is a slow, dark, quiet and reflective piece with some poignant lyrics. Habit is a brutal rocker about drug addiction, if I'm not mistaken. Red Mosquito has a Neil Young type feel to it, which is bluesy/country-esque and heavy. Lukin is a 1 minute rocker with Eddie Vedder growling at super speed, which makes it hard to understand what he is saying, check out some websites to get the lyrics. Present Tense starts out slow and absorbing, then turns into a musical assault. Mankind is another heavy rocker, this time out, it's sung by Stone Gossard, which I rather like. He sounds like Ed Roland of Collective Soul. I'm Open is like a poetic number. Musically it's dark, ambient and somewhat new age-esque. Love the chant "I'm Open, "I'm Open". Around The Bend is an acoustic, peaceful number to end out this spectacular disc. This is an excellent, musically transcendent disc. Highly recommended to music lovers with a sense of adventure, space, mood, reflection and introspection.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pearl Jam realises it's time to lose the rage on NO CODE., October 2, 2001

By	Mike London "MAC" (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

For those looking for another TEN, this is the wrong place to go. NO CODE is the key album to understanding Pearl Jam and is the turning point of their career, some say for better, others for worst. However, their progression is a journey, and this release is the one where Pearl Jam came to a fork in the road and chose a direction to follow.

Now, for those looking for another TEN, its time to move on. You cannot expect an artist (a good one, that is) to go on milking the same formula. Where would we be had The Beatles kept singing songs like I Want to Hold Your Hand, instead of traveling to the majesties of Hey Jude, and Revolution, (the White Album version)?

Following Pearl Jam, in some ways, is like following Bob Dylans and The Beatles career. These three aforementioned are true artists, and so their evolution makes a very exciting one to follow. You cant really get the full impact of BLONDE ON BLONDE without knowing the six records preceding it, or RUBBER SOUL without hearing the five albums and myriad singles before that. With this album, you cant really get the full impact without having at least a passing knowledge of the three records before this one.

Commercially, this is Pearl Jams worst release, and there are no biggies in the song selection such as Alive, Even Flow, Daughter, or Better Man. However, just because a particular album does not get a lot of radio play does not necessarily negate it to the recycle bin. Almost all the tracks are very strong compositions. Sometimes the band falls down, such as Present Tense, which seems just a little to preach to me, and Habit, which says the same lines over and over and over for three and a half minutes. Some may really like them, but for me theyre just so-so. Mankind I still dont really know what to do with, because, although I like it, the song is a rather odd selection for the tone of this album. Only one song will take you back to their earlier grunge days, and that is Lukin, which is just over a minute and sounds like Eddies vocal cords are ripped to shreds when he finishes. I have a live version of the song and I cant understand anything he says in it.

Pearl Jam, with their release of TEN in 1991, became one of the major players in the early 1990s along with Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Of these bands, Pearl Jam has had the longest career, and amazingly did not self-destruct as Nirvana did. There is a reason for this, and this album becomes on of the keys in understanding Pearl Jam.

The first three albums are begin a descent into the hellish regions of rage and its effects on the human psyche. VITALOGY, Pearl Jams darkest album, almost plays as a concept album about paranoia, pain, and death. Eddie Vedders emotions and struggle for understanding are laid out for all to see, and the all consuming rage will have to either be allievated or only more ill could come. The single most important moment on that particular album is Immortality, where Vedder deals with Kurt Cobains suicide. Had the rage been allowed to continue, Pearl Jam could not have continued for much longer. Its no conincidence that the first two albums sound like earlier extensions of VITALOGY. They begin a downward spiral and absolutely plummet in VITALOGY, and the reason for all the experiments that made VITALOGY so uneven was because Pearl Jam was already, in their rage and fighting their own personal demons, were trying to come up with a way to deal with it.

With NO CODE, their most varied and least accessible album on a commercial level, find Pearl Jam on the morning after. The first three albums represent the night before, drunken rage and struggle for understanding of this inherently insane world (or so it would seem) being nights only companion. From a musical standpoint this release takes the rather roughshod experiments of VITALOGY and builds an album out of them, resulting in the most sonically different album in this bands catalogue. Here, with all sorts of world vibes going down with mantra percussion and some of the softest songs of this bands career, instead of rage Vedder contemplates in a rational manner the problems facing him, and this record shows Pearl Jam finding solace in this course of action.
The experiments on VITALOGY borderline, at times, on the unlistenable with the likes of poorly executed sound collages (Foxeymophandlmama) or the inane (Bugs). Dont think its because of a musical aversion to experimental music, because I really like Revolution 9. Here, however, with the rage gone, the band focuses on this branching out more, and instead of half-realised thoughts on VITALOGY, we have full musical expressions. The chaotic and unrealised song fragments or experimental vibes help indicate Pearl Jams searching, and while making an ascethic contribution, I always find myself skipping over them. The musical expansion on NO CODE, the maturing of a band, ties in with the bands personal growth as human beings. With the rage stripped away, instead we have a more subdued Pearl Jam dealing with problems in their lives with contemplation, which is one reason that it is the single most mellow album in their catalogue. It is sad the fan base couldnt see that.

In the end, this is Pearl Jams turning point. From here on out, their releases (1998s YIELD and 2000s BINURAL) would reflect this and further expand this bands journey. It is a rather sad fact that, despite it being a very strong album, the fan base simply wouldnt rally behind this one. This album had to come out, or Pearl Jam would just continually be plagued with their demons and artistically they would begin to lose their momentum and eventually self-destruct. Without Pearl Jam making this choice to let go of their anger, I do not think theyd still be around today, and I think Cobains death was a very sobering moment for them. With this decision to move on, we have Pearl Jams most touching, heart-felt, and most fully realised album to date.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Code is the Missing Link in the Evolution of Pearl Jam, November 23, 2002

By	E. Callaway (Walker MI, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't know why this record did not do as well as its predecessors. It is a great piece of rock music. Maybe it wasn't marketed as well or something? There is easily some of Pearl Jam's best work on this record. And, of course, there is some strange stuff. But hey, it wouldn't really be Pearl Jam without some mild craziness, now would it?

This album is a major step in the evolution of Pearl Jam. There is a feel to this record that was not in the previous works by Eddie Vedder and the boys. There is a calmness. Not to say that there it contains no rock, but not plagued with era-related, stereotypical rock anthems. There is a feel of classic rock and maybe even some blues.

The first single "Who You Are" is very cool. It has this rolling drum beat and an almost Arabic sounding guitar (Eddie denies completely that the song was influenced by the time he spent with, now sadly deceased, Pakistani singer Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan, while working on the soundtrack of "Dead Man Walking." Eddie says that the song was, in fact, built around an old Jack Irons drum beat)

There are no real radio gems on this record. "Who You Are" was on the radio for a little while. "Hail, Hail" also spent some time traveling the radio waves. I was rather surprised that "Off He Goes" did not find its way onto the radio some how. It was an absolutely beautiful song and probably in my top 5 of all Pearl Jam. I really like "Present Tense." The words are nothing but captivating. The song "I'm Open" is a little bit of beat poetry. It is rather good. Without naming everything on the record, I think it is all very well done.

This record gets better and better with age, as I have had it for just over 6 years. The album art is great, the CD comes with "Polaroids" with the lyrics on the back. The vinyl comes with the same "Polaroids" but they are the size of an album. The vinyls pictures are much easier to make out and the sound is superior. Though it is a great CD, if you have the chance, find the vinyl, it is well worth the premium. There is a lot to the record and it is a great addition to any rock CD collection.

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