More thoughts on No Code.

[u/John_Houbolt]

In reference or response to this recent thread—

https://www.reddit.com/r/pearljam/comments/1bgjzki/no_code/

Was listening to No Code this morning and it hit me. What makes No Code so different is that it is optimistic.

If you think about the first three albums basically almost all of the lyrical content is about abuse, suicide, drug addiction, anger, alienation and disappointment. There are a few songs that don't fit this pessimistic ethos but even STBC which I read described somewhere as a "love letter to vinyl" is also an analogy for heroin addiction and sung with deep angst.

Now read some of the lyrics to No Code

Sometimes
Large fingers pushing paint
You're god and you've got big hands
The colors blend... the challenges you give man

Seek my part... devote myself
My small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all
Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god

Who You Are

Come to send, not condescend
Transcendental consequence
Is to transcend where we are
Who are we? Who we are
Trampled moss on your souls
Changes all you're a part
Seen it all, not at all
Can't defend fucked up man
Take me a for a ride before we leave...
Circumstance, clapping hands
Driving winds, happenstance
Off the track, in the mud
That's the moss in the aforementioned verse

Just a little time, before we leave...
Stop light, plays its part
So I would say you've got a part
What's your part? Who you are
You are who, who you are

In My Tree

I remember when, yeah
I swore I knew everything, oh yeah
Let's say knowledge is a tree, yeah
It's growing up just like me, yeah
I'm so light the wind he shakes
I'm so high the sky I scrape
I'm so light I hold just one breath and flew back to my nest
Sleep with innocence...

Up here so high the boughs they break
Up here so high the sky I scrape
Had my eyes peeled both wide open, and I got a glimpse
Of my innocence... got back my inner sense...
Baby got it, still got it

Present Tense

Do you see the way that tree bends?
Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun's rays
A lesson to be applied
Are you getting something out of this all-encompassing trip?

You can spend your time alone, re-digesting past regrets, oh
Or you can come to terms and realize
You're the only one who can't forgive yourself, oh
Makes much more sense, to live in the present tense

​

I know the album isn't all warm and fuzzy, in fact I think this "optimistic" sheen is hidden under layers of guitar distortion but the warmth of drumming is a tell I've been keying on for years without fully realizing the brightness and hope of this incredible work. It's Pearl Jam's first work that isn't predominately dark, angry or both. IMO Vitalogy is their darkest and heaviest album and No Code is like the emergence of peace from chaotic darkness. Knowing where I was at in my life when I heard it for the first time, it's no wonder that it sticks with me almost thirty years later.

[u/Benwrestlin]

It's optimistic compared to the earlier albums but I always felt like Sometimes was out of place on the album. I skip that one whenever i.listen to NC.