"going a different direction" is as much as we're probably getting and honestly more than we're owed.
Engineered and produced by Oliver Roman, who's never produced a record before. He worked on Dave's Dream Widow and Dee Gees projects, and he's engineered on several notable records, so maybe Dave recognized it was time for his big break.
Nah, I doubt it. I had just listened to an interview with him recently where he stated that he was happy that things were slowing down tour-wise for Pearl Jam since he and the guys were getting older. I suspect he reconsidered and realized it was just time to step back completely. So I doubt he’d suddenly wanna take a gig from a band that tours more heavily than PJ does
I have to imagine that Ilan's background vocals were a big draw (on top of elite drumming). Chris is good, but Pat and Nate have no business partaking in harmonies.