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45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better Loud than Too Late, September 25, 2009
This is Pearl Jam's best album of the 2000s. Continuing where Pearl Jam left off, the band matches the energy of their last outing with better, tighter songs. The lyrics (notably, all are credited to Vedder) are exceptional. No longer bound by anti-Bush righteous rage, Vedder seems to feel freed to sing songs with more empathy and positive energy. There are still plenty of songs about troubled souls and surfing, but the overall tone is warmer and filled more with empathy than anger.
The band's playing is excellent as always, and Brendan O'Brien's return to the fold is welcome - this album, even more than the Ten Redux cd, is proof positive that O'Brien is THE man to produce Pearl Jam's albums. He adds a few touches of keyboards and strings here and there to augment the standard guitar/bass/drums rock format, and the result is a sound perfectly suited to Pearl Jam's strongest batch of songs in years.
Pearl Jam fans who have been waiting for a new great album but weren't quite convinced by their previous cd should give this one a shot, and fans who have stuck with the band all these years will not be disappointed. This is Pearl Jam for 2009 and beyond.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best since 'Yield', September 29, 2009
A quick note -
*this album is available for purchase at a regular price at any Target location.
*this album is available for download at a regular price on itunes.
*this album is also available for purchase at any locally-owned record/cd store.
Otherwise you will have to pay the expensive price listed here because Target is the only big-box chain store which sells Backspacer in the United States. Amazon must have fandangled a way to buy it from overseas and then resell it to you here, though that is just a guess.
On to the music.
It is wonderful. The album is again produced by Brendan O'Brian. As a whole the disc feels more upbeat than 2006's self-titled offering. With that being said we still get plenty of Eddie's growl and plenty of songs that rock. If you are already a fan of the band, you ought to stop reading this review and go purchase this now. You will not be disappointed.
The songs on the album are as fresh and inspired as you would expect a new recording to be from a band as creative as Pearl Jam. I feel that Binaural, Riot Act, and Pearl Jam are all excellent albums. But Backspacer is the most 'fun' to listen to of that group. The songs are tight, concise, and inventive. I doubt anything on the album is much longer than four minutes.
I was pleasantly surprised Target had a supply of Backspacer available for purchase on vinyl, and that is what I bought. The disc is nice and heavy, probably along the lines of 180 grams. It doesn't seem quite as hefty as some of my 200 gram records. Regardless, the sound quality is excellent. This is about all I have to say. I feel an album needs many years to really grow on me and allow me to accurately compare it alongside the material that came before it. But I can easily give this recording a five-star rating, and recommend it heartily to Pearl Jam fans, and fans of good music in general.
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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pearl Jam Hits The Mark With Backspacer, September 25, 2009
Over the last 18 years Pearl Jam has been the one band from the grunge movement who has shown staying power. Earlier this year they treated us to the Legacy Edition of Ten (see my review) which renewed the initial spark that they created all those years ago. Now we have an album of new material to consider in Backspacer. Expecting Backspacer to live up to Ten or even try to match its sound is both unfair and unrealistic.
Backspacer is a CD that doesn't fall nicely into a single category partly because it has as an interesting mix of tempos across all of the songs. It starts out with two heavily punk influenced tracks - "Gonna See My Friend" and "Got Some". These along with "Supersonic" made me think of R.E.M.'s last CD Accelerate. The majority of the songs on Backspacer are just under or just over three minutes long which is another thing it has in common with Accelerate. However, it is not an Accelerate knockoff by any means.
In contrast, "The End" and "Just Breathe" are slower songs which include string arrangements (I've noticed this a lot on other CDs this year). These two along with "Speed Of Sound" make for a dose of more mellow tunes. These are definitely different than what you find on Ten on songs such as "Deep", "Garden", and "Release". While the slower songs on Ten still had a lot of tension from both the instrumentation and the vocal delivery, what you hear on Backspacer has a much more relaxed feel to it.
Then there are the mid tempo songs such as "Amongst The Waves" and "Force Of Nature" that I found filled with catchy hooks that seem much more radio friendly than the first singles "The Fixer" and "Got Some". These really sucked me in from the first time that I listened to the CD, and I like these more and more with each subsequent listen.
Instrumentally, Mike McCreedy turns in some nice work on "Got Some", "Amongst The Waves", and "Force Of Nature"; however, it is not as ubiquitous or as driven as what you find on Ten. It seems that he has mellowed with age, and that Pearl Jam is exploring a broader range of sound and depth. In addition to the strings on "The End" and "Just Breathe", I also like the piano on "Unthought Known". While it is different than what they've done in the past, I think that Pearl Jam has found good sound on Backspacer.
There's plenty to like on Backspacer for both old and new fans alike. You never know what you are going to get from one album to the next, but this time I think that Pearl Jam hit the mark.
Download this: Force Of Nature
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,was produced by Brendan O'Brien 
