Customer Reviews

Ten Collector's Edition (2CD/1DVD/4vinyl/1 Cassette/Memorabilia)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pearl Jam has surpassed the competition with this Super Deluxe Edition of the Ten reissue. Though the cost may appear to be restrictive, and to some in this economy--insulting, note that the band has put everything into this box. A lot of bands today are releasing increasingly-priced deluxe editions of varying widths and lengths, but this set feels the worth. They clearly put every bit of their respect for the long-time fans into this box set.

The cloth-bound box is rather heavy and is the shape of a vinyl record. The slip box that pulls out of it contains everything except the vinyl records. In that is an envelope that includes reproductions of Pearl Jam memorabilia including postcards, a Mookie Blaylock playing card, concert ticket, sticker, etc. Additionally there are card-stock quality photos, all of which contain the box's liner notes/credits on the back (for the set, the concert, the original album and the remix).

Underneath a composition book is fastened into the box. The book, designed to perfection by Jeff Ament and Eddie Vedder, is exactly what a Pearl Jam would expect to see. It includes notes, doodles, designs and memorabilia seemingly fastened onto the page (though every page is actually just a flattened reproduction). The book is exhaustive with memorabilia, including backstage passes, newspaper clippings, pictures of the actual Mookie Blaylock. The box also contains a full sized poster of the album cover. It's a visual history of 1990 to 1992, a peak into the band's unique design sense, thanks in large part to Ament's meticulous craft. (As a designer, I took special appreciation in seeing the sketches of t-shirt designs or posters with notes about font styles and sizes). The band eschewed the self-serving biographical liner notes that typically champion a band in these box sets, keeping to their reluctant and humble image. If you're buying this box set, you probably already know the stories.

Underneath the book, are the sleeve for the CDs/DVD and the reproduction of the infamous Momma-Son cassette tape that brought Eddie Vedder to Stone Gossard's attention. The demo includes Vedder's vocals for Alive, Once and Footsteps over Gossard's music demo (with help from future drummer Matt Cameron). The demo is of the quality you would expect of the time, but is a fascinating peak into the band's formation. (Especially hearing Vedder's spot-on vocals prior to ever meeting any of his future bandmates.)

The first CD is a remaster of the classic Ten (which doesn't need to be reviewed here). The second CD is a Brendan O'Brien remix of the album, along with six bonus tracks. The remix doesn't mess with the essential basics but crisps up the original mix and improves the production value of the recording. (Whether a fan wants to remain completely loyal to the original mix is unessential since both versions are included.) The bonus tracks include rough mixes of two favorites from the Singles soundtrack ("Breath" and "State of Love and Trust") along with four other notable additions...all in the spirit of the first album's delivery. Additionally, a DVD captures the full unedited set from Pearl Jam's famous appearance on MTV Unplugged from 1992, a nice preview to the band's increasing skillful dabblings in acoustic-performed rock in later albums.

Vinyl productions of both Ten and the Ten redux are included along with a double-vinyl of Drop in the Park, a famous concert Pearl Jam performed in Seattle. (The latter has been mixed by O'Brien.) It's a gripping peak at Pearl Jam in their raw infancy...tearing through their early tracks with the same reckless abandon of Vedder climbing the scaffolding. (The Drop in the Park vinyl includes a poster fold-out for the show.)

Pearl Jam have outdone most bands with a perfectly themed, honest-to-their-roots set celebrating their much-heralded debut. And like they did back in 1991 they are now forcing other bands to get real and give their fans what they want: more bang for our buck. SPECIAL NOTE: In all of the literature in the box, the set is called "Pearl Jam 1990-1992" which follows up on the rumblings that the band plans to do the same with much of their back catalog.

You've probably already read the other reviews, so I'll keep this one short: if you just want to hear the Brendan O'Brien remixes of Ten, by all means, buy the cheaper version and continue on with no loss of face or disrespect. If, on the other hand, you and your wife met in college because you sent her a get-well e-mail that contained references to many of the band's early songs ("Glad you're still 'Alive' and hope you feel 'Yellow Ledbetter' soon"), you're probably the Pearl Jam nerd this package was intended for.

The inclusion of the Mookie Blaylock card was a fun inside reference, and I loved the faux-whiteout used on the label on the front of the Momma-Son cassette...if my own high school band's 4-track tapes sounded that good, even in their lo-fi gravel-tone, maybe my rock-star dreams would have come true.

Vinyl in all its primitive analog-ness is antithetical to someone who makes his living from contemporary digital technology, but the inclusion of some LPs in this package at least sent me to my dad's closet for one of his old turntables. My own theory: the instinct that leads many producers to up the level on CD recordings is the real culprit (Hi, Metallica!)...it's harder to do that on vinyl, so you get a more nuanced audio spectrum that your sound system can make sense of, without clipping. I'm no audiophile, but if nothing else, it feels nice to hold that big black circle in your hands.

I have no qualms sending my money off to the folks who worked hard to put this together, and the grunge-era survivors who are Pearl Jam. But, honestly, if you don't already have your copy, you might be better off getting one of the more stripped-down versions instead. Or, spend your money and time grabbing some of their back catalog, and set aside a few twenties for a ticket the next time they're on tour.

The best selling grunge album remastered with bonus tracks and collectibles is very well done indeed. I wasen't sure what a remaster of Ten would sound like as the origional is perfect as is, which is also nice that an origional copy is included in this package. The result is well put together and sounds great. Highly recommended.

When you get the 8lb box containing PJ first release, Ten, it can be a bit like diving into the presents under the tree at Christmas time. Striping away layer after layer reveals how much though PJ put into this (look for similar VS and Vitology sets in the next two years, btw) and it's also a monument to E.V.'s love of vinyl and hand written scrawl to fans.

But, what seems like so much at first, becomes a little tedious later, and may leave you wondering a few things about how so much got in, yet so much more could have been in.

The box contains 2 CD's, Ten Remastered (the original mix newly transferred from analog to digital, re-equalized and leveled) and Ten Re-Mixed, the point of the whole thing. The re-mix was requested by the band to long-time producer Brendon O'Brian before VS was even released, the band was never happy with the reverb heavy, wall 'o sound pop feel of the first mix (as you may have noticed in how different VS sounds.) To an extent O'Brian succeeds in fixing this, but the CD is unreasonably compressed (meaning the mid-level is raised so that there is little to no difference volume wise to any parts of the songs, the softest, quietest moments are as loud as the most rocking ones) and songs like Evenflow and Black still sound too busy and nothing like thier live versions from the same era.

What O'brian did do was strip much of the reverb, especially from the vocals, the guitars are now sharper, the bass clearer and the over-all sound cleaner and more detailed. It's not as good as the sound of Vitology but it's better than the original. The main differences can be heard on Black and Oceans, strip-down vocals, clean instruments, no effects, very different indeed.

The Re-Mix CD includes 6 "demos" from the ten sessions, two, Breathe and State of Love and Trust are earlier versions of the ones found on the Singles Soundtrack (Breathe is titled A Breath and a Scream here)but over all the songs are not that impressive and should have been on a separate disk, they don't add to or fit in with Ten but they are nice to have and Evil Little Goat is a keeper.

There's also a DVD of MTV Unplugged (you must have this) which, unfortunately only contains 16/48 sound where DTS or LPCM should be. The show is only 30 minutes, leaving lots of room for awesome sound when what you get is only CD quality. The picture is nice enough for standard definition 4:3 but a deluxe Blu-Ray with 24/96 LPCM audio would have been to drool for.

The best part here is the vinyl. The set comes with both versions of Ten on 180 gram vinyl, nice, heavy records with luxurious sound. But, here's the question, why not the Redux on 2 - 4 disk @ 45rpm? This would have allowed for uncompressed sound and true audiophile quality? There's also a double-record of Drop in the Park, a live, free concert from 91 that just proves that some bands are everything live that you expect from the studio, it's excellent and comes with a little slip of paper with a code to download an mp3 of the show.

There's also a cassette tape of the first three songs Vedder put vocals to, I don't own a cassette player, so I'll update this review when I hear it.

Finally there's a packet of various materials, fake ticket, passes, photo's, etc, and a journal of reproduced handwritten notes and photos. Cool to look at once, but then quickly stashed away.

What's missing?

The Audiophile stuff, it's not here.

As I mentioned before, the Redux deserved a multi-disk 45rpm 1/2 speed master treatment. The Unplugged deserved uncompressed sound and the CD's just sound like, well, CD's. A DVD with 24/96 or 24/192 LPCM sound for both versions of Ten would have nicely finished this set and been better than a booklet or some envelope of trinkets.

As it is, this is a worthy investment, but at least one true audiophile copy either on vinyl or DVD would have made it perfect.

First off I want to say that this is really for the serious Pearl Jam lover. Not the casual soccer mom listener, but a true hardcore fan.

That there are people who care enough to put in the work in to make a box set such as this is a gift to real music lovers and PJ fans especially.

First off this thing comes in a cloth bound box and has 4 records in it. The first thing I did was spin the Drop in the Park double live album which simply rocks. This was a great time for PJ and they played like they meant it (well, when haven't they?).

After spinning the double live album I put on the remixed version of Ten and it does sound better. A little more rocking, vocals a little more out in front.

At this point reviewing the music contained herein is simply not necessary. If you haven't heard Ten then where have you been living? No, this is a collectible. A product that celebrates the band and music and collecting and music geekdom in all formats (literally).

For the money, I just haven't seen a better box set. 1 double LP, 2 single LPs, 2 single CDs, 1 DVD and a host of goodies ranging from ticket recreations, posters, a Mookie Blaylock trading card (if you have to ask stop reading this review) and lithographs, stickers...seriously, it's beautiful. The piece de resitance for me is the re-creation of the original Eddie Vedder demo tape. I can't play it (who has a cassette player anymore?) but it sure is cool. It is worth every penny. I spent an hour just opening and exploring the box while I listened to the live album.

Thanks to the person(s) who put all this together so that we could enjoy it.

Back in the early 90s I personally had no specific tastes in music. highschool was just over, I was doing my national service in the army, 80s were over, things seemed a bit bland as far as I remember. I guess I was still sort of a lapsed Depeche Mode, The Cure, Echo kind of fan... I hadn't listened to Heavy Metal properly for 5 years or so. Biggest album for me in 1990-91 was The La's debute.

Then this mamoth of an album broke on the World.

I had heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and all that, but I tend to avoid whatever everyone suddenly likes, but then came Pearl Jam. And I was hooked line and sinker.

To this day I remember falling in love with Grunge. The whole Seattle scene, the people, the style, or lack there of. I didn't mind people calling music like this Grunge. I still don't. The bands might not have liked it then, or now, but I don't care, to me Grunge was and is a period in musical history that had an effect on me and my tastes.

Ok, so I didn't have the internet then, and some bands never caught my attention. Back then we had to rely on MTV (even in Norway) to tell us what was what (I never was a big radio listener, and what would that have mattered anyhow?), so I thought Stome Temple Pilots were part of it all (I suppose they were sort of, but from San Diego, who knew?), loved them, and I thought Alice in Chains were the same band as Soul Asylum (So, I hated them). Now I know better. Now I even think Nirvana was great, but that's Dave's doing, with his Foo Fighters.

Now I listen to Soundgarden, Alice, Sreaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney, Stone Temple Pilots and even L7. And yes, I keep them all on my ipod under my Grunge Playlist. So, maybe they don't agree, I don't know, I don't care, because Pearl Jam and their fantastic album Ten (and subsequent masterpiece VS.) caught me on my jaw with their sublime music, great lyrics and of course the otherworldly voice of Eddie Vedder.

This is where it all began to me, my musical moment of being young and defining my music. Even watching Singles on videotape a half million times.

This set it sublime. It holds such treasures to a Pearl Jam fan, it really needs to be seen. And heard. My biggest love in here so far is the MTV unplugged DVD. I have wanted to see this for years. Having seen Alice in Chains and Nirvanas set pieces out on DVD for quite a while now, it was about time.

The photo's are really fun to look through, some of the stuff is, well, fluff I suppose, but this isn't for the casual Pearl Jam listener, this is for the fans out there who absolutely adore them. And since I do, I can tell you, if you too adore them, this is well worth the wait and the cost.

A monumental piece of rock history this, the set itself of course, but I also remember what Henry Rollins said about the album Ten. He said something along the lines that; 'Nirvana may have been the band everyone talked about as being the second comming, but Pearl Jams Ten was the album that sold. Everyone heard it', he was sure, 'if you were dropped in the middle of the Amazonas jungle, you would never be more than 10 minutes away from a copy of Pearl Jams Ten'.

When I heard about this release I was excited... but even then I was having trouble justifying the price tag for this set. It just didn't seem to have enough substantial value (i.e. actual music) to justify the price, especially when the meat and potatoes of the set (the remastered album, the redux w/ bonus tracks and the Unplugged DVD) is available separately for under $30.

But I just had to get it... I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I did. I'm a Pearl Jam fanatic. They're my favorite band of all time. No other group has ever recorded music that I can relate to as much as PJ. I love all the albums and I have bought countless concert bootlegs. I have seen them live a number of times as well. So I suppose you could say that I would be the target audience for this set... and you'd be right because I begrudingly bought it.

After reviewing all of the material, my initial summation proved correct. There just isn't enough value in this set to justify the price tag. Especially considering the omission of important b-sides of the era such as "Yellow Ledbetter," "Wash," "Dirty Frank," "Footsteps," "Let Me Sleep," etc. True, all of those tracks are available on "Lost Dogs" but the spine of the set does proudly proclaim "PEARL JAM: 1990-1992," does it not? Omitting these seminal PJ tracks seems like an odd move.

Also disappointing was the lack of a CD for the Unplugged show. For years we fans have been listening to shoddy bootleg versions of the concert. Don't get me wrong, the DVD is awesome to have, but since they already went to the trouble to partner with MTV for the DVD, could a CD really have been that difficult to produce?

The composition book and other printed materials were interesting but there was hardly anything that made a die-hard like me drool. A lot of pictures of the band and live performances. The "Place/Date" book is probably more interesting but that's a matter of opinion. The vintage "Ten" poster is very cool, but I'm too old to be hanging up posters!

Now onto the records. I have fond memories of vinyl from childhood. Up until I was ten I was perfectly content with records. Then my brother brought home a CD player and that was the end of that. Audiophiles always claim that vinyl sounds better than CDs. I went retro in college and bought a $200 Sony turntable and a small collection of records. I wasn't impressed. Flipping back and forth between the same song on vinyl and CD, it was clear to me that the CD was infinitely superior. A brand new, never-before-played record sounded muddy and without punch. The CD sounded dynamic and full. Anyway, as a hardcore PJ fan and procurer of their fan club singles, I was prepared for the vinyl in the set. I dusted off the turntable and hooked it up to my component CD recorder to make a nice copy.

So i was about halfway through transferring the vinyl to CD... I took the second record out of the gatefold and a little scrap of paper falls to the floor. It reads: "While we recommend you listen to Drop in the Park as it was meant to be, on glorious 180 gram vinyl, we have provided high-quality mp3s for those more comfortable in the digital world." All you have to do is enter the download code on the website to get a nice copy of the concert. A very nice touch indeed! If only they had also provided mp3s of the Momma-Son tape. I dusted off my old Walkman and enjoyed the three demos. The quality was decent but basically what you would expect from a demo. If you're like me, you've always wondered what that fateful demo tape sounded like and now we know. It's no wonder that Vedder was soon on a plane to Seattle.

The Drop in the Park concert was excellent... a lot of raw early girder-climbing PJ energy. It was pretty short (under an hour) but a very fun listen. Does it stand up to their best concerts today? Definitely not but it's a great timepiece of the band in that era.

So was I disappointed with the set? Not really. I knew what would be in it (except for the mp3 bonus of Drop in the Park) so I had no reason to be disappointed. Is it worth the price tag? Probably not, but if you're a die-hard PJ fan like me and you have the money to burn, you have no choice but to buy it.

I have been a pearl jam die hard fan since june of 1992, and though i havent always agreed with eds politics i have always had their backs as a fan much as one would your best friend or your brother, that said i loved the rewards bestowed to us true fans in the delux oackage except for 1 thing! Why the 7 song edited version of unplugged dvd? I had recorded this on VhS the night it aired on tv and literally wore the thing out til the tape broke. Ever since that fated day in 1996 when my copied version broke all i have ever wanted was a full length version of this show and i was so excited i was going to get it in the set just to open it and realize that it was cut down and i felt like the kid that had asked for one small thing for christmas and waited patiently all year for it in this case closer to 20, and then to give me just a part of it? what was the point of pulling out the rest? I still love these guys, always will, i grew up with these guys, have spent 3/4s of my life listening to and spending countless thousands of dollars gladly i just wanted the full thing. I'm sure neither Ed, Jeff, Mike, Stone or Matt really care or anyone else for that matter but it would be nice if someday i could pay and receive the full length show of their 93 unplugged show. I'm just one greatfull fan that will always follow these guys and thats like a needle in a mountain of needles, but it would be really cool to someday get that show hat isnt a bootleg that is something band wants to share with fans and friends that have stuck with them for 20 yrs and hopefully 20 more! keep up the good work guys and you've earned all the respect fans and peers alike have given you for so many years and for the most part have done so with grace!

ps Mike McCready and Jeff Ament are the 2 most over looked, dismissed bass and lead players in the history of rock or any other genre ever. I love you guys and i love all my PJ fans that have hung in thru the good and the bad, a true music fan and their loyalty to what and who they believe in is a beautiful side of life too few people take time to notice! ok I'll shut up now, thanks to anyone who cared to read and/or understand!

The box set ticks all of the right boxes. The LP's are collectors pieces, the artwork is magnificent and the memorabilia is quaint and nicely put together.

The packaging is solid and the disks are neat, the versions of the album reworked are fine.

It's a big fan box set. You have to love the album and the band for the purchase to be worthwhile.

So without delving into an elaborate and technical analysis of the sound and picture quality, all in all it was well worth it and I am stoked.

Oh, and the cassette is groovy too. (Haven't listened to it though!)

I love the reissue of Ten! It is so cool. The only thing that sucks for me, is that I don't have a record player. So, I cannot listen to the Live Drop in The Park record. I'm sure it's good though. Most of Pearl Jam's things are good. Granted, I don't have all of their material. The reissue makes me think about an old art teacher I had in high school. She loved Pearl Jam. She had all of their cds and had poster after poster of them on the walls in her room. Excellent reissue! Love it!!