Customer Reviews

Pearl Jam

5 star:		(234)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

It's quite possible that Pearl Jam is more revered in retrospect than for their musical offerings from the last 5-6 years. Their name is legendary. And their initial 2-3 albums are considered classics. But what have they done lately that hasn't sounded tired and stale?

Even though I'd been burned by PJ's albums in the past, I took a chance on this new one, simply titled Pearl Jam.

Wow. Am I glad I did. Pearl Jam has been reborn!

This album sounds fresh, alive and -- dare I say it? -- vital. They retained their trademark garage band sound and Eddie's sometimes mumbly (but powerful) baritone. But there are melodies and hooks on this album that are infectious. And the playing sounds like a Pearl Jam I haven't heard in a long, long time. It's energetic and meaty.

The album kicks off with the guitar-heavy, toe tapping "Life Wasted," which sports typical Pearl Jam chord progressions but with more oomph behind them.

"World Wide Suicide," the next track, features a sound and energy reminiscent of anything off Vs. or their debut CD (1993 and 1991, respectively).

"Comatose" begins with a Tom Petty-like guitar riff and then explodes in Eddie's growling vocal and bashing, punk-like guitars that would make the Sex Pistols proud.

One of my favorite tracks follows "Comatose": "Severed Hand," which begins with swirling, mysterious-sounding backward-played guitar noodlings before turning into another free-for-all garage band extravaganza.

"Parachutes," a Beatle-esque song featuring acoustic guitar, a jaunty beat and tight vocal arrangements, is a nice change of pace after so many balls-out tracks.

"Unemployable," the next track, is a great riff. Very catchy and upbeat. It reminds me of R.E.M. Very tasty guitar work.

"Wasted Reprise" is totally captivating. Haunting, even. It's less than a minute long, but there's something about it that I absolutely love. The lyrics are sung with such emotion: "I have faced it, a life wasted, I am never going back again."

I can't say enough about this album. It's chock-full of big, BIG guitar riffs, Eddie's over-the-top screaming, crisp production, and heart-on-sleeve lyrics. It's a Pearl Jam you haven't heard in a very long time.

I strongly urge you to buy this new album from Pearl Jam. You won't be sorry.

To start off, many people say this is a comeback album but the truth is they never went anywhere to comeback to. They've always been a 'classic rock' band at the core with influences such as The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Buzzcocks, among others.

I'll start off with the cover, which is a blue gradient background with an avocado. The avocado can symbolize many things since it has a unique pit. On the inside of this album you see that uniqueness with the artwork. Each song has two pages, one of the lyrics and the other a picture of a face zombiefied or altered in some way. The pictures are rather good and with the exception of the last picture which has Eddie's head covered in blood amidst the rest of the band members' heads also covered in various gory ways. It's no doubt a disturbing picture but you get the impression this CD isn't for the faint of heart. Most songs have a strong message about what's going on in the world from the war on Iraq to love ones lost.

I can say my political views are not the same as Pearl Jam's but it didn't stop me from enjoying the music. That's because the lyrics are done in a tasteful enough way to not alienate fans entirely but still get their message across. That's really the best way to do things IMO and Ed's lyrics shine. He's acknowledged he's gotten away from the story telling his lyrics used to have in earlier work and he comes back to that here.

To start off, Life Wasted is a strong rocking sound to kick off the album. The chorus can and probably will get stuck in your head after a few listens. What I love the most is Mike's guitar solo near the end. It's subtle enough to where you may not pick it up on the first few listens unless you're looking for it but once you recognize it the song feels much stronger. After that is the first single Worldwide Suicide, which has been well received. It's easy to see why it was picked as first single and fits well in the beginning of the album. I won't say much else because chances are you've heard it. The third song, Comatose, was played live once but this version is so much better. Granted the live version I heard was horrible quality but I picked up so much more here. The song has the pace of Spin The Black Circle or even Lukin. Eddie growls through much of the song and the pace is insane. This song is sure to be fun live and the addition of a quick solo by Mike helps give the song more substance. It's definately the fastest track on the album.

Next up is the song they played on SNL, Severed Hand. This is my favorite song on the album. The lyrics are a bit gruesome with "Tried to walk, found a severed hand/Recognized it by the wedding band". The best part is the chorus as Eddie sings "Yeh..." in a very memorable way. During the song it builds up to the bridge where it just explodes with a brilliant Mike 30+ second solo, his best on the album. Going to beautiful live as well. Next up is Marker In The Sand and I wondered how they top Severed Hand or where the album was going to go. Up until this point there's been 4 hard rocking songs and this one starts the same, or does it? Let me just say this song has a chorus entirely opposite what I was expecting it to me. I won't say how but it's a real treat. This song has the most politically driven lyrics as he sings "I feel sickness...A sickness coming over me/Like watching freedom...Being sucked straight out to sea". This song just keeps going strong and I love the end. Eddie really let's everything go and as he finishes you can hear Boom's organ come in which fits perfectly.

Parachutes is the first slow song on the album. People have said you can hear a strong Beatles influence but I can't say since I'm not a Beatles fan. It's probably my least favorite song but by no means horrible to the point of skipping it. The song stands out in the sense as it's the most different track on the album and I think fits perfectly in the middle. Unemployable was a B-Side on the WWS single and honestly have fallen in love with it the more I've heard it. The chorus is mainly what kept growing on me and Eddie sings it in a way I've never heard him sing before. Almost to a point where you wonder if this is still Pearl Jam you're listening to but it definately is. A nice mid-tempo song to kick off the second half of the album and it leads into the hard rocking Big Wave. This song has become my second favorite off the record. I was expecting a song like Oceans from Ten since it has that similar surfer theme going but it reminds me more of Pilate. The chorus is sung fast and I have to admit I love singing along with it. Mike finishes it off with another ripping solo.

Gone is the studio version of the live song Eddie played solo last year. Only this time the whole band is in it and I love this version all the more. It's a slower acoustic type song and the lyrics fit this day and age well as he sings "When the gas in my tank/Feels like money in the bank". The lyrics have a similar vibe to Elderly Woman off Vs and Eddie sings it like he did Indifference. Wasted Reprise is just a short one minute interlude with touching music as Eddie sings the chorus from the first song Life Wasted. It feels artistically placed on the record. Army Reserve follows as another song with lyrics very politically driven as it tells a story about those families left behind from the war. Come Back is a great bluesy song about yearning for a lost loved one. The song builds up to the climax at the end that gave me a few chills. It may seem a bit stale at first but stick it through and you'll be rewarded, I know I was.

For the last song we have Inside Job, a Mike McCready song. The first two minutes are a tad bit misleading, or at least they were to me. I was expecting something else when Eddie finally started singing but got something else. I like the song but it's not their best closer. It's certainly an epic 7 minute track that includes some vintage Mike guitar work. I'd put it about middle of the pack for a Pearl Jam closer.

All in all, I obviously love the album. If I had to I'd say I'd put it as their third best record behind Binaural and Vs. but there's still time to move up or down. It's definately their hardest rocking record since Vs. and you can see how much the band has grown. I'm just glad that the politics that are there don't bash you over the head and the slow songs they did have are top quality. I'd say this record will be up there for my Best Album of 2006 and I give it a 9.5/10 overall.

It totally blows my mind that people are still whining about how Pearl Jam no longer sound like they did on Ten. Well that was only fifteen years and eight albums ago. (Plus two compilations and about 150 live albums.) Well here's a new flash, genius – the only Pearl Jam album that sounds like Ten is Ten. They quickly left the power grunge behind and turned to a garage/classic rock focus, while leaving the flannel kids stuck in a 1991 time warp. Besides, they're in their forties now, and long ago grew bored with what they were doing in their mid-twenties. For the rest of us who can appreciate the developing talent and vision of serious musicians, not to mention the passage of time, Pearl Jam has now delivered the strongest of their latter-day "mature" albums.

After a few rather dreary albums, Pearl Jam seems to have gotten their spark back, and maybe the critics are right in crediting the current political situation. The best rockers on this album, such as "Life Wasted", "Comatose," and "Severed Hand" have a crunch that hasn't been heard since No Code. Even a few of the slow-burners, especially "Gone" and "Inside Job" (which features the first-ever lyrics from Mike McCready) have a sense of menace that hasn't been present in Pearl Jam's ballads since – you guessed it – Ten. And believe it or not, Eddie Vedder is still developing as a singer and lyricist, as he finds more and more subtle ways to convey every emotion from righteous anger to solemn empathy. This new album is a return to form that will satisfy serious Pearl Jam fans and lovers of real rock. There's not an ounce of grunge here – and there shouldn't be. [~doomsdayer520~]

I'm like a few others on this page that have no idea what the problem was with all of Pearl Jam's albums between Vs. and this current release. They have been putting out amazing albums for years. PJ are one of the few Rock bands on the planet that have grown, changed and challenged their listeners over the years and this album sees them come full circle and release an album that encompasses all of the elements that made their past albums great while still sounding fresh.

Every track on this disc bristles with energy and passion. They truly sound like a band on a mission. Maybe its a reaction to their age as a band, I don't really care. That perception is one I leave to all those losers who say they haven't liked them since Ten but don't actually own any of the subsequent albums. But enough debate already, if you like Rock in the traditional sense you will love this album.

...about the intensity of emotion and devotion that Pearl Jam still elicits.

I grabbed the single - WWS and Unemployable - as soon as it came out, and I got a pre-release copy of the album about two weeks ago. As many others have said, you have to listen to this album a few times. Like all the best music, it comes at you from oblique angles. It's more nuanced, and less "catchy", than some of PJ's early work. I felt the same way about "Yield", and that album has become one of my all-time favorites.

I guess I'm not your typical PJ fan. I was only vaguely familiar with their music until four or five years ago. My sons and their friends would ocassionally jam and when they'd play a PJ tune I'd ask "who is that, who did that tune?" It wasn't until about 18 months ago that I finally decided to really check them out. Yield was the first PJ album to grab me, largely on the strength of "In Hiding" and "Faithful." I was going through a very difficult time in my life - very alienated - and "In Hiding" just struck me like a lightning bolt. Songs about alienation are a rock staple, but I still maintain that "In Hiding" is the greatest song about alienation ever recorded.

I quickly acquired every PJ album available and started seriously evaluating them. Oddly, "Ten" - which so many PJ fans (including my sons) revere and consider their best - didn't really grab me. There are many good tunes on the album but I didn't like the production. The sound was somehow muted; it didn't have the sonic vibrancy I'd heard on Yield or No Code. While many of the tunes on Ten are among my favorites I almost always listen to live versions of them.

What's extraordinary about these guys is that songs that didn't grab you the first five or six times you heard them will then start growing on you. It's happening to me all over again with this album. Songs like "Gone" and "Unemployable" immediately appealed to me, but it's taken numerous listenings for songs like "Army Reserve", "Severed Hand" and "Come Back" to make a strong impression. I'm gonna give away my age here, but I've got to say that it was the same way with a lot of the best Beatles and Stones stuff. They both did catchy stuff, up-beat rockers that grabbed you right away, and also stuff that was somehow more complex and took time to make sense aurally.

For those of you that love this album, I'm with ya - this is a keeper. For those of you that don't, don't give up on it yet. Give it a few more listens. For those of you waiting for "Ten" again, it just may be that "Ten" was the right album, at the right time for you, at the right stage of your life, and the music and your sensibilities just won't come together like that with this album.

Whatever you want to say, you have to give Eddie and Mike and Stone and Jeff and Matt credit for still going pretty strong after 15 years. The Beatles were over by then, and the Stones, Who and Zeppelin were in steep decline by the time they'd been around this long. For my money U2 has also grown pretty soft in recent years - they can still occasionally rock, but there's too much mushy Bono material. But after 15 years Eddie and the boys can still pin your ears back with rock 'n roll that hits you right in the gut. It's pretty amazing.

Get the album.

P.S. The politics are great, too. Bush is a warmongering jerk, and PJ calls him out.

I can't explain anything. Just listen to it. Preferrably VERY LOUDLY. This album makes me feel like I was in my early twenties again. Eddie and Co. have insured Rock and Punk are etched in stone for the 21st century. Pearl Jam fans will only love them more... non-fans will become fans. This album rocks. Thank you Pearl Jam!

I wasn't at all familiar with this band before they made a recent comeback. My first comparison when I heard the powerful opening track "Life Wasted",was with Free and Paul Rodgers,and their band's playing style.
Am I the only person to have noticed this? The driving rock guitars and stirring drums evoke fond memories of Free in the 1970s,when they were at the peak of their success.
The second track and single,"World Wide Suicide" is just as powerful.
"I felt the earth on Monday
It moved beneath my feet
In the form of a morning paper
Laid out for me to see."
Those lyrics were written for the 21st century.

"It's a shame to awake in a world of pain
What does it mean when a war has taken over?"
Listen to ALL the words of this song when you buy this album. Indeed,listen very closely to all the words of all the songs.
And then listen to them all again.
"Severed Hand", a song about taking a trip,has some excellent backing-a 70s trip in itself,which I thoroughly enjoyed listening to. However, the words are perhaps not for those of us who are anti-drugs. Be prepared for some quite disturbing lyrics;however the fantastic driving rock and roll instrumental compliments these.
A surprising track is "Parachutes",with Eddie Vedder's touching lyrics:
"And war....break the sky and tell me what it's for
I'll travel there on my own
And love...what a different life
Had I not found this love with you,"
It's almost a ballad and is unexpectedly emotional.
"Unemployable"-is hard-hitting,describing one man's desperation and isolation at not being capable of providing for his wife and child,encased in quite a hummable tune. Eddie Vedder's voice is in great form,evoking sympathy and emotion in swathes.
There's a formula to this album which is not for the squamish.
Look beneath the surface and there lie some very insightful lyrics, courtesy of Mr Vedder. Quite a chunk of disillusionment there, and impossibly hard times experienced as well.
Some people might describe Pearl Jam as heavy-going and humourless, but they have a very strong message and substance to their songs on this album,which is one of the best rock albums I've heard for some time.
It's apparent that the band have experienced a reinvention and woken up to emotions and feelings, after a long sleep.
"Wasted(Reprise)" has Eddie Vedder singing to a rather spiritual organ backing,a few minutes of decisive words which are extremely moving..leading into "Army Reserve"-a very powerful heart-tugging song which speaks for itself,and speaks volumes.
But here comes "Come Back",possibly the most moving song on this album,with a very sad thread of loss running through its lyrics,which oddly,reminded me of David Gray's song words. A rock version of one of his songs,perhaps,with a dash of Bob Seger thrown in.
Vedder's imploring vocals at the end of the song show a vulnerable side.
"Inside Job",the last song on the album,with its beautifully timed piano and Vedder's amazing vocal delivery...
"Holding on,the light of night
on my knees to rise and fix my broken soul again".

A very powerful collection of songs indeed. Most definitely it deserves a decent high placing in the Albums of the Year 2006.
And delivered by a rock band with a lead man who DEFINITELY has concerns for the state of the world.
Submitted 28/5/06

Pearl Jam is an amazing band. 15 years into it and their are still churning out material that sounds fresh and exciting. For people who want a new Ten or Vs. put those in your cd player and enjoy, because you won't get Ten or Vs. here. Those albums are the past, and Pearl Jam takes what they have learned from each album of their career and applies that to this disk right here. The album isn't perfect, but I nevr wanted it to be. All I wanted was a new album full of Pearl Jam songs that represent where they are in their lives, and I got that album. Riot Act was amazing, Yield was amazing, Binaural was great, even Lost Dogs was a treat, so I have never lost faith in PJ. All of you people who haven't paid attention to Pearl Jam since 1994 should be ashamed of yourselves, you have missed some amazing work.

Go out and buy this album. You will be very pleased.

More boring than the chicken vs. the egg argument is the Pearl Jam, circa 1991 vs. Pearl Jam, Current debate. "Hey (insert 35-year old pot smoking liberal tree hugger name here), don't you just wish Pearl Jam would sound more like they did on (insert single from Ten, VS. or Vitalogy here)?" "I sure do, (insert 38-year old SUV driving, John Kerry bumper sticker-toting executive name here). I miss the days when they put out REAL grunge."

Since No Code debuted #1 in 1996, people have discussed, ad nauseum, the decline of Pearl Jam; musically, lyrically, philosophically, morally, orally, florally, etc., etc., etc. Usually around a table sprinkled with cigarette ashes and copies of the local urban underground newspaper. Thanks to the debut album "Ten," the flannel wearing, nose-pierced, liberal arts college attending, suburbanite grunge fans who praised PJ as possibly the greatest rock of all time because of Jeremy, or Black, or (God help me) Yellowledbetter, have blinded themselves to very some solid albums. The self-titled, Pearl Jam, will inevitably fall into this category of underappreciated albums. These close-minded Pearl Jam fans who cry for the return of the "real" Eddie Vedder seem to invariably forget that Jeremy, Black and (God help me) Yellowledbetter have all been used as musak in their dentist's elevator. These same close-minded Pearl Jam fans forget that each album since Ten has been raked over the coals by the "true" Pearl Jam fans for being softer than the previous release, less angst-ridden, or too experimental for grunge. Always waiting for the release of Ten II, these "true" fans poo-poo everything Pearl Jam puts out that doesn't sound like Alive, and God bless the internet for giving these people a voice.

Just for once, spare me the "PEARL JAM IS BACK!!!" and "GRUNGE LIVES" garbage.

For the friend of mine who has placed fantastic albums like Yield and Binaural in the "background music" category, this album is for you. The self-titled, Pearl Jam, has a number of characteristics to appeal to the grunge loving fans who can't forget 1991 and those of us who have matured; in life and musically.

The first is the catchiness of the album. Radio has consistently shunned songs like Who You Are, Insignificance or Given to Fly from post-Vitalogy albums. However, songs such as Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide and Unemployable do have a radio-friendly quality that will very likely help songs from the self-titled album to remain on the radio for a slightly longer period than singles from the previous few albums. For everybody looking for Daughter Reprise, you won't find it here. But what you will find is a uniquely sounding reprise to Life Wasted. Suck it up. You'll like it.

Second is ANGST. Pearl Jam is an album the maladjusted, angst-ridden teenagers who despise George W. Bush for, well, whatever their favorite band to tell them to despise him for, will absolutely adore. Personally, I wish rock bands could go without infusing politics into their music (thank you very much Rage Against the Machine). Thus, the lack of the fifth star. However relevant to the age Bush-hating is, it's hard to take Green Day, System of a Down and Pearl Jam seriously when it's put to music. Anybody who remembers "Bushleaguer" from Riot Act could see this coming. Political as this album is, Vedder has done a decent job fusing the lyrics and the music together into a package that doesn't overwhelm the listener with his political bent. Which is nice ("Don't want to be an American Idiot...")

Finally - this is for all of the morons who think Vedder's voice has lost an unidentifiable quality only evident in the first three albums - Vedder's vocals are amazing. Unlike every other 15-year fan of the band, I have never felt like Vedder lost something vocally (or lyrically for that matter) in each subsequent album. Vedder's voice has surpassed every other arena rock band's leading man...ever. Nobody holds a candle to Eddie Vedder, and the self-titled album is no exception. His voice is as crisp as in any previous album: a mix of harmonic screaming and Neil Young. I got that too: just cut me off in traffic while I'm listening to No Code.

Old Metallica vs. New Metallica. Van Halen, David Lee Roth vs. Van Halen, Sammy Haggar. And very unfortunately, Pearl Jam, Ten vs. Pearl Jam, Everything else. It's difficult to analyze subsequent albums when a band's first, or second, or third, have such a powerful effect on us. One can't forget the feeling Alive gave you while smoking their first cigarette, or all the times they got high to Rearviewmirror, I'm sure. But for 50 minutes, let go of the past and let yourself enjoy a solid rock album. I promise that you won't be disappointed. And your co-workers will be happy that you finally have a reason to stop tying that flannel shirt around your waist.

I'm an old guy whose resume' includes seeing Little Richard live in 1956, Led Zepplin in 1969 and Patti Smith in 2003. After the great Patti Smith concert I planned on retiring from going to rock shows and just purchase cds such as Prairie Wind [Neil Young]. You know, just kind of fade off into the wistful melancholy rock suitable for someone my age. Well through some form of resurrection synchronicity I followed the suggestion of a music store employee that I should hear the new Pearl Jam even though she knew I almost never purchased hard rock and that I did not own any of their previous cds. Well so much for retirement from live performances. I will try to see this band even if I have to struggle through the drama that an arena or stadium venue will impose on my old bones. I know that Pearl Jam is known for great live shows. In regard to the cd which I am supposed to be reviewing here, I have about 10 cds that at the time of their release I considered to be the best album I had heard in my life. Today that is how I feel about this new Pearl Jam cd. This album [and yes it is an ALBUM] rocks with a combination of fury, intelligence and visceral beauty that would be hard to match by any other band. I would not delete one track if I were to transfer this to an Ipod. It will be a long time before I hear a new release and I say "this is the best album I have heard in my life".