Strung Out on Pearl Jam: Mad World- String Quartet

Strung Out on Pearl Jam (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 25, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vitamin Records
• ASIN: B000CEV4B8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,356 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From the Artist

What happens when the grungemobile runs out of gas? If you’re Pearl Jam, you grab your guitars and walk. And when they looked over their shoulders, the fans followed. Sue Ticketmaster and neglect radio and MTV? The fans kept in step. Pearl Jam’s rise to success has certainly been unconventional. Rather than rest on clichés, the band played their music and promoted a myriad of causes. In the music industry, that’s considered unconventional. Fortunately, the love for Pearl Jam is unconditional.

Product Description

Strung Out on Pearl Jam is as uncompromising as the band it honors. From car radio speakers to arenas across the world, the sound of Pearl Jam is voluminous. But when guitars and Eddie Vedder’s muscular voice are replaced by violins, viola, and cello, the resulting music is simply majestic. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" becomes cinematic in scope and poignancy. "Better Man" transforms into a subtle, nuanced portrait. Strung Out on Pearl Jam is an anomaly of good music.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good!, November 17, 2006

By 

L. A. Koontz "Pearl Jam Guru" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strung Out on Pearl Jam: Mad World- String Quartet (Audio CD)

I had no idea what to expect from this album. I found it while I was walking around through an electronics store looking for something to buy with the last $15 on a gift card. As a long time diehard PJ fan, I figured that I'd give it a shot, and if it wasn't good then no big deal... it wasn't my money.

I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised by this album. When I first listened to it, I laughed at nearly every song - not because they were bad, but simply because hearing string renditions of some of my favorite songs made me feel like I was meeting old friends again. The songs were different from when I first heard them years ago, but I could still recognize them, and it was really, really good to hear them.

Most of the songs are well done. I simply love "Betterman", "Daughter", "Elderly Woman", "Jeremy", "Rearviewmirror", "Corduroy" and "Evenflow". To me these are beautifully done, and seem to be poignant tributes to their namesakes. "Dissident", "Alive", "Once", and "Last Exit" are fair, and I think mainly that they don't translate that well to a string arrangement. "Go" is an insteresting choice for strings, and I'm just not convinced that it works. It's hard to capture the power of that song with a string quartet! "Given to Fly" is a disappointment, as it seems to have lost most of the original song's resonant melodies (you would assume they would be even more prevalent when arranged on strings). Finally, I was very disappointed by "Release". When I saw it on the track listing, it was the one PJ song that I was sure would be beautiful in a string arrangement. Much of the original song's ambient sound has been lost, replaced instead by individual string melodies that don't seem to even fit together.

As a whole, this album is pleasant to listen to, and I'll definitely listen to it when I need to mellow out. I'm also a classical music fan, and I can easily see this album working its way into my rotation of classical favorites. If you're a PJ fan and aren't allergic to classical music, this album is definitely worth having. If you're a PJ purist who finds classical music boring, you'll likely think this album deadens the power and verve of the songs you've come to know and love.