vs. & Vitalogy 3 CD Deluxe Edition (Featuring Live At The Orpheum, Boston MA)

Pearl Jam | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 29, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B004K7M6Z6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,523 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Go

2. Animal

3. Daughter

4. Glorified G

5. Dissident

6. W.M.A.

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Last Exit

2. Spin the Black Circle

3. Not For You

4. Tremor Christ

5. Nothingman

6. Whipping

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Oceans

2. Even Flow

3. Sonic Reducer

4. Immortality

5. Glorified G

6. Daughter

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Pearl Jam’s Vs. and Vitalogy continued the band’s explosive success that began with their debut record Ten in 1991. Vs. was released on October 19, 1993 – it debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over 6 million copies. Vitalogy followed a little over a year later on December 6, 1994, and has since gone 4-times Platinum, also reaching #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. And now some fifteen+ years later, these seminal records receive the definitive reissue. Epic/Legacy is proud to present Vs./Vitalogy - Deluxe Edition.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably worth it just for the Orpheum show March 29, 2011

By General Martok

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

*Both Vs and Vitalogy are available individually in remastered form. You don't have to buy this set except to get the Orpheum show, which is only available here or through the Super Deluxe version of this set. That by the way is only available on PJ's website.

My original copies of both Vs. and Vitalogy were purchased on their respective release dates back in the early '90s. Both cd's were scratched, rendering a couple of songs on each album unlistenable. I knew these releases were in the pipeline and have waited more than a year for this day to come. Opening this set today made me feel like I was back in junior high, getting both albums for the first time.

Vitalogy went into the cd player first because I had to hear "Last Exit" in remastered form. I listened to the first three songs and can say they sound amazing. Of course the original versions still sound great. But really, this is not much dough to drop for remastered versions of two of your favorite albums, right? Plus you get them in a spiffy package that will look great on your shelf.

Plus there is a live show included from Boston's Orpheum theatre in 1994. The cd is 75 minutes long. I'm listening to it right now and the band sounds so passionate and young. Ed sounds amazing. Also worth noting, the version of Immortality from this set has completely different lyrics from the album version.

This probably isn't an essential purchase if your original cd's are still in good shape and you aren't a huge audiophile. If you have the cash to drop and have a great stereo system, then I'd say go ahead and make the purchase.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great remastering March 31, 2011

By PAC MAN

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is how remastering is done! You don't add bass or make the volume much louder. This is exactly how it's done. I had a feeling VS and Vitalogy were going to sound great remastered and they do. I wasn't a big fan of the Ten remaster because Ten had a special sound that the remaster kinda mixed out. This re-issue is on the mark. However, the bonus tracks are weak on Vitalogy. Where are the unreleased outtakes? There has to be a few. Instead we get some Vitalogy demos. Kinda of weak from that perspective. Over all a nice package though. The booklet for VS and Vitalogy has some minor ommisions or differences from the original albums. Not sure if there were copy right problems? Anyway, looking forward to No Code and Yield re-issues. The sound can sure use a pick me up.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Vs-tology. March 29, 2011

By H3@+h

Format:Audio CD

This is kind of an odd release. I totally understand releasing an album again if it's remastered and with bonus tracks, but two seperate albums paired together? Anyway, that's more of a question than a complaint. More on that. So, these ARE remastered and nice to hear. Essential for that? Maybe not, but you can hear the slight improvement. The bonus tracks are a combination of outtakes, demos, and the songs "Hold On" and "Crazy Mary", the former on Lost Dogs, the latter on a Sweet Relief benefit compilation. Now these two albums are available seperately just as they are here, but getting this set also gets you the third disc "Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA. 1994". That's 16 tracks including Neil Young and Dead Boys covers. Sounds great. So...cool deluxe edition no doubt. But...who doesn't have these albums already for 17 years? Plus Pearl Jam has no shortage of live material. They put another live disc out just weeks ago. Hey Matt Cameron...maybe you can remaster Ultramega OK next.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five star albums, three to four star packaging and extras April 18, 2011

By Kendall L. Vaughan

Format:Audio CD

In some ways I have to agree a little with the single one star review on this album. He is right that the two albums don't sound noticeably different then the originals. No remaster of a 90s alternative band sounds all that different from the original version. However I think the fact that it doesn't sound that different shouldn't be a surprise when you factor in that albums released in this era have little to improve on. I bought the remaster of Dinosaur Jr's Where You Been a few years ago and noticed some modest improvements to a couple of tracks but in most cases these 90s albums will have little difference as far as remastering goes.

Just about the only reason to buy a 90s remaster is to get the bonus tracks and extra artwork. Ten (Deluxe Edition) (2CD/1 DVD) from a couple of years ago was really good. It included much more artwork, bonus tracks, a concert DVD, and a remixed album. It is an essential purchase if you were a big fan of the band. Even though the fans argued about whether such a great album should need to be remastered I was in the camp that thought it was a great idea especially since it included both versions and let you pick which one you wanted to play rather then forcing one version or the other on you.

The Vs/Vitalogy reissue is no where near the step up that Ten was. Both reissues contained live concerts but the Ten concert was better because the live songs were more different then the studio versions due to the fact that they were unplugged versions of the songs as well as the fact that it had visuals being that it was a DVD.... The Boston show is pretty average as a live album, it doesn't offer a whole lot different then what you hear on the studio versions.

Instead of putting on the Boston show they should have added some excepts to the radio show they did in support of Vitalogy, that would have been much more interesting. When Vitalogy was originally released Pearl Jam had the unique idea of taking over a radio station for four hours to promote the album. They wouldn't have needed to include the whole four hour show, part of the four hours was just the band spinning records, but they probably could have picked about 1 or 2 CDs worth of the best moments of the show. I recorded the show originally back in '94 but as with most cassette's (as well as VHS) it probably ended up getting eaten up by the tape player or recorded over. It would have been fun to hear that show again. Would have brought back a lot of memories.

As far as bonus tracks Vs has the best ones. Crazy Mary finally makes its way on to a PJ record after 18 years. I have heard killer versions of the songs on YouTube (that have since been taken down) where the song ends in explosive dual solos between Mike and future band member Boom Gasper. That would have been nice to see in this collection. McCready Stomp is a good instrumental. There is also a good stripped down version of Hold On here. Hold On was so close to making it on to the original Vs. album that some copies of the album contained the songs lyrics. I could never understand at the time why there were lyrics to a song that wasn't present. In this version the lyrics to Hold on are now absent while the song is here. On Vitalogy the corduroy and nothingman demos don't do much for me. The organ only Betterman works much better.

In contrast to the greatly expanded packaging on Ten the repackaging on Vs. has actually lost quite a bit of the artwork. The hand reaching out to grab you that said "against one" is gone. 5 Against One was Vs.'s original title that was renamed after the album was rushed to market but the 5 Against One lyrics are still on the album so there was no reason to leave the picture out. The Jesus painting is also gone. The "Elderly Woman" picture is gone. The picture of the devil in the plants worked well in the original but it now stupidly has the title to "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" going right though the middle of his face. Why? Why couldn't they just shorten the name to "Elderly Woman" or "Small Town" like they did on the back of this very album set? There is also a whole crap load of fine print on the bottom of the page just in case you didn't think the text through the devil's face was distracting enough from the picture. Fortunately the cover of the album, one of their greatest covers, has been redone very nicely. It is considerably taller then the original and the text has been wisely left off to let the powerful photo work it's magic without anything else getting in the way. I do kind of miss the red ferns that used to run down the strip on the left.

The Vitalogy packaging is more successful. One of my all time favorite album art designs Vitalogy stays pretty close to the original. Perhaps that was wise as there is probably little that could be done to improve it. The cover is less gold and is a little more silver color and CD no longer comes in the sleeve at the back. I liked how the original album made it feel like you were holding a real book but the design still works very well in the new format. I like how in the new version of skeleton torso was moved to the front of the booklet since it compliments the table of contents on the facing page well.

This review mainly focuses on what has changed since the original albums themselves. If you haven't bought these two albums and you are wondering if you should buy them the answer is yes. They are both outstanding albums that have been on numerous greatest albums lists over the years. Some of the reviews to the first Vitalogy album were saying that Vitalogy contained several "filler tracks" but I don't believe that Vitalogy contains any filler tracks. Each song would be sorely missed if it wasn't there. I like how Pry, To spends half the song gradually getting louder and then the last half gradually gets softer again. The song is really funky as is Aya Davanita. I like how these songs provide little breaks between the other songs. I still think Bugs is really funny and the song actually got quite a bit of air play here in Seattle when it was first released (believe it or not!) It really makes you wonder about radio. They are open to playing Bugs but they won't play other PJ songs that should have been big hits like Force of Nature (Backspacer) or Marker in the Sand (Pearl Jam). Stupidmop needed to be there because it was appropriate to address Kurt Cobain's suicide that happened just months earlier. I think they made it into a sound collage because they probably weren't ready to talk about it directly at that point. I know that Ed has said that his view on the suicide has changed over the years perhaps that is why the issue wasn't addressed more directly until nearly a decade later with the song Save You.

It should probably be mentioned that these two albums are the only ones with Dave Abbruzzese on them. Like many fans I am baffled in some ways to why he got kicked out. Dave was the primary song writer to Go which was easily the best album opener the band ever released besides maybe Sometimes. I have to wonder what else he would have gone on to write if he stayed in the band. The song is killer to hear live. Mike's solo on that song sounds even more amazing in person.

Looking forward I have to wonder what they will do with their next reissue. I am not sure what I would change to No Code but I have always thought that Yield was far too short and would benefit from being greatly expanded. I like songs like Pilate but I wish they would do something different after the song's build up rather then just go back into the song's same chorus that they used before earlier in the song. I think they should busted out into something totally different like they did after the build up in songs like Present Tense, Rearview Mirror, and the last minute or so of Habit. It will be interesting seeing what their next reissues have to bring. Read more ›