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EVER, PJ have taken us through the near "Punk-glam-grunge" of post-eighties, depressive angst with "Ten", explored polyrhythms and funk after touring with the Chili Peppers and changing drummers on "Vs.", then "found their roots" with the organic tastes of "Vitalogy", the first hearkenings to the sounds they would become known for. While underrated, "No Code" and "Yield" were GREAT albums, but we (and PJ themselves) were still trying to figure out who PEARL JAM was, so there was some lack of cohesion and possibly alienation of the fan base...BUT their live shows held everyone together. It was not until the mediocre sounds of "Binaural" and "Riot Act" did I truly begin to question whether or not this band was going to even be around much longer---or whether anyone was going to care if they weren't.
But, songs like "Man of the Hour", while pensive and certainly not "rocking", along with the fire of their live shows showed that the light was still on...however, the four years of relative silence has been deafening...
Now the band brings us the eponymous "Pearl Jam", which is as good, if not better, than any albums that came before it. I have listened from start to finish several times through and it just keeps getting better. I don't think I've ever heard the band's live sound captured so well on one of their studio recordings. Stone and Mike are playing better than ever (and Ed is playing some guitar on there as usual), and Jeff and Matt are just infernal as the rhythm section for the machine. In this man's opinion, Jeff Ament is the reason why this band has sounded so fresh from the moment they came out of Andy Wood's death with this new band...Jeff's bass lines are so original, so cool, yet so understated, and he uses so many different intruments: a fretless standup here, an 8 string bass there, a 12-string bass (on earlier records, notably "Jeremy"), a 4-string electric, a 4-string bowed electric, a 5-string bass. He keeps the songs sounding new yet familiar...
But I digress, "Pearl Jam" is a tour de force of organic energy. I cannot stop listening to it. The realization of a "life wasted" is a scary thought for these forty somethings, and a lot of my generation feels the same way along with them, which adds to the poignancy of the first songs lyrics. "World Wide Suicide" is the single, but doesn't quite reach the heights for which it was originally intended, at least in my opinion. The trio of "Comatose", "Severed Hand", and "Marker in the Sand" are just phenomenal. I dare you to listen to the chorus of the latter song and to not sing along...this attack against hypocrisy and high-handedness hits hard. Are you listening, Republicans?
Then there is "Parachutes", a lovely guitar based ballad by Stone that took me a while to "get". The way Ed initally phrases the verses took some getting used to, but when the song turns the mode to the Dorian towards the end just lifts this song to something ethereal, and the message is just so strong...
One of my favorites, "Unemployable", is a blue-collar story with hook after hook, from the guitar riff at the beginning to the "Uh-oh-oh's" of the chorus, if it weren't such a sad and home-hitting topic this would be an anthem for a generation...it may still be. Who of us aren't "scared alive...near to death" at some point in our lives?
Then there's the final few longs which are fairly laid back, but poignant topical pieces, with "Army Reserve" and "Inside Job" standing tall, with the last song being just an amazingly personal look into Mr. Vedder's soul...
And the record fits together quite well, each song has it's own space but still feels part of a bigger whole. This record is what rock and roll is about, showing us that judgments based on age, and time, and what came before mean nothing. Listen, and listen again...and when Pearl Jam comes near you on tour this summer, go see what will be an AMAZING live show from what is probably the most important band in American history. Folks, Pearl Jam is America's Led Zeppelin...
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2006
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