Pearl Jam is an undeniably good band. However, if someone tells me that Pearl Jam is their favorite band, I question their taste. I really liked them as a kid, but I never loved them, and considering I only knew about 10 bands in those days and one of them was Dream Theater, that’s saying something.
Pearl Jam used to get lumped into the grunge genre, but they play with way too much skill and not enough angst to be grunge. Eddie Vedder sings like a man with a lot of thoughts, but not necessarily dark ones like, “Life is a pile of shit.” Plus, they’ve outlasted every so-called grunge band, which makes them even less grunge, and we can simply call them “90s rock” now.
They play rock music that has some emotion, but does it grab you emotionally? It doesn’t for me. You’ve got a singer who hits every note perfectly with effortless gusto, juicy guitars riffing when they should riff and wailing when they should wail, and a smart rhythm section that beefs it all up except in the best-chosen spots to let some flashiness fly … how boring is that? This band is almost too good for their own good.
The most common complaint I hear from others is that Vedder is a cheesy and/or annoying singer. The guy is super-duper talented, but I can see it. Then again, that’s the same opinion I mentioned regarding folks who don’t care for Led Zeppelin, and while I can see that too, I fucking love Led Zeppelin.
For me, the bummer about them is that they didn’t keep up with their own quality. Their first album (Ten) is excellent. It’s like a slice of rich, dense chocolate cake. Then the next three albums are like chicken strips, tortilla chips, and celery, respectively. Celery’s fine, but after chocolate cake? No bueno. I wish I could take the songs from the first four albums and rearrange them into four well-balanced albums, each one with some sugar, salt, protein, carbs, and whatever the fuck is in celery. I think I’d have fonder feelings of the band if that were the case.
As a kid, I went out and bought Vitalogy (1994) and No Code (1996) within days of their releases, but I was completely disinterested by the next one, Yield (1998), and I hadn’t heard it or any later albums in full until I started writing these reviews.
Ten
1991
9 out of 10
What a debut. Pearl Jam was on pace to be the greatest band ever after they hit a towering home run on their first swing. The songs are catchy and dynamic, the musicianship is strong, Eddie’s deep bellowing voice is on point, and the production quality is top notch. It sounds so goddamn good!
Four of the first six songs are hits. “Even Flow” and “Alive” have big fat melodic choruses. “Black” and “Jeremy” are more moody, but they’re still hits. And the other two songs “Once” and “Why Go” are arguably even better, more speedy and maybe a little grungy. I’d call some of it funky if it weren’t for the powerful rock rhythms charging forward.
The second side is good too, but maybe not as good. “Porch” has a lot going for it, mixing a tight funky section, a wide-open “cruising through the sky” section, and rocking chaos at the end. But like I said, this album is like chocolate cake, heavy but sweet, and maybe it gets to be too much by the end of it. The last song, “Release,” is different, but in a stripped down, less interesting way.
Did I mention it sounds really good? The sound is polished and the band is in top form. There’s a lot of guitar solos and pretty lead parts, but they don’t deviate from the songs at all. The drummer throws in lots of nifty fills that fit right in, never calling too much attention to himself. Eddie is content to let his talent shine here, not trying too hard to be artsy. It’s a winner, baby!
Vs.
1993
7 out of 10
The production is slightly more raw on this one than Ten, just a smidge closer to what the band probably sounded like playing in a room. There’s a bit more thrashing around, more of that funky wiggity-wick guitar strumming, and just as much skillful soloing. The songs seem to follow the same pattern, except, sadly, without the same catchy hooks.
“Dissident” is probably the closest this album gets, strong and powerful. Most of the other songs are good but not great. The acoustic guitars come out for “Daughter” and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” and I suspect they’re absolutely cherished by PJ fans but seem sappy to most everyone else. I also wonder if they’d be more effective if they just left out the bass and drums.
Altogether, the album kinda just wears on me, despite the added variety.
Vitalogy
1994
6 out of 10
Is this what artistic growth sounds like? Well then send me back to preschool! Sure, “Better Man” is the heaviest song I heard at Supercuts while a 48-year-old mother messed up my hairline, but does it rock? No!
“Corduroy” and “Not For You” are both catchier tunes and the best things in this album’s 55 minutes. There are just two songs that rock in the same speedy vein as Vs., and there are a handful of go-nowhere, vibey tracks that hardly count as songs, making for a horribly disjointed listening experience front to back.
Also, the pristine sound quality from Ten has been completely abandoned here, with guitars pulled into the mid-range (oh, older amps and fuzzy distortion, so edgy!) and drumming that’s starkly basic, as if the guy stopped putting in effort out of spite. (That actually might be truer than I originally meant it, because I read that drummer Dave Abbruzzese quit during the recording of this album.) Oh, and Eddie’s trying to be too artsy here. Did he grow to despise the success his warm-toned singing had earned him on Ten? Maybe this band was grunge after all!
No Code
1996
7 out of 10
It’s got that same trashy production from Vitalogy, but they at least brightened up the guitars this time around. Song-wise, it’s another uneven offering, a handful of memorable songs and a few throwaways.
“Hail, Hail” rolls along with reckless momentum, but then it’s followed by the stupid, jammy “Who You Are” with lazy, weak vocals. The criminally overlooked “Red Mosquito” has AWESOME guitar leads, then it’s followed by “Lukin,” somewhere between speed punk and classic rock with all the personality of a piece of cardboard.
“Habit” and “Mankind” are fun enough tunes, rocking around decent hooks. But man, a lot of this album is patience-draining stuff that I’ve thankfully forgotten about. And why does this band insist on ending every album on the most sour, dreary note possible? In this case, it’s not one but two sleep-inducing songs to close it out. Did they really think they’re such high-energy rockers that the audience needed time to wind down?
Yield
1998
5 out of 10
The sound quality here returns to professionalism, clean and balanced. Along the same lines, the band seems more confident in the material, everyone working together. But whatever bombast or youthful energy that made me like this band before is GONE.
“Brain of J.” is a promising start, a straight-ahead, almost punky rocker, but sort of a controlled one. From there, this sounds like a bunch of grown-ups who are too satisfied with themselves. It’s a lot of harmless, cheery stuff that stays in its lane. The slower stuff isn’t dark or moody — “easygoing” is a more accurate description — and there’s a LOT of Eddie doing his relaxed “hushed tones” delivery, which sounds the same every time he does it.
The radio-worthy “Given to Fly” is blandly handsome. “Do the Evolution” is horribly dull. “Low Light” sounds like a fucking church song. I wanted to give this album a 6 out of 10 simply because the production is nice and the effort is consistent, but that’s too generous for an album I find so unenjoyable.
Binaural
2000
5 out of 10
Whereas the last album made every song as bright and pretty as possible, this one dips its toes into dark intrigue: moments of slamming rock, a few odd time signatures, eerie guitar effects, strange chords, unexpected transitions, and even brief moments of thundering beats akin to the nu-metal of its day (and I mean really brief, like two or three seconds here and there). It makes for a more interesting listening experience, but not necessarily a better one. The songs still fall flat with no hooks that pull me in.
The album starts with three rather rocking songs (hey, cool, they haven’t played three rockers in a row since their second album!), but they’re all unmemorable, and the yelling chorus on “Evacuation” is as stupid and forced as the one from Yield’s “Do the Evolution.”
And before you know it, we’re back into the land of lazy, slow songs featuring Eddie’s “hushed tones” delivery, which at this point in the PJ library, I’m hating more and more. It’s not like I don’t have a taste for anything quiet and slow. I like Portishead and I like Sigur Ros. They’re quiet and slow for entire albums, but they use their style to evoke some kind of feeling, emotion, texture, something, anything. What feeling is Pearl Jam evoking? They just sound TIRED.
Anyway, this album is at least a bit different from the ones before it without abandoning all of the band’s positive qualities.
…
Well, folks, in the Pearl Jam tradition, I think I need to end this on a sour note. I started listening to the next album, and it’s just going to be another negative assessment from me, so I’ll stop here. Those first four albums have their rightful place in my heart, but after that, I just don’t think this band is for me.
Published October 2021