Review Summary: Pearl Jam's fourth album, in which they experiment with worldbeat and consciously reject the successes of their past, is a mixed, but always interesting, listen.
'No Code' marked a transitory period for Pearl Jam. It successfully turned America's most famous hard rock band into America's most famous cult band. This transition can hardly be seen as a surprise, however. The band was already traveling off the beaten path with their previous album 'Vitalogy', a record which featured such commercial no-nos as "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" and even an accordion song. Their erratic tour and subsequent battling with Ticketmaster placed them in much smaller, obscure live venues which limited their exposure, not to mention the band's reluctance to release singles and music videos.
So the band decided to experiment further. Lead singer Eddie Vedder's previous brooding went out the window in exchange for more upbeat, spiritual fare. The band, like many bands who decide to experiment, dabbles in world music, but unlike most bands who often sound laughable and fall flat on their faces in doing so, the experimental side of the band shines on the record. "Who You Are" may be seen as an odd choice for a lead single, as it has a decidedly Middle Eastern flair, but it works perfectly, as Vedder's deep voice provides the ideal backdrop for such spiritual subject matter. Instead of singing about personal turmoil, Vedder channels his emotions through what sounds like a prayer, as he talks about the importance of the individual. The song reflects the artwork of the album, which contains Polaroids that showcase the beauty of the world around us through seemingly mundane objects.
Ironically enough, it's the garage rockers which keep the album from truly taking off, with songs like "Habit" and "Mankind" stagnating the flow of the record. Some other material also seems tossed-on, like the short ditty "Lukin" and the pretentious spoken-word "I'm Open" (a song that reflects the sound of the album but makes Vedder seem more like Bono). "Smile", though it features some impressive guitar work, doesn't seem fleshed out enough and comes off more as a jam than as a song. While the record is largely hit-or-miss, the hits come in droves, as the quieter, more reflective songs take center stage. "Sometimes" is somewhat of an anti-opener, as it starts the album off with a hushed guitar line. "Off He Goes" is an excellent Springsteen-like acoustic ballad with some of Vedder's best lyrics yet, while "Present Tense" almost sounds like a Radiohead song, beginning with quiet atmospheric guitar and ending with a spiraling solo. Indeed, the guitar work on the album must be commended. There are no three minute long guitar solos like what one may find on 'Ten', but the backing band manages to create a distinct atmosphere for each song, whether it's the shimmering "In My Tree" or the lilting "Around the Bend", or even the hard rock of "Hail, Hail" and "Red Mosquito".
While by no means perfect, 'No Code' has gone down as one of the more underrated records of the '90s, and has become the favorite album of many new fans of the band. This album would provide the template for the band's next string of records, and allowed the band to be both successful (in its number of fans, who treat the band as the second coming of the Grateful Dead) and unsuccessful (while the band would have a couple modern rock radio hits, it would never again reach the popularity it attained through its first three albums).
