Review Summary: Eddie takes Pearl Jam to The Aloha State.
For life long fans of Pearl Jam, the thoughts of releasing Eddie Vedder solo material between the bands new albums was as enticing as ever with his release of the soundtrack for
Into The Wild. Creating a cold, wilderness bearing sound to accompany the film, Vedder succeeded in creating a sound separate from that of PJ but familiar enough to feed the fanboys. With his latest effort,
Ukulele Songs, we find that the effort is present but his choice of instrument is not the best. Despite the ukulele being a tiny, adorable instrument of amusement, when used throughout an entire album it leads to no variation in sound and short songs capable of dragging on.
Ukulele Songs isn’t riddled with problems that make it horrible, it’s just not crafted well enough to make it astounding. Vedder’s voice is strong and very similar to that of the recent
Backspacer and
Pearl Jam but with the simplicity of the ukulele it inhibits any pitch variation throughout the songs. We know there’s nothing wrong with a slow, Vedder heavy song (see: “Unthought Known”) but with many of the songs on this album the missing instrumentation of his band mates brings the enjoyability of his voice down. The album opener, “Can’t Keep”, a reworked PJ track is made to sound more upbeat but ends up sounding hurried and sloppy. With the missing elements to the song it sounds drastically different, making the listener wonder how much work was actually put into this album. Songs like “Without You” and “Light Today” sound like they could be acoustic PJ tracks if were lengthened and the end of the album is filled with 1920’s and 1930’s covers. The album itself contains five covers and while they’re not the most known songs, Vedder’s attempt to gain them recognition almost seems effortless. At 16 tracks and clocking in at 34:50 the album drags at certain points because of it’s repetitious sound. However because the songs range between a minute to two minutes, the album ends up being just more proof that Vedder’s vocals are to be marveled over.
While it isn’t the most creative or brilliant thing Vedder has ever done, it’s definitely one of quirkiness. Even though the ukulele doesn’t allow for change in sound, it is a instrument of entertainment and that it absolutely brings. To a certain degree this might’ve been more fun or well received as a cover album of PJ songs but then we’d still have the argument that it doesn’t have the classic riffs.
Ukulele Songs doesn’t hurt Vedder’s repertoire but it doesn’t further him as a solo artist in the retrospect that he probably was reaching for.
