Pearl Jam’s new self-titled album has defiantly held up to the high anticipation of its release. Most classic Pearl Jam fans are satisfied despite that Eddie Vedder decided to sing less like he has in old albums like “Ten”. He seemed to have gone back to his Seattle grunge roots and sounds like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave. Stone Gossard and Mike McCready’s guitar on the other hand, bring you right back to earlier albums. Before the release of the entire album, “World Wide Suicide”, “Life Wasted”, and “Gone” were all pre-released. I was surprised to see that radio stations preferred “World Wide Suicide” over “Life Wasted”. “Life Wasted” seems to have more of a “today” sound to it, though personally I like “World Wide Suicide” slightly better, its more classic.
The new album shows the political side of Pearl Jam quite more than others. “World Wide Suicide” is obviously politically based, and bashes Bush just slightly (I HATE BUSH WITH A PASSION). The song “Unemployable” describes a ring that says “Jesus Saves” that got dented when its owner punched his metal locker after he was laid-off, and the struggle that he had to go through just to feed his family. Pearl Jam has always been a down to earth band, they have always resented their popularity and have refused to sell-out like most popular bands seem to. Photo shoots are rare for them and when they do they’re reluctant to go. They spend most of their time at their recording studio in the industrial outskirts of Seattle and Vedder is with his nearly two year-old daughter constantly. That is one of the reasons for the big delay of the release, Vedder wanted to be a good father.
The album begins with the song “Life Wasted”, which starts the album with an upbeat feel to it. It immediately goes to vocals with an only seven second long intro. The guitars sound great with the small amount of distortion and the slightly twangy effect in the beginning. Overall, the song has a really unique, impatient sound to it, which stresses the meaning of the song: You only live once, so you shouldn’t live a boring life, but don’t throw your life away either. The next song is the album’s hit single, “World Wide Suicide”, which got all of the hype and attention that it deserved. With a simple drum beat and scratchy guitar, it sounds quite a bit like U2's “Vertigo”, that also got alarming radio play. Pearl Jam has an amazing way of keeping up with the standards of modern music, yet not compromising their old fans. I can see them putting out hits for a long, long time.
The third track, “Comatose”, has a sound similar to “Life Wasted” ,but does not at all make the album seem repetitive. I’m just surprised to see them put them so close together. It’s a good song though it is only two minutes and nineteen seconds long, sometimes it’s a little harder to appreciate shorter songs. Track four, “Severed Hand”, has a great, slow but uppity intro which builds up to a faster, distorted guitar. I can’t tell if there are two people singing in the beginning of the verse, or if there is a small delay on the vocals. Whatever it is, it gives it a pretty cool sound. It has a really cool solo with some vague wah, the solo is an unusual one for Pearl Jam.
“Marker in the Sand” is the fifth track. It goes along with their new(ish) sound, but has that choppy Pearl Jam guitar that we have all grown to love. It is defiantly more mellow than all of the previous songs, yet we still are yet to hear a slow song on this CD. That one will probably be discovered by DJ’s soon. Track six, “Parachutes”, is the first slower song on the album. The guitar is kind of catchy and it has a distinct and steady beat. There are not many Pearl Jam songs prior to this one that have the same overall feel to it. Next, we have “Unemployable”, another classic Pearl Jam masterpiece. To describe it, I can just say “Think Pearl Jam”, and that would be enough. So I will.
The eighth song is “Big Wave”. It is purely about surfing and has a good surfing sound. I didn’t know that Eddie surfs, and yes, I do know that he wrote the song and it is probably him surfing. (This sounds weird, I wish there was another good word for surfing.)
Song number nine is “Gone”. It sounds extremely like their song “Black”. It is a slow, half acoustic song and very classic. (Oh man, how many times have I used the word classic?) Its one of their best calm songs ever, in my opinion. Next is “Wasted Reprise”. I simply love it. No, I’m just kidding. Its only fifty-three seconds long, but it really sounds like they could have made an amazing song out of it. “Army Reserve” is track eleven. It’s a really good song, but I really didn’t see Pearl Jam playing one like it. The song has nice back-up vocals and sounds unusually full during the verses. The drums are very fit for the song with mostly toms and high-hat. Overall, it has a kind of spacey sound to it.
Here we are at track twelve, “Come Back”. It starts with a slow and empty and stays that way into the verse. Finally, here it is, the Eddie Vedder that we know. The vocals are like older albums and the song sounds really bluesy, almost like Eric Clapton in “Bell Bottom Blues”. The last song is “Inside Job”. It is the only song not written by Eddie Vedder. It starts with a crackley sounding violin and then comes in an acoustic guitar along with a piano. The beginning sounds like it could be a Pink Floyd song. It’s a seven minute song and it picks up at a bit after three minutes, when it does it sounds pretty good. It’s a really good song once you get into it.
All in all, Pearl Jam’s new self-titled album is a great buy, it’s one of their best. I just hope that it doesn’t take them as long as it did for this one to come out with their next album. I have tickets to see them on the twenty-seventh. It will rock.
