Pearl Jam always looked uncomfortable as superstars, and throughout the 1990s gracefully exited from the mainstream, avoiding commercial success with ploys like not making music videos, including avant-garde tracks on their albums, and releasing an album without a bar-code. 1998’s Yield was arguably Pearl Jam’s last gasp of cultural significance and since then they have continued to make respectable records, but it’s unlikely they’ll ever return as the mouthpiece of disaffected youth and instead they’ve been growing up alongside their audience. The emergence of Creed and other less talented but deep-throated pretenders, has made Vedder’s baritone less unique. On their first couple of albums, their music feels like it’s aimed at spotty-faced, angst-ridden teenagers, and Pearl Jam started to grow up on 1994’s Vitalogy as Vedder took more control of the band. lists Pearl Jam as the 14th most acclaimed act of the 1990s, which seems fair or even slightly generous. It might well be worth using 2003’s double disc Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003) as a one stop shopping solution to the band’s work.
I favour 1996’s eclectic No Code, but don’t think they’ve ever made a front to back classic album. Opinion is often divided on their best work many fans enjoy their first two albums and think they fell away afterwards. They’ve explored plenty of sonic territory while largely sticking to meat and potatoes rock. It’s difficult to credit Pearl Jam as innovators, as they’ve always felt like a seventies stadium rock band at heart, but they’re a likeable band all the same. and Vitalogy, Jack Irons helped facilitate the eclecticism of No Code, while Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron has been the drummer since 2000’s Binaural, and has contributed more as a songwriter than any of the other drummers. Dave Krusen anchored the arena rock of 1991 debut Ten, Dave Abbruzzese’s busy style was highlighted in the aggressive Vs. The band have gone through a succession of drummers who have all influenced the group’s sound. Rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament started a new band with Mike McCready on lead guitar and recruited Eddie Vedder as vocalist. Backspacer’s overall tone was, however, set by the sharp “Gonna See My Friend,” which, in under three minutes, was a speedball of guitar-driven fury thanks to the always reliable guitar tandem of Mike McCready and Stone Gossard.Pearl Jam grew from the remnants of Mother Love Bone, whose singer Andrew Wood overdosed. It fit in sharply on modern rock radio and was a burst of energy that revealed Peal Jam wasn’t ready to fade into middle age quietly. As a whole, it is earnest, retrospective, energetic and crisp Vedder’s lyrics were generally optimistic, at least compared to the bleak worldview pervading many albums of the George W Bush years.īackspacer’s lead single, “The Fixer,” which was accompanied by a live performance video shot in Seattle by Cameron Crowe, was a fireball.
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Recorded in a brisk 30 days, Backspacer was the first album since 1996’s No Code that Pearl Jam recorded outside of their Seattle base. Perhaps inspired by the upcoming US presidential election, or just needing a break from the studio, Eddie Vedder and co sliced through the East Coast of America with an urgent vigor that demonstrated their collective power as a six-piece (organist Kenneth “Boom” Gaspar had joined the band in 2002).Įntering the studio with longtime producer Brendan O’Brien, the Backspacer sessions were sharp, slick, and offered a variety of tunes that nestled well within the band’s sound. In 2008, Pearl Jam embarked on one of the sharpest (and best) tours of their career. By the time they were ready to follow it up with their ninth album, 2009’s Backspacer, expectations were sky high. Though subsequent tours proved that Pearl Jam’s rabid fanbase was in it for the long haul, whatever the group’s direction, “The Avocado Album” showed they could still write killer tunes. That album was a return to the band’s straightforward rock roots – a path the Seattle natives veered from on 2000’s Binaural and 2002’s Riot Act. Following the release of Pearl Jam (aka “The Avocado Album”) in 2006, Pearl Jam once again found themselves at the forefront of the modern rock world, a place they were initially extremely uncomfortable being in.
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