Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

The inevitable eponymous record. Every band, it seems, either starts with it, or tries to revive their career with it. How did PJ fare?



Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam - 2006 (iTunes)

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1. Life Wasted is a perfect album opener. In your face and groovy and it's followed up by the genius
2. World Wide Suicide. Another groovy rocker, pissed off at George Bush and not taking prisoners. My regret is that I can't play it louder.
3. Comatose. Who are these guys? What did this garage band do with experiment-o-grungers of the last decade? Whatever you do, DON'T bring them back. If this record can keep it up, it's gonna be PJ's Sheer Heart Attack.
4. Severed Hand. I didn't think they could sound this dynamic again since Vs. But they do here.
5. Marker in the Sand. Matt Cameron is the showcase on this album. Without a drummer like him they couldn't probably do stuff like this, although we wouldn't have known it the last few records. I fully expected an audience to cheer at the end of this song.
6. Parachutes. Okay. I think we needed a breather. Neat, trippy, asyncopated Beatles-y psychedila.
7. Unemployed. Nice, epic track. This album doesn't want to let up.
8. Big Wave. Finally, something to surf to. I think we all forgot that Pearl Jam was a rock band. They didn't.
9. Gone. The build on this song was totally unexpected and welcome. This is something that I imagine sounds great in an amphitheater. I love how Vedder describes the car in this song as a hybrid because he knew the character only had one tank of gas and he wanted him to go far.....hysterical.
10. Wasted Reprise. The now expected 1 minute track is a softer reprise of the opener. A song written about Vedder's friend, Johnny Ramone (Yes, THAT Johnny Ramone) after attending Johnny's funeral.
11. Army Reserve. Oh, they sound like U2 again. Don't you remember what I said???? (It's in here)
12. Come Back. I'll say. This record is one helluva comeback. Oh, wait. It's not about that. Doesn't matter. it's lovely.
13. Inside Job. Even the experimental piece works on this release!

This record is really a surprise. I don't know if the world wasn't ready for a Pearl Jam comeback record, I know I wasn't. Maybe they didn't market it correctly. The Avocado just seems so....hippy dippy to me. All told, though, Pearl Jam is the best Pearl Jam record in a while. I like it more than Riot Act and, for me at least, that was a hard act to follow. I would say that this, at this point, is my third favorite Pearl Jam album.

Grade A
A Side: Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Gone
BlidnSide: Parachutes, Big Wave, Come Back
Downside: Army Reserve