a review/blog post by some DJ from just before the S/T that I saved that i always really liked and I think speaks to some of this. I wish I recalled who wrote it. But I can't be troubled to google it.
Also, regarding metacritic--I agree that the sample size of anything prior to Riot Act is too small to be valid.
Also, Vitalogy is the other album besides Ten that shows up regularly on 'best of the decade/best of all time lists'. Not to the same degree, but it is there.
3/7/06
So I just played this new Pearl Jam song, about 20 minutes ago... "Worldwide Suicide"... And I asked for some feedback... It was split about 50/50, and I think that's roughly the same ratio of people who still care about Pearl Jam to those who don't...
...and I think that ratio is probably broken down along age-lines... Which would make sense, I guess... If you're between the ages of 18-24, that means you were between 3-9 years old when Ten came out... Most of your experience of Pearl Jam begins and ends with the 5 or so songs of theirs you've been hearing again and again and again on the radio your whole short life... And that small bunch of songs are all more than 10 years old... This band hasn't done much for you since you've been old enough to be a part of youth culture...
Then there's those of you that are at least in your late 20s... And even if you aren't particularly a devoted fan of Pearl Jam, you remember what that band meant when they came out... Pearl Jam essentially was the new U2... Once Bono became more interested in making songs that sounded claustrophobic, who was left to make the big, sweeping, sincere, meaningful, grand-gesture rock music that could fill arenas??... REM just wasn't that band, however many records and concert tickets they sold... Nirvana didn't want to be that band, obviously... But along comes Eddie Vedder, and not only did Pearl Jam make U2 songs for the 90s, they made no-nonsense U2 songs... There wasn't anything precious or arty about it... In a word, it ROCKED... And when you looked at the garbage that was ruling the rock world at the time (read: Guns N Roses), Pearl Jam was a relief... A big relief...
It had been a long, long, long time since a band like Pearl Jam had broken through... The Who, to be precise... Big songs, big chords, a singer with a voice that sounded like it was coming down from Mt. Olympus... And most importantly, that mix of power, vulnerability, and thoughtfulness... And while Nirvana offered destruction, Pearl Jam offered release, and then hope...
You could make the argument that for a band of their size and following, Pearl Jam has more integrity than any other band... Who else willfully abandoned MTV??... Who else went to Capitol Hill to fight Ticketmaster??... Who else released over 50 live albums??... Who else has the kind of fanclub that Pearl Jam maintains online?
So the question is this... Why do people still care about this band?? Why is it still a big deal when they release a new song?? Surely, it can't be just because of those same 5 songs you hear on every rock station around the country... If that were the case, Pearl Jam would be like Live, or Bush... But, regardless of the fact that they haven't really sounded like the Pearl Jam of Ten and Vs., people continue to love this band... This band still inspires...
There was a time in the mid-90s, around the time No Code came out, when a lot of folks thought Pearl Jam was taking things too far... People thought they were being too uncompromising... Understand: Pearl Jam could've gone on to rule the Alt-Rock landscape, unopposed, for as long as they wanted... They could've stuck to a formula, and milked it forever... They didn't, and no TRULY great band has done what they refused to do...
Think of it this way, even though it's a complete hypothetical what-if... Take the biggest, most enduring classic rock bands from the pre-MTV era... Take Zeppelin... Take The Who, take Floyd, take Queen, you could even take Rush... What do you think those bands would've done in the face of the marketing machinery and hype-demand that Pearl Jam encountered??... Each of those bands released albums in the mid-late periods of their careers that aren't considered their best, kinda considered past their peak... In the mid-90s, those bands would've been written off, they would've been shoved aside for the next musical fad, they would've been called disappointments... And NONE of those bands relied on MTV to get the word out... Or MySpace for that matter...
What I'm trying to say is that in another era, the things Pearl Jam has been faulted for wouldn't have amounted to nearly the condemnation and impatience with which they've been met... Their body of work from Ten to Yield is absolutely stunning, and it's actually much more consistent than people realize... Never before has there been a band that's been so mercilessly chained to its early work... Almost EVERY great band progresses and evolves in its sound, trying out new styles and presentations... But once Pearl Jam tried this, the backlash was on, and it hasn't really ended...
The real irony is this: Pearl Jam has actually become more and more Alternative the longer they're around... I always thought it was a terrible error in judgment that radio programmers in the late 90s didn't stick with Pearl Jam as much as they leaned on Creed, Matchbox 20, and Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray... Big mistake... And not taking Pearl Jam up on the musical challenges they offered was the equivalent of turning your back on Alternative, and Rock, and embracing some kind of Top 40 mentality where every fad and trend and next-big-thing was ingested and shat out within 12-18 months... The other prime victim of this was The Smashing Pumpkins, and Billy just got too discouraged and gave up...
But here's Pearl Jam, with a new record label, and a new album... I'm what you'd call a casual fan of PJ... I've got a few albums, and I know a majority of the material on most of their CDs... So I'm probably not the best judge of this new single, not as good as a diehard... Is it a return to Vs.?... I wouldn't go that far... A return to Yield, yes... With Binaural and Riot Act, I had the feeling that they were dropping messages from the top of a walled tower... There was something distant and closed off about most of those songs, with only a few breaks... The best Pearl Jam songs give you a sense of motion, a sense of openness, a sense of space, and there's purpose, forward-motion... I definitely get that feeling from this song, and that's a feeling I haven't had from most of their music since the 90s... So in that respect, this seems like it could be a "return to form"...
Either way, I always welcome new Pearl Jam material... It's an event... Everyone is always going to be curious about new Pearl Jam, however many albums removed from Ten and Vs. they get... And that's because everyone still recognizes that Pearl Jam's the real deal, that they're not manufactured... That they're not pandering to ANYONE, that they're still as powerful as they ever were, if not as popular... The simple fact that they haven't conformed makes them mightier every time they stay true to themselves...
Do people feel that way about the Chili Peppers or the Foo Fighters?? No, they do not... Both those bands have mastered writing catchy radio-friendly songs, and have done so without diluting their artistic visions... But you don't need me to tell you that THEY AIN'T PEARL JAM... The communal aspect isn't there, the connection... As strange and stubborn as it is, there's a real spiritual element to Pearl Jam, an earthy kind of spirituality...
I can't tell you that RHCP or the Foo Fighters aren't emotional, that they don't produce transcendant, beautiful music... They do... But Pearl Jam stands for something... They represent something... They're iconic and mythic in a way very few bands are... And I'm confident that I'm not exaggerating, because without that quality they wouldn't have lasted THIS LONG, in THIS culture...
Pearl Jam have outlasted numerous trends and fashions... What they're doing isn't a fashion statement... They're not trying to impress with their cleverness or their ironic sensibilities... None of the great artists do that shit, none of the lasting artists...
