Getting back to this sucker. I'd like to open things up and hop around more in this collection, so it's time to finish up my Pearl Jam exploration as I dig in to the remaining studio album of theirs that I own, which is their self-titled.
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Genre: Hard Rock
Year: 2006
Place of Origin: Seattle, WA
General Pace: Moderate
The boys have moved past their grunge roots to provide a stripped down yet highly-polished college rock band vibe for this album. Not a whole lot to say as
Pearl Jam is just...very regular. Not a lot of experimentation, not a lot of risk-taking. There are no radio hits here, not that there has to be, but you'd have to be okay with that before you hit play.
Best Song: "Severed Hand." McCready lets loose on guitar and there's no stopping him.
Final Tally: Pearl Jam gets 2 Eddie Vedders out of 5.
ADDITIONAL
Noting but not reviewing:
Pearl Jam -
Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003)
I also have this greatest hits CD, and what I'm going to do with greatest hits CDs is that of bands where I already own a lot of their albums, I am going to note it but not review it. Of course, this album has a lot of their radio hits, so I'm already familiar with those.
Rearviewmirror does have a cover of Wayne Cochran's "Last Kiss," which was previously popularized by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' cover in 1964 (source: Wikipedia). I was not a fan of Pearl Jam's rendition when it was on the radio constantly, but I can appreciate it now in small doses. As a cover it does the song justice.
PEARL JAM (BAND) END SUMMATION
I started this journal with Pearl Jam on purpose because everyone rags on them and I also knew very little about them outside of the radio, even though I had these albums sitting on my shelf the entire time. The album that I'd want to spend more time with is
Riot Act for the reasons mentioned in my review of it. It is certainly their most experimental (of the albums I've heard), so it needs more time for digestion than any of the others.
While I didn't become more of a Pearl Jam fan than I was previously, it was interesting to learn about the concert deaths, which is something I clearly never knew about before. And even though Vedder as a front man simply doesn't bring out the raw emotion in me that Cobain or Staley were able to do, nor does Pearl Jam as a band have the earthy, gritty rawness of Soundgarden, I'm not a hater and I respect their legacy and place in history as an early grunge staple. Their later iterations I haven't followed closely, but I think they can still pack stadiums and wear a lot of Cubs attire.
In my ranking, Pearl Jam will remain number four of The Big 4 Seattle bands. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
FOREWARD
One change I am going to make is getting away from using a rating system as it feels arbitrary. Instead of rating albums I will be stating whether I'd go back and listen to them again, which should be sufficient enough.