Ten

One of my wife’s favourite albums, so we listened to it together while cleaning the fridge - romance ain’t dead! Decent album, some tracks I do really enjoy. Favourite track: Black

Ten is the first Pearl Jam album I've come across as part of this challenge, which surprises me given their enormous fan base and reputation. Despite being one of the biggest bands to emerge from the grunge scene, I've never really listened to them. Perhaps after hearing this album I'll finally understand what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately, I don't think I do! For me, Ten takes some of the least interesting elements of alternative rock and combines them with the worst excesses of traditional hard rock. The result is an album that feels far too polished, predictable and, quite frankly, a bit naff. What I love about Nirvana is how they took guitar music and gave it a raw punk edge. There was something exciting, rebellious and genuinely different about their sound. Pearl Jam seem to have gone in the opposite direction, taking the energy of grunge and turning it into something much closer to conventional stadium rock. The guitars are big, the solos go on forever, and everything feels designed to sound enormous. But where's the attitude? Where's the excitement? For all the noise, I found very little that grabbed me. It feels like alternative rock with all the rough edges sanded off. And then there's Eddie Vedder's voice. I know he's regarded as a fantastic singer, but I really struggled with his deep, exaggerated vocal style. It dominates everything, and after a while I found it quite irritating. Overall, Ten was a real disappointment. I went into it curious to discover why Pearl Jam have such a huge following, but I came away wondering what I'm missing. Give me Nirvana any day. I certainly won't be rushing to listen to this again. Favourite track: Nothing really stood out enough for me to pick a favourite. Least favourite track: Rather than one particular song, it was the overall sound of the album that I struggled with. Album artwork: A decent enough cover, although nothing particularly special.

Loved this when I was younger. Still like it now

Pearl Jam, my beloved. Favorite tracks: Black ; Deep

Musically this album rules. The riffs are so thick and meaty that they make every song sounds large and epic. I love how buzzing the backing guitars are as well. Eddie Vedder is not the most technical vocalist, but he has so much passion in his voice that it completely makes up for it. Black is maybe the best vocal performance here, it's one of the most sobering songs ever made. I don't usually like piano ballads like this one, but there is something about it that I can't deny. Other than that I really dig the groovier songs, like Even Flow, Why Go and Jeremy. They still manage to sounds really heavy and emotional tho. The album just delivers emotionally and is especially fitting for a soggy fall day.

”Jeremy” is a good song. The rest of the record was forgettable except for the absurd amounts of reverb. I really can’t get behind rock music where the rhythm section is meant to go unnoticed.

Better than I thought it would be

BEST ONE

I don’t think this is a valid excuse but I find it affecting my enjoyment of a band and that is how the singing style can be unintelligible and I strain to get the idea of the song. That happens with the opening tracks of this album but luckily it doesn’t last. It then opens up to some of the most powerful music of the 90’s it just opens a vein and doesn’t hold back on brutal sensitivity.

It took too long to get here, I feel like I have suffered between solid albums that actually deserve to be included in the Top 1001. This one certainly fits the bill. This was the 90's soundtrack album for so many people. I saw them for the first time at Drop In The Park (Sept '92) and they were electric. When "Why Go" came on it was like everyone got a jolt of angst or something and the pulse of the entire crowd dialed up to 10. I don't think I've ever felt that kind of energy again and I've been to hundreds of concerts (and seen PJ 6x). Hits like "Even Flow", "Alive", "Black", and even "Jeremy" are still radio staples and my kids know them. But the glue songs like "Once", "Oceans" & the gorgeous "Release" are what holds this together from top to bottom. If I were to toss a song out for a round 10, it would be "Deep" but it's got some great lines and solid energy. Nearly a 5. 4.5 so I'm rounding up. Hits, legacy, impact then and now, sounds tremendous even today, full-meal-deal - it deserves T1001 recognition.

I must have listened to this CD a thousand times in the '90s. It was good to hear again, it does mostly hold up.

I like the album cover. I'm excited to hear this. I've actually been meaning to listen to some pearl jam. Big fan of divorced dad rock. Damn. They cooked here. Mr. Jam I was unfamiliar with your game. This is something. I'm really liking this. Reminds me of kings of Leon. I really like this type of rock. This is the driving home song. The how to listen to this song song. I'm excited. Let's see this. Wait this song is actually phenomenal. Holy moly. Mr. Jam I was truly unfamiliar with your game my apologies. You invented the game. Wait I like how this kinda sounds like the ocean. This is fun. Second half kinda fallen off ngl. Still goated though. Favourite: Black Least favourite: Jeremy

Not my style

Surprised by how many songs I know.

5 stars. 10/10. No contest.

An amazing debut. Not a huge grunge fan, not steeped in the Seattle scene, but this was everywhere and holds up incredibly well. Always a fun, if not a bit dark, listen.

Pearl Jam has a bit of a harder edge than most rock I enjoy, but this one is a solid 4.

A good album, with good songs. Black, for me, is the best song by Pearl Jam, and one of the best of all 90s rock. Side A is much better than the other, a little dragged for me. But its very good for the first album. 7 out of a 10

Perfect album. No notes.

Not a fan of Eddie Vedder's voice, solos a bit wanky at times. Unimpressed

Still rips. I remember seeing the Even Flow video on MTV buzzbin and buying the album as a kid.

Tosi hyvää rokkia. Laulajalla huikea ääni. Even flow on bängeri.

Lots of hits here. Good album

Loved this scene and the music and this was one of the better albums to come out of it all …and old fav

Objectively, I'm giving this record a good rating because it reminds me of my rock/grunge era. There are some good tracks, it gets slightly repetitive, but the nostalgia definitely kicked in when listening to it.

Can’t say I’m the hugest grunge fan, but given that I hated the Guns n Roses album so much a few days ago, and this came out only four years later… I gotta credit the movement for bringing such positive changes to rock. This and Superunknown are probably the best albums the genre produced. Such kickass tracks but with a real intent and earnest force. Good stuff ML417

No lo escuché completo, la canción más famosa es black, añadiría 2 canciones, pero no es mi estilo.

já gosto há muitos anos

Probably the greatest grunge album of all time. Very few come close. Eddie Vedders voice and lyrics really steal the show here, so raw and emotional you really start to feel like Eddie Vedder yourself and the pain he’s been through. There’s a lot to unpack with the music but I’ll start by talking about how iconic the drums are on this album, you hear THAT groove and you know it’s PJ Ten. The only thing I would say is that I would like them to be a little more varied from song to song but it really makes little odds. It’s an absolute treat to hear fretless bass on a record and it’s done very rarely but on this album every song is done on a fretless minus a couple that were done on a 12 string. The lines are very creative with lots of sliding and harmonics going on and it really adds a whole new texture to the album. Jeff Ament absolutely tears it up. The guitars sound great and are played in excellently I have no complaints there. I love that you can hear the Hendrix influence on Mike McCready’s playing whilst it still stays distinctly him, it definitely makes for an engaging listening experience. Every song on the album is great in their own way not a single bad song although some would be a little off putting if they were out of the context of the album. It was very hard to choose a favourite because they’re all so good and I could speak about every single one. I had to go with Garden though, the song starts off very mellow and evolves into a euphoric masterpiece without it feeling disjointed and out of place. The singing really hits you during the chorus and fully immerses you in the song every single time. It’s only been the first week but I think I may have the first 5 star album right here. Ten has been a part of my life for years and it always comes back around when I need it. I think Ten may have even been the first CD I ever bought and I remember blasting it in the car the day I passed my test. Some of the best and some of the worst memories attached to this album and it has been a pivotal piece of music in my life.

This is the album that put Pearl Jam on the Grunge Mount Rushmore. If nothing else, it's one of the most well put together Grunge albums out there, like you could change absolutely nothing and call this a greatest hits album. Every song here is incredibly powerful in its own way and they all fit really well next to each other. It clearly had some staying power, too. I think Pearl Jam has the overall weakest discography out of the bigger Grunge bands, but pretty much every song on Ten was a smash hit on release and some of them randomly resurface nearly 30 years later, like when Even Flow soundtracked all of those clips of Steezus Christ doing ridiculous stuff in Skate 3. I love those videos.

Incredible top to bottom, helped start a movement, while I was always team Nirvana, this is an easy 5.

Some bangers, but it couldn’t keep me.

분위기가 꽤 괜찮은 앨범이었다. It was an album with a pretty good atmosphere.

Another album that my cooler older sister introduced to me in my youth. Hard for me to be objective about this album. It's comfortable and familiar top to bottom, though I probably haven't listened all the way through it in a decade or more. For me it will forever be interwoven with my hazy memories of that time in my life. I'll listen to this again and again and never grow tired of it.

Pearl Jam are my least favorite of the "Big 3" grunge bands, but they are still a damn fine band. Eddie Vedder's voice may be a bit of an acquired taste, but there's no denying that he has skills. The songwriting is excellent (the lyrics are dark, but that's par for the course in this period/genre), and Jeff Ament is a hell of a bass player with tremendous versatility. I know and enjoy the hits from the album, but had forgotten how much I liked a few of the other tracks ("Porch" and "Garden" come to mind). Good stuff.

Knew one song

10/10

Happy birthday to me!!! Pretty damn close to a perfect album. It’s only issue is it’s front loaded, but like, when the songs are this good who cares. One under appreciated part of this album is the bass. There are a few harmonics and riffs that just live in my head, and that’s talent.

Kind of infuriating. There are so many small details about this record that I find kind of annoying. There is some kind of smarn allover it that's hard to put my finger on. I guess the vocals sound a tiny bit cocky and self pleased in parts, the guitar has some cheesy locks that feel kind of this way too. I have to admit though that there's some very well executed music here that hangs together really well too. I kind of want to hate it but find I kind of can't. It's absolutely not my favourite, but it does some kind of a job pretty well.

This is definitely more classic rock-oriented and less metal and sludge based than the other grunge albums we've gotten, but it's still very solid! Shame this was the only album they ever released haha

One of the easiest 5s I’ve given. I don’t really get why this specific album is called grunge, despite their era and origins. It’s less sludgey and depressing than other grunge artists we’ve heard around the same time. And I feel like they’ve got a lot of that classic rock influence that shows through and makes a great sound.

....I mean, it's alright. I'll say this, it's rare to hear a rock album that could fit right in a bar playlist without actually sounding too boomer-coded. I just don't know what to do with that observation. At the end of the day it's still not really my thing. Standouts: Alive • Black

I hate grunge. I love this album so much it makes me confused. No skips, amazing riffs, Eddie Vedder's vocals are instantly iconic and perfect for the album. One of my fondest memories is going to Mexico and seeing a bar band who didn't speak a word of English do a perfect cover of Even Flow. An album like this transcends everything. Also, the production is just chef's kiss.

Grunge/alt rock has no business being this intense and groovy. I'm a bit miffed that an album called Ten, whose first track is called Once, actually contains eleven tracks. But I'm willing to let that detail slide, because dang it, the musicianship and songwriting is on fleek. Once does pretty well in its verses and choruses, but where it really shines is when the high electric guitar comes in to death some slick death blows. Also a shoutout to the hairy vocal and drums that nevertheless do better than the vast majority of the hair metal genre. If you're looking for something exceptionally catchy, with an instant-hit melody in the vocal and some nice countermelodies in the bass and guitar, look no further than Even Flow. Very easy to understand this track's status of stardom. And all those crazy guitar lines would go extremely hard at a concert. Alive is a slightly more lighthearted, but equally heavy-hitting, song with a big bassline focus. I'm having a blast. (And looking at those lyrics... what a damn lucky narrator. Insert "congrats / happy for you / nice" meme here.) Highlight goes to the guitar solo – goddamn, this is up there with the greats – but the rest of the song is nearly as great. Why Go begins with a whirlwind of distorted string squeaks, setting up a contrast with the much cleaner, bass-and-vocal-heavy verses. Cool juxtapositions happening here. We get an ultra-clean transition (heck yeah) into Black, which sports a less grungy, more broadly appealing sound that I have to imagine was influenced partly by Led Zeppelin. I love it, though. Smooth, powerful, a pretty good mix of textures, some build-ups and breakdowns... Every instrument gets played near perfectly, including the singing. That refrain in the last 90 seconds... holy shit. Sonic perfection. The album's peak moment, and quite possibly the peak moment of the grunge genre. Jeremy? More like Jeramazing. It's one of the first instances of backing vocals on the record, and I appreciate them being used only lightly, as a glossy coat to Vedder's raw base sound. A very wall-of-sound-esque approach to recording, where the main star of the show is (probably) the excited, relentless percussion. Some great fills throughout the piece. A big change of pace in Oceans, with a texture that anticipates Optimistic (Radiohead) about a decade later. Vedder's falsetto and Ament's bass steal the spotlight. Legendary opening line in Porch: "What the fuck is this world?" And the hurried drive to the song is pretty great. Almost punky in its urgency and rawness. Damn, listen to that bassline. Garden sports another nice backing vocals and a contrast in volume between verses and choruses. I can't tell if the guitarists can't decide what the riff's rhythm is or if they keep deliberately changing it. Regardless, very good, and a sort of psychedelic guitar solo to top it off. An intense, slightly overwhelming riff brings us into the 6/8 swing Deep. Lots of screaming on some bits. I like the drop-off into much thinner textures in the verses. Finally, in Release, Vedder channels Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison to deliver a slow, final, The End (The Doors)-esque performance. Even the bonus track gives similar energy. A wacky bass tone and lots of creepy SFX give the song its intrigue. 5/5 Key tracks: Even Flow, Alive, Black, Porch

This is definitely my jam.

Looking back, it’s truly amazing how close together the release dates of the “Class of ’91” (Nevermind, Dirt, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Use Your Illusion I & II, Metallica, Badmotorfinger, Ten) were - and yet how far apart the moments of public recognition were. In any case, I probably didn’t even take notice of Pearl Jam until 1993, when “Vs.” was already on the market. That likely explains why I’d never listened to “Ten” in its entirety - which is a shame, because it’s actually quite a bit stronger than its follow-up. However, this album doesn’t fully deserve the “grunge” label; songs like “Once” and, more generally, the first half of “Ten” still bear distinct traces of more traditional hard rock and even hair metal - even though Eddie Vedder’s vocal style was quite different from that of, say, Robert Plant or Vince Neil. This actually makes Pearl Jam’s first studio release even more significant, because it very clearly marks the transition from the ’80s to the grunge explosion and traces it throughout the songs. To my knowledge, the only other band to have achieved this is Alice in Chains with “Dirt”. A really strong debut!

Déjà écouté avant. C'est rare qu'un premier album porte autant les marques d'un groupe déjà accompli, qui n'a déjà plus besoin de trouver sa voix. Ici, la voix de Pearl Jam est celle d'un grunge à la fois décomplexé dans son agressivité et sa noirceur et héritier putatif d'un certain hard rock de stade typique des années 1980. Le timbre si particulier d'Eddie Vedder, qui ne semble "cliché" que parce qu'il a été maintes fois imité depuis, et l'interaction entre les guitares de Mike McCready et Stone Gossard sont les deux éléments signatures de Ten, album de guitare par excellence, qui n'a qu'un véritable défaut, finalement assez fréquent : perdre de son ampleur sur la fin, qui tire un peu en longueur. Top : Even Flow Flop : Oceans

Jesus christ on a skateboard

One of the best Grunge albums......some fast tracks, eddie vedders vocals on top....more unpunky than Nirvana

great music, not something i would listen to regularly

Loved Nevermind. Never really liked this one. Black rules but the rest is overwrought

Pretty alright. I think this album probably deserves a bit more time than just a quick listen for me to grow to fully enjoy it, hence the score of 4 rather than 3 Standouts Alive Jeremy 4/5

I actually kinda loved this. Didn't think I would

Always found them + this album overrated. It's not bad just not that great Will I listen to again: 10%

Damn it's good

Even flow is awesome. Great feeling with the vocals i think it really ties everything together

Typical 90s rock album, it had all been done before by much better bands in my view

wasn’t expecting this rating, but garden alone actually made this a 4!

The Pacific Northwest makes you think of darkness and rain, and more rain. Grunge was once called the "Seattle Sound" and Pearl Jam did in fact deliver stories that were dark, but real. "Alive," "Why Go," and "Jeremy" - all songs about troubled childhood. Make sure you know the backstory to "Jeremy" which is heartbreaking. This tremendous and powerful song has many layers, just like the story behind it. This is the sound that rock makes when it's finally started therapy. 4/5

I was never a fan of Grunge. I am aware of the players and the sound, but I wasn’t there at the beginning buying in with every alt, driving chord. Ten was a surprise for me. I found it a refreshing mix of angsty and heartfelt tension. The sound is amazing, and I loved the production of the album. Vedder’s gritty, angry voice fit well with the songs, and it is completely understandable why this album is so central to the music coming out of the northwest at the time. Also, Jeremy holds up amazingly well. Often, the hits of an album I am not familiar with take me out of the album and color the impact. Jeremy is not only a great song, but it fits in the track listing well and pushes the second half of the album. Great album.

Not a big grunge fan, but don’t hate it either

It's fine? But I just can't help but think, "Oh, you assholes are the reason why so much bad rock in the late 90s and early 00s sounded like a worse version of this."

actually so good seriously

Got to be a classic

Ten transcends time and defines the era that you'll never forget (or sadly relive).

Fun but not my beat. Even flow is a banger tho played that in band growing up xx

pretty good. i like grunge so i think that swayed my opinion a bit.

This was pretty good although not something I would normally listen to. Memories of Thursday nights at Rock City with ‘Alive’. 2.5 stars.

One of the greatest Grunge Albums of all time I mean even flow hellooo

Great album, so many huge songs from this record. Pearl Jam really had it, absolute kings of the scene. Groove grunge who knew we needed it. 4.8/5.0 Best Song: Jeremy

Some big bangers on here, they are bloody good aren't they. Even Flow really makes you feel good.

Baustelle, Gerstetten, Deutschland. Garkeine Banger dabei.

santinos soundtrack. e assim como no santinos eu queria ir pra casa o quanto antes, aqui, eu queria que acabasse o quanto antes

Esker was into it

I would never pick this to listen to (just not my style), but it was a good listening experience and seems like some of the best the genre has to offer

One of my favorite albums of all time by one of my favorite bands of all time

Best debut album of all time? It’s certainly up there, but the front half is so much better than the back half.

Great Songs: Even Flow, Alive, Release Good Songs: Once, Why Go, Black, Jeremy, Porch, Garden, Deep Mid Songs: Oceans Bad Songs:

classic rock

59 degrees. Gray. Seattle. On a walk to grab coffee. Could not have handpicked a better album. 5 stars for the timing and experience.

Perfect album. One of the best Grunge album of the time. No skips on it. Each song flows beautifully into the next. Really glad to get this one today.

I do not like Pearl Jam. I don’t particularly like Vedder’s voice, and I think they’re boring. The biggest reason I dislike Pearl Jam is because this album is a goddamned banger, and I expected so much more from them after it released. Versus was hit and miss and then they kind of turned to shit. But this album? A goddamn banger.

Hell yeah! Excited to get assigned this today. Great album. Hit after hit and even the songs that weren’t hits are good. (5)

I didn't really think Pearl Jam were grunge at the time. Dress them in black leather and sing about big cocks rather than social issues (and perhaps without Eddie Vedder) and this could be just about any 70s hard rock band trading guitar licks. And that would atually be pretty good, some great axe work on this. Eddie V though is grunge all over, including a nasally whine. Iconic album cover.

Classic rock meets grunge.

Solid.

Há discos que estão em listas definitivas de certas décadas não são por acaso, e Ten do Pearl Jam não é excessão. Esse disco é absolutamente sublime, com camadas emocionais únicas, onde somente Eddie vedder seria capaz de transpor todo esse sentimento melancólico para quem esta ouvindo. Revisitar esse álbum por completo foi um grande deleite, ainda mais dando uma passadinha pelo Unplugged MTV gravado pela banda, onde tudo que era impactante e emocional se triplica em modo acústico. Grande discos da década, sem sombra de dúvida, obrigação ouvi-lo.

For such a quintessential 90s grunge album I was surprised at how much it sounded like late 80s hard rock. If Eddie Vedder's voice was pitched up I'd think a lot of these sounded like guns and roses songs, but I wouldn't do that because his voice sounds very nice the way it is.

Was umming and arghing about what to rate this. It feels like a 9/10 so better than a 4/5 and not QUITE a 5/5. However I can’t do half stars so I’ll round up

I like Eddie Vedder's voice. It is so unusual.

Just a fantastic album. Very nostalgic for me of course, but also just a solid list of tracks from top to bottom. This listen I noticed Eddies frequent references to his relationship with his father which hit me harder now that I am a dad myself... there are also a number of 'virgin'-type references on here also that are interesting. Top tracks def include Porch which I think is very underrated and part of the sonic lineage that leads to 'Go' which is one of my favourite PJ tracks ever. Alive remains such a tremendous track though - tough to beat that rotovibe solo.

sublime

10/5

Probably biased because Black alone might warrant a 5 star review, incredible debut album.

Definitely an iconic early 90s album. The vocals do get annoying after a while - but I'm starting to feel like Eddie Vedder and Shakira have the same vocal style but in different ranges.

10/10 It took a while for Pearl Jam to click with me, which is quite weird as I went through a proper grunge phase in my teens. I’d live and breathe everything Seattle grunge for a number of years, but it wasn’t until my twenties when I took a punt on this album and everything fell into place. The rapid rise of Pear Jam is something worth noting before we get into the record proper. After Andrew Wood’s untimely death in 1990 and the subsequent dissolution of Mother Love Bone, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament began to write new music, joining up with Mike McCready. After a brief hunt for a vocalist, they connected with Eddie Vedder and, within 5 months of their first show together, the band entered the studio to record this album. It’s a remarkably short period of time for a band to establish not only such a coherent sound as this, but also the sheer number of quality tracks that make up this record. Because by god, this thing slaps. But it’s also got great range to it. The first half is a relentless flurry of hits, with top notch hooks, beefy riffs and nuanced composition. It’s pretty powerful stuff, but Eddie Vedder’s unique and emotive vocal talents provide a heart and soul to the weight that the rest of the band delivers. Once, Even Flow and Alive is an iconic opening trio, and things continue on that vein until we get a brief pause for Black, which is a really beautiful and heartbreaking lament that still delivers with weight and groove, despite the more subdued vibe. And then they close side one with the utterly iconic Jeremy, which is such a harrowing and prescient exploration of disenfranchisement and violence in America’s youth, while also being a completely banging rock song. The second half of the record actually takes a subtle change in direction, leaning a little more into simmering edges of sound design and experimentation, toying with slightly more psychedelic glints, rather than the balls-to-the-wall drive of the opening half. Some people would consider it to be a slight dip, but personally, I like the fact that they take a slightly more sonically introspective and exploratory approach to things as the record progresses. Sure, there aren’t as many iconic riffs and hooks as the opening side, but it manages to deliver a great deal of sonic interest and nuance, while retaining the bands characteristic sound. It’s more brooding and tension filled, but it still completely delivers on what the band set out to do, and we still get some really beautiful moments of melodic writing on tracks like Porch and Garden. It’s really a wonderful journey of an album in that regard. Ever since I first picked up my first copy of this album, it’s been one that’s clung to my mind, getting regular airtime in the intervening couple of decades, and I don’t expect that to stop any time soon. It’s a Ten from Pearl Jam and it’s a 10 every day of the week from me.What a glorious record. Once - A slightly drifting, trippy into, and then things kick in with a punch. It’s not really fast, but the urgency of Eddie Vedder’s vocal gives this a pressing forward momentum, and then his vocal melody in the chorus is top notch. The guitar solo on this track is fantastic too. It’s not overly complex, but it feels like it drags out emotion in quite a visceral way. There’s a great pulse to this, and I think some of the drumming is really solid. A great opener. Even Flow - It’s quite the one two punch, and there are some absolutely killer riffs on this track. Eddie Vedder’s vocal lines and delivery are brilliant too, with a superb blend of melodic and rhythmic choices. The dynamic and tonal changes between verse and chorus give a great sense of movement and range, while the incidental lead guitar elements give it extra life. Banging chorus too. Alive - It’s another absolute banger. The slow build intro is well paced, with a cool groove and some solid riff work, and a bubbling tension that gently opens up into the chorus beautifully. And this chorus is one of the all time grunge greats. Vedder’s vocal is in places gut wrenching, and the musicianship all around is a perfect blend of function with moments of flair. The way the weight and freneticism of the composition and production increases over the song’s length is pretty subtle, but very effective. The guitar solo wails too. Love it. Why Go - Cool beat to open, then a great riff to back it up. I appreciate the moments of Pearl Jam’s work that lean just a touch into psychedelic sound design, and they throw a bit of that in before the verse kicks in proper. There’s such a great groove through the verse, delivered equally from every band member. I love that the first chorus is pretty much Vedder on his own, in a shortened format that they then extend and fill in when it comes back. Another absolute cracker and we’ve not had a single moment in which this album has dipped yet. Black - And that won’t happen here either. This is such a beautiful song. The bass and guitar parts dance around each other in such a smooth and considered way and Vedder floats atop them. The addition of the piano part to this track was a brilliant choice too. Lyrically, this is so poetic and beautiful but utterly gut-wrenching, and the delivery is extraordinarily emotive. When he gets to the bridge and hits the “I know you'll be a star, In somebody else's sky, but why? Why can’t it be mine?” it feels like a punch in the gut every single time. What a beautiful piece of music. Jeremy - Another classic. This album delivers with the consistency of Royal Mail in the 1970s. A song about a school shooter that manages to deal with a tragic event with sympathy to both the victims and perpetrator equally? Yes please. It’s tragic, it has superb melodies, riffs and performances and has so much raw emotion blended with melodic beauty. As a band, they build within their compositions so well, with songs ending with such strong, full sounds despite often starting out much more delicately. It’s just a brilliant song, superbly performed and produced. Oceans - It feels like the first proper pause for breath on the record, but the push and pull of the rhythms are great and the dynamic range and change in sonic palette from the album up to this point lets this work really well as a palette cleanser. There are some really nice harmonies in here too and it’s a very pretty song. Porch - That pause for breath is over, and we’re back in with some more punchy drum work and cool, powerful riffs. I love Eddie Vedder’s melodic writing and it’s in fine fettle again here. The instrumental break in the middle is the most stereotypical “grunge” sound on the record, feeling somewhere between Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, but when they punch back in it’s pure Pearl Jam. The way they evolve tonally through repetitive sections is quite admirable, and when Vedder locks into a repeating phrase, he can drag so much out of it. Garden - The opening for this shimmers and broods with tension and some really beautiful counterpoint between the two guitars and Vedder’s vocal, pinned down by the restrained bass. When things punch in, it gives great power and depth to the sound, and the vocal line is great hook. Later on they hit a middle eight that’s such a meaty riff, but they only hang on it briefly, which is great. This is quite the patient track and there’s nothing quite as hooky as some of the earlier tracks, but there’s something about it and the passion of the vocal that still completely sells it. Deep - They lean back towards some more sonic experimentation and psychedelic edged stuff now and they play really well again with the range of dynamic and intensity between the verse and chorus. There’s some excellent guitar work that manages to both roam and remain in touch with the song really well. The persistent, bouncing groove that threads through the song keeps things hooked in too, while Eddie Vedder drags everything out of his vocal performance. Release - The record closes (kind of - there’s a bonus track) with a slow but broiling sea of melody and counterpoint. The groove is leant back, but still pulls you on with it. The song ramps up and drops back in intensity really nicely and while it’s another that doesn’t have the hooks of the early album tracks, the vibe and pulsing energy is it’s own thing that’s just as engaging. The hidden track loops us back to the drifting psychedelic soundscaping work of the intro and has some great sound design and a cool rumbling beat to it. It’s genuinely a pleasing thing to drop back to, because they only tease a short amount of it in the opening.

I think the growly voice works here because he can also really belt it out when he needs to. I'm not mad about this

Not my favorite

formative album for me. both great and depressing as hell

Second rate grunge band.