In Defense of Backspacer: Village Voice
blacknapkins
Posts: 2,177
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-09-15/ ... backspacer
In Defense of Pearl Jam's Backspacer
Seattle's second-favorite sons gamely redefine their Target audience
By Michael Hoinski
published: September 15, 2009
Eddie Vedder has finally shaken the dead guy who has been haunting him. Two decades ago, Kurt Cobain dogged Pearl Jam as sellouts, dismissing his grunge rivals as "cock-rock fusion" and their gala debut, Ten, as insufficiently "alternative" because it had too many guitar leads. Ever since, Vedder has been out to prove the dead guy wrong, overtly or covertly. But with the release of Backspacer, Pearl Jam's half-awesome, half-blah ninth studio album, Vedder and the boys from Seattle have come to the realization that maybe they are sellouts of a sort—and that there's nothing wrong with that, if they're comfortable with who they are as a band and with the contradictory decisions they've made.
The strongest evidence of the band's newfound disposition lies in their unexpected partnership with Target. The big-box giant is the only place you can buy Backspacer, save for the band's own website and randomly selected "indie" music stores. It's a controversial, aggressively capitalist move after years of towing the line against corporate America. But this new music, too, proves that Pearl Jam aren't concerned with living up to expectations. Instead of trendy Bush-bashing or third-person narratives about marginalized youngsters common in his prime, Vedder now favors first-person introspection and meditations on mortality.
There's also a focus on the band's prowess as a unit, as opposed to an all-Vedder-all-the-time approach. Prime examples include "The Fixer" (a song literally about collaboration, penned by drummer Matt Cameron) and "Johnny Guitar," a grease-in-the-hair, cigarette-pack-in-the-T-shirt-sleeve jam with a totally unorthodox arrangement, also compliments of Cameron. Indeed, Pearl Jam are at peace here, but not yet complacent, diversifying in the autumn of their career, while contemporaries like U2 or Wilco are either getting more contrived or sticking with what's tried-and-true.
It's not hard to see how Pearl Jam landed in this predicament. After their initial thrall of mid-'90s success (despite Cobain's derision), they developed an iron-clad ethical compass, transforming into, first and foremost, a band of integrity—occasionally, to the music's detriment. The Ticketmaster court battle. The activism. The anti-corporate loathing, made manifest in Vedder's tearing down of ad signage at concerts. All rocking notes. The trouble is that Pearl Jam tickets now usually cost a small fortune. Their widespread benevolence has undermined their intent toward any cause in particular. And, obviously, Target.
There's a flipside to that, though, because after eight albums with Sony, the band is releasing Backspacer themselves. It's not clear which party made that decision, but it doesn't really matter: Pearl Jam don't need a major label. Chances are they're stoked to dictate their own marketing, release music when and how they want to, and, of course, increase their margins (the band will reportedly make $5 on each copy of Backspacer, whereas they'd make roughly a third of that under previous conditions). Besides, what's so wrong with exercising a little entrepreneurialism, creating a new paradigm in an industry without one? If the superfans who pre-ordered the record through the band's website want access to the live performances available only on the Target disc, well, then they'll just have to buy the album again.
But back to the music. Backspacer, a mere novella at only 36 and a half minutes, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who helmed what many Pearl Jam connoisseurs consider the band's four finest albums—Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield—before going on hiatus. O'Brien is responsible for honing the band's ragamuffin sound into something that emphasized musical virtuosity, lyrical focus, and fewer cock-rock guitar leads, an excellent philosophy largely ignored on their last few albums and wisely resurrected here, albeit intermittently.
The first five songs are brilliantly sequenced, wide-ranging in texture, and ridiculously melodic. Furious opener "Gonna See My Friend" finds Vedder shredding his nodes as he riffs (maybe) on staging an intervention for a long-lost friend, followed by "Got Some," with Vedder barking more words of encouragement, building on the previous song's momentum. "The Fixer" is a total about-face, a pop song with just enough snazzy guitar licks to qualify as rock despite the buoyant "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" refrain that'll have Jonas Brothers fans singing along en masse by Christmastime. Then comes potential sleeper hit "Johnny Guitar," featuring some of Vedder's most adventurous phrasing, rounded out by "Just Breathe," an acoustic leftover from Vedder's splendid Into the Wild soundtrack that finds him passionately lamenting, "Yes, I understand/That every life must end."
The record's second half unfortunately trades in retread topics and middling music that seemingly calls for everyone to play at once, on top of each other, without any regard for nuance. "Amongst the Waves" is yet another ode to surfing that tries—but fails—to live up to the epic, grunge-era classic "State of Love and Trust." With "Speed of Sound" and "Force of Nature," the titles pretty much speak for themselves. The only highlight, really, is the strings- and horns-inflected closing track, "The End," and that's because it ends like a ruptured aneurysm on the lines "I'm here/But not much longer." Too morbid for comfort? Sure, but Kurt Cobain can't say the same.
In Defense of Pearl Jam's Backspacer
Seattle's second-favorite sons gamely redefine their Target audience
By Michael Hoinski
published: September 15, 2009
Eddie Vedder has finally shaken the dead guy who has been haunting him. Two decades ago, Kurt Cobain dogged Pearl Jam as sellouts, dismissing his grunge rivals as "cock-rock fusion" and their gala debut, Ten, as insufficiently "alternative" because it had too many guitar leads. Ever since, Vedder has been out to prove the dead guy wrong, overtly or covertly. But with the release of Backspacer, Pearl Jam's half-awesome, half-blah ninth studio album, Vedder and the boys from Seattle have come to the realization that maybe they are sellouts of a sort—and that there's nothing wrong with that, if they're comfortable with who they are as a band and with the contradictory decisions they've made.
The strongest evidence of the band's newfound disposition lies in their unexpected partnership with Target. The big-box giant is the only place you can buy Backspacer, save for the band's own website and randomly selected "indie" music stores. It's a controversial, aggressively capitalist move after years of towing the line against corporate America. But this new music, too, proves that Pearl Jam aren't concerned with living up to expectations. Instead of trendy Bush-bashing or third-person narratives about marginalized youngsters common in his prime, Vedder now favors first-person introspection and meditations on mortality.
There's also a focus on the band's prowess as a unit, as opposed to an all-Vedder-all-the-time approach. Prime examples include "The Fixer" (a song literally about collaboration, penned by drummer Matt Cameron) and "Johnny Guitar," a grease-in-the-hair, cigarette-pack-in-the-T-shirt-sleeve jam with a totally unorthodox arrangement, also compliments of Cameron. Indeed, Pearl Jam are at peace here, but not yet complacent, diversifying in the autumn of their career, while contemporaries like U2 or Wilco are either getting more contrived or sticking with what's tried-and-true.
It's not hard to see how Pearl Jam landed in this predicament. After their initial thrall of mid-'90s success (despite Cobain's derision), they developed an iron-clad ethical compass, transforming into, first and foremost, a band of integrity—occasionally, to the music's detriment. The Ticketmaster court battle. The activism. The anti-corporate loathing, made manifest in Vedder's tearing down of ad signage at concerts. All rocking notes. The trouble is that Pearl Jam tickets now usually cost a small fortune. Their widespread benevolence has undermined their intent toward any cause in particular. And, obviously, Target.
There's a flipside to that, though, because after eight albums with Sony, the band is releasing Backspacer themselves. It's not clear which party made that decision, but it doesn't really matter: Pearl Jam don't need a major label. Chances are they're stoked to dictate their own marketing, release music when and how they want to, and, of course, increase their margins (the band will reportedly make $5 on each copy of Backspacer, whereas they'd make roughly a third of that under previous conditions). Besides, what's so wrong with exercising a little entrepreneurialism, creating a new paradigm in an industry without one? If the superfans who pre-ordered the record through the band's website want access to the live performances available only on the Target disc, well, then they'll just have to buy the album again.
But back to the music. Backspacer, a mere novella at only 36 and a half minutes, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who helmed what many Pearl Jam connoisseurs consider the band's four finest albums—Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield—before going on hiatus. O'Brien is responsible for honing the band's ragamuffin sound into something that emphasized musical virtuosity, lyrical focus, and fewer cock-rock guitar leads, an excellent philosophy largely ignored on their last few albums and wisely resurrected here, albeit intermittently.
The first five songs are brilliantly sequenced, wide-ranging in texture, and ridiculously melodic. Furious opener "Gonna See My Friend" finds Vedder shredding his nodes as he riffs (maybe) on staging an intervention for a long-lost friend, followed by "Got Some," with Vedder barking more words of encouragement, building on the previous song's momentum. "The Fixer" is a total about-face, a pop song with just enough snazzy guitar licks to qualify as rock despite the buoyant "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" refrain that'll have Jonas Brothers fans singing along en masse by Christmastime. Then comes potential sleeper hit "Johnny Guitar," featuring some of Vedder's most adventurous phrasing, rounded out by "Just Breathe," an acoustic leftover from Vedder's splendid Into the Wild soundtrack that finds him passionately lamenting, "Yes, I understand/That every life must end."
The record's second half unfortunately trades in retread topics and middling music that seemingly calls for everyone to play at once, on top of each other, without any regard for nuance. "Amongst the Waves" is yet another ode to surfing that tries—but fails—to live up to the epic, grunge-era classic "State of Love and Trust." With "Speed of Sound" and "Force of Nature," the titles pretty much speak for themselves. The only highlight, really, is the strings- and horns-inflected closing track, "The End," and that's because it ends like a ruptured aneurysm on the lines "I'm here/But not much longer." Too morbid for comfort? Sure, but Kurt Cobain can't say the same.
"Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is the best."
~ FZ ~
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is the best."
~ FZ ~
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
Idiot.
So i'm gonna write my words on the face of today,
and then i'll paint it.
Who writes this stuff? Do they even know who Pearl Jam is?
I think the album picks up in the second half. (not to say its lacking in the first half, because it's not)
IMO, you can read all the reviews about an album you want, but you are just filling yourself with what are likely inaccurate preconceptions. People's tastes in music vary wildly, especially among fans of a band like Pearl Jam that produces so many different styles of song, and especially among music critics who think they know more about the subject than the rest of us.
I've never once read an album review that I thought was helpful. Music critics are all the same: they come up with as many meangingless, flowery sentences as they can, attempt to describe music with a thesaurus, and end up with a sad imitation of Rolling Stone. Every music critic writes their articles with exactly the same formula.
Backspacer doesn't need to be defended. It hasn't even been released yet.
Oh yeah, and Pearl Jam is so "aggressively capitalist" that they're self-releasing the album. Please.
Anyway, I'm out of here until the album comes out. I spoiled the music last time by reading too much about Avocado. I want it fresh this time.
:roll:
BOS-9/28/04,9/29/04,6/28/08,6/30/08, 9/5/16, 9/7/16, 9/2/18
MTL-9/15/05, OTT-9/16/05
PHL-5/27/06,5/28/06,10/30/09,10/31/09
CHI-8/2/07,8/5/07,8/23/09,8/24/09
HTFD-6/27/08
ATX-10/4/09, 10/12/14
KC-5/3/2010,STL-5/4/2010
Bridge School-10/23/2010,10/24/2010
PJ20-9/3/2011,9/4/2011
OKC-11/16/13
SEA-12/6/13
TUL-10/8/14
Honestly, to me all Pearl Jam reviews have read exactly the same way for years. Every album since Yield has come out to critics saying things like "return to form" and "best since [insert album]" and "ready to rock again" and then by the time the next album comes out they've all forgotten what they said. To read a mainstream review of a new Pearl Jam album is to get the impression that every record since Vitalogy has been filled with lullabyes, chewing gum jingles, and recordings of Stone Gossard farting. I'm actually willing to bet that the majority of music "journalists" who have reviewed Pearl Jam's records in the last 10 years haven't actually heard any of the post Vitalogy albums in their entirety.
Critics are only a step up from pig fodder. That is all I'm sayin'.
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
2025: Pittsburgh 5/16+5/18
Wonder how long it took him to come up with that pun.
What a dink.
The reason I review albums on Antiquiet is to provide a bit of insight to people who may not be familiar with the artist, or on the fence about whether or not to give the new album a shot. I do my homework and come equipped, or I steer clear entirely, as any responsible journalist should do. Growing up, I would've loved to have had a reliable journalistic resource to light the way a little bit, so I wasn't flying blind with only the fm dial and my friends to turn me on to new music. But that was all in the pre-internet days.
I won't link directly to my Backspacer review (to avoid diluting the message here), but here's our reviews page:
http://www.antiquiet.com/reviews/ As you can see, almost nothing I've reviewed over the years has gotten less than three stars out of five - and that's not at all because I'm not a critical listener. If a record is bad, I simply won't review it. There's plenty of shit talking and disrespect of art on the internet, and I see no need to add to it... on a regular basis, anyway. But if it's good, and especially great, I'll do my best to honor the music in my own words as best as possible. I've lived and breathed music literally since birth, and my education was centered on sharpening my ability to portray my thoughts on my life's greatest passion.
If it's not at least a 3 star album, I simply steer clear of it on Antiquiet - or let my partner handle it. I do that out of respect for the art itself. So you can take that pig fodder comment and shove it up your condescending, blanket-judgement ass.
No one will ever take you seriously, you A-Hole....
Eat Me....
The back half of the album really isn't special, save for The End. I don't know anything about guy, and most of that article was lame, but his actual critique of the 11 songs, were spot on. I can't help but give the guy some credit for noting how Johnny Guitar is the sleeper hit... Awesome song.
Guys, I realized I won't have enough time to listen to the album next week because of work. So I'm listening to it right now, as I type (currently on "Force of Nature")... and wow. Not only is the first half good, but the second half is even better. Way, way better. This guy doesn't deserve to be a music critic if he can't appreciate what's going on in this album. I honestly think it's that good.
"Amongst the Waves," as many I think have said, is one of the best Pearl Jam songs I've heard in a while. It stirred up something inside me I haven't felt in a long, long time. That he completely panned it is unbelievable. If any song on this album is a sleeper, it's ATW. It may be their best song since LBC. I'll leave that up to you...
Most of these songs my expectations. Different from what they've done before.. much different.. but then, the best part of Pearl Jam is their ever-changing sound. This album is more sensitive than any of their others, more empathetic.. in a very good way.
Also agree about The End. One of the most melodic tunes Ed's written.
Where did you grow up, Pluto? You actually had friends? Aww, it's too bad some"reliable journalistic resource" like yourself wasn't around for back then, wah(EGO)!
I've lived and breathed music literally since birth, and my education was centered on sharpening my ability to portray my thoughts on my life's greatest passion. (quote)
I don't know what you think you lived and breathed but it definitely wasn't music. I think you should sharpen your education and portray your thoughts on a new passion, maybe a 3 star comedy site.
If it's not at least a 3 star album, I simply steer clear of it on Antiquiet - or let my partner handle it. I do that out of respect for the art itself. So you can take that pig fodder comment and shove it up your condescending, blanket-judgement ass.[/quote]
Aww, there's an old saying for that,"don't dish it out if you can't take it". being as intelligent as you "portray" yourself to be i'm very dissapointed.
As far as Backspacer goes, it's there best work they've done in years and I love all thier albums,so PJ fans get ready for a new generation of the greatest band in the world! As far as your review goes, I got to give it two thumbs way down......
Empty insults aside, let's see some evidence that I'm anything but qualified to state my position. Give me some legitimate examples why my review (which has gotten overwhelmingly positive responses from everyone so far but you) earns "two thumbs way down," to change your current status as a shitty six-post troll, posting just for the sake of pissing on someone else.
Hmm?
P.S. Here's the review, since you'll probably need to actually read it to make up whatever bullshit arbitrary judgement against it you can: http://www.antiquiet.com/reviews/2009/09/pearl-jam-backspacer-review/
k
i feel better now.
"To question your government is not unpatriotic --
to not question your government is unpatriotic."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel
Yes, that was a pretty bad review.
The ignorant music fan in me sees absolutely no alighment between "Amongst The Waves" and "State of Love and Trust".
Also, the ignorant music fan in me sees the back end of the album as hardly perfect but strikingly mature, cohesive, and focused considering all of the ball busting done in the front end.
Thirdly, I love it when Cameron's fingerprints on a song (or what I assume are his fingerprints) are the first thing I notice.
...signed...the token black Pearl Jam fan.
FaceSpace