Backspacer Review: The Sydney Morning Herald
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Spectrum - The Critics
ROCK
Craig Mathieson
19 September 2009
The Sydney Morning Herald
First
18
PEARL JAM
Backspacer (Universal)
The classic-rock baton is being passed on. Bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Who are frail artefacts, their stadium gigs rituals from another age. The grunge generation is now the classic-rock gatekeeper, even though some of that movement's most important bands — including Nirvana and Soundgarden — didn't survive. Pearl Jam did and have prospered.
Backspacer, the ninth studio album from the five-piece, who are just shy of two decades together, finds them playing with vitality and cohesion. By contrast, the Who's ninth disc, 1981's Face Dances (You Better You Bet plus eight forgotten tracks), falls short.
Fortysomething rock'n'roll is about reassurance — from artist to audience and vice versa.
Thankfully, Pearl Jam favour passion over pathos. The opening salvo of Gonna See My Friend, Got Some and The Fixer, each a concise three minutes, is pegged to richly matched guitars and joyously strong rhythms. Freed of his messiah complex, frontman Eddie Vedder sings about the unexpected changes that come with time's passing: "A house of cards has turned into a reservoir," he sings on the warmly euphoric Amongst the Waves. Age does not weary them.
ROCK
Craig Mathieson
19 September 2009
The Sydney Morning Herald
First
18
PEARL JAM
Backspacer (Universal)
The classic-rock baton is being passed on. Bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Who are frail artefacts, their stadium gigs rituals from another age. The grunge generation is now the classic-rock gatekeeper, even though some of that movement's most important bands — including Nirvana and Soundgarden — didn't survive. Pearl Jam did and have prospered.
Backspacer, the ninth studio album from the five-piece, who are just shy of two decades together, finds them playing with vitality and cohesion. By contrast, the Who's ninth disc, 1981's Face Dances (You Better You Bet plus eight forgotten tracks), falls short.
Fortysomething rock'n'roll is about reassurance — from artist to audience and vice versa.
Thankfully, Pearl Jam favour passion over pathos. The opening salvo of Gonna See My Friend, Got Some and The Fixer, each a concise three minutes, is pegged to richly matched guitars and joyously strong rhythms. Freed of his messiah complex, frontman Eddie Vedder sings about the unexpected changes that come with time's passing: "A house of cards has turned into a reservoir," he sings on the warmly euphoric Amongst the Waves. Age does not weary them.
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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Iain Shedden, Polly Coufos, Sean Rabin, Michael Rofe, Mark Coughlan, Tony Hillier
19 September 2009
The Australian
5 - All-round Review
10
ROCK
Backspacer
Pearl Jam
UMA
* * * * 1/2
``IF something's old I want to put a little shine on it,'' croons Pearl Jam's frontman Eddie Vedder on The Fixer, one of the 11 tracks on the Seattle outfit's ninth studio release. He and his colleagues live by this pronouncement for most of Backspacer, playing with a passion that wasn't always apparent on its predecessor, 2006's self-titled album. It's a pocket rocket as well, clocking in at just over 36 minutes, and it also marks the return of Brendan O'Brien to the producer's chair. He last worked with Pearl Jam on 1998's Yield. As with tracks from that such as Given to Fly and Wishlist, he applies his pop sheen to even the heaviest tracks on Backspacer. The album fires up from the start on the explosive rocker Gonna See My Friend, an ode to getting off drugs, and doesn't take its foot off the accelerator until we get to track five, Just Breathe, a beautifully stark acoustic folk song on which Vedder digs deep to produce emotional tension, enhanced by a subtle string arrangement behind him. Vedder has described it as being the closest to a love song the band has ever written, yet there are a few others on Backspacer that easily fit that category. There's equal intensity and melancholy to Vedder's distinctive croak on the closing song, The End, which milks every emotion from a dying man's goodbye to his family. Elsewhere, however, celebration of life is never far away. In the post-Bush era there's less political commentary on the band's agenda and more of a positive spin. Supersonic, for example, captures the band's rock 'n' roll chemistry at full tilt, perhaps not surprisingly, since the song is meant to convey Pearl Jam's love of music. There are a couple of mediocre moments in the medium-paced Speed of Sound and Unthought Known. It's on the out-and-out rockers that Pearl Jam sounds most alive. The footstomping energy of Got Some and Johnny Guitar will undoubtedly provide impetus to the parade of older catalogue favourites when it gets here in November. Given the band's reputation for giving fans extra value, buying the album in any format allows you to download two full live concert performances from previous tours in the US.