In Defense of Not Defending Backspacer
jpoulas
Posts: 7
http://www.unfinisheddad.typepad.com/un ... pacer.html
Way back in 1994, when I was a young man with more hair and less belly, I had three loves that consumed me: a girl, tennis, and Pearl Jam in oft-changing order. Like all 17 year-olds, my opinions on these passions were both myriad and definitive. I soon discovered early in my 20’s that two of these loves were nothing more than childhood fantasies, but one has held on through multiple decades, cities, and children.
During that senior year of high school, Pearl Jam issued their third and greatest album, Vitalogy. The first album that didn’t rely solely on the raw emotion of Eddie Vedder’s vocals, Vitalogy had a mature, more progressive sound that vaulted them beyond an already aging “grunge” scene. By this time many bands had copied their sound from Ten era Pearl Jam—did you not think that Stone Temple Pilot’s Plush was a new PJ song?—and the lower-fi sound of Vitalogy combined with its zaniness permanently altered the band’s direction.
Fast forward to Pearl Jam’s ninth album, Backspacer, and you have a band in dire need of another sea change. If Vitalogy launched them on their post “grunge” path, then two albums later, Yield—with the emotion of In Hiding and the whimsy of Wishlist—brought them to that path’s summit. The four albums since have been a steady decline into prosaic rock with less and less of the brilliance that marked much of the 90’s. Each successive album has seen the balance shift just a bit more to the former.
Pearl Jam albums usually begin with a bang. Go, Last Exit, Brain of J, Breakerfall, and Life Wasted all ignited their albums with their own version of musical combustion. When Pearl Jam albums don’t start with a bang, they seduce you with textured subtlety before kicking your ass with track two à la Sometimes into Hail, Hail. On Backspacer we are given Gonna See My Friend, a mailed in rock song with archaic Axl Rose style doubling vocals and endless guitar riffs.
Track four, Johnny Guitar, is completely lost on me. I notice the double entendre in the opening stanza and I’ve read that it’s Thin Lizzy-esque (that’s good?), but it may be the only Pearl Jam song that makes me angry. Now Johnny He Be Havin Lots of Women/The Reason He Be Smiling Known To Him. Ouch. Later in the album we get four tracks to close it out that all evoke, well, nothing. Past albums had one or two throw-away tracks like these (Sleight Of Hand, Help Help, Army Reserve) but like I said, the balance is shifting.
Backspacer has occupied my headphones for over a week now and I haven’t even touched on why. If you take away Gonna See My Friend, the unexplainable Johnny G, and the four bland closing tracks, you are left with five songs that are all very good. That’s five of eleven songs that I plan on listening to a lot. In my head I pretend that they are an EP of a wholly different issue.
Got Some sounded strong on Conan’s first Tonight Show. The album version is worthy of its esteemed number two position, with Eddie breathlessly hammering out quick verses about shitting or getting off the pot. I touched on the album’s first single, The Fixer, in an earlier post. I still can’t get enough of it. So simple and uplifting, this is the only “pop” song on the album and Pearl Jam would do well to take a turn in this direction.
If The Fixer represents one possible solution to what ails Pearl Jam, then Just Breathe represents another. It could easily nestle in alongside the songs from Eddie Vedder’s brilliant solo work for Into The Wild. A folkier, softer sound has been a Pearl Jam dream of mine since hearing the perfect combination of I Am Mine and Down from the Riot Act Sessions. That was seven years ago and Just Breathe is the band’s first return here.
My Backspacer EP closes with Unthought Known, Unfinished Dad’s song of the week and the strongest song on the album. It takes nearly 20 minutes and seven tracks for us to get to a genuine “Eddie” moment. When he you hear the vocals Feel the sky blanket you…with gems & rhinestones scraping off of his vocal chords, you get your first and only chills of the album. Somehow it is worth it.
You may say that an album on which half of the material is memorable is a good one. For most bands I would agree. For the band that gave us Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield I just can’t. So I find myself at the same crossroads the band occupies. On my left is the road towards “indie” rock and new loves like Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens. On my right is Pearl Jam’s road and they are the last “rock” band on it. Sadly, in my heart I know I’m going left.
Way back in 1994, when I was a young man with more hair and less belly, I had three loves that consumed me: a girl, tennis, and Pearl Jam in oft-changing order. Like all 17 year-olds, my opinions on these passions were both myriad and definitive. I soon discovered early in my 20’s that two of these loves were nothing more than childhood fantasies, but one has held on through multiple decades, cities, and children.
During that senior year of high school, Pearl Jam issued their third and greatest album, Vitalogy. The first album that didn’t rely solely on the raw emotion of Eddie Vedder’s vocals, Vitalogy had a mature, more progressive sound that vaulted them beyond an already aging “grunge” scene. By this time many bands had copied their sound from Ten era Pearl Jam—did you not think that Stone Temple Pilot’s Plush was a new PJ song?—and the lower-fi sound of Vitalogy combined with its zaniness permanently altered the band’s direction.
Fast forward to Pearl Jam’s ninth album, Backspacer, and you have a band in dire need of another sea change. If Vitalogy launched them on their post “grunge” path, then two albums later, Yield—with the emotion of In Hiding and the whimsy of Wishlist—brought them to that path’s summit. The four albums since have been a steady decline into prosaic rock with less and less of the brilliance that marked much of the 90’s. Each successive album has seen the balance shift just a bit more to the former.
Pearl Jam albums usually begin with a bang. Go, Last Exit, Brain of J, Breakerfall, and Life Wasted all ignited their albums with their own version of musical combustion. When Pearl Jam albums don’t start with a bang, they seduce you with textured subtlety before kicking your ass with track two à la Sometimes into Hail, Hail. On Backspacer we are given Gonna See My Friend, a mailed in rock song with archaic Axl Rose style doubling vocals and endless guitar riffs.
Track four, Johnny Guitar, is completely lost on me. I notice the double entendre in the opening stanza and I’ve read that it’s Thin Lizzy-esque (that’s good?), but it may be the only Pearl Jam song that makes me angry. Now Johnny He Be Havin Lots of Women/The Reason He Be Smiling Known To Him. Ouch. Later in the album we get four tracks to close it out that all evoke, well, nothing. Past albums had one or two throw-away tracks like these (Sleight Of Hand, Help Help, Army Reserve) but like I said, the balance is shifting.
Backspacer has occupied my headphones for over a week now and I haven’t even touched on why. If you take away Gonna See My Friend, the unexplainable Johnny G, and the four bland closing tracks, you are left with five songs that are all very good. That’s five of eleven songs that I plan on listening to a lot. In my head I pretend that they are an EP of a wholly different issue.
Got Some sounded strong on Conan’s first Tonight Show. The album version is worthy of its esteemed number two position, with Eddie breathlessly hammering out quick verses about shitting or getting off the pot. I touched on the album’s first single, The Fixer, in an earlier post. I still can’t get enough of it. So simple and uplifting, this is the only “pop” song on the album and Pearl Jam would do well to take a turn in this direction.
If The Fixer represents one possible solution to what ails Pearl Jam, then Just Breathe represents another. It could easily nestle in alongside the songs from Eddie Vedder’s brilliant solo work for Into The Wild. A folkier, softer sound has been a Pearl Jam dream of mine since hearing the perfect combination of I Am Mine and Down from the Riot Act Sessions. That was seven years ago and Just Breathe is the band’s first return here.
My Backspacer EP closes with Unthought Known, Unfinished Dad’s song of the week and the strongest song on the album. It takes nearly 20 minutes and seven tracks for us to get to a genuine “Eddie” moment. When he you hear the vocals Feel the sky blanket you…with gems & rhinestones scraping off of his vocal chords, you get your first and only chills of the album. Somehow it is worth it.
You may say that an album on which half of the material is memorable is a good one. For most bands I would agree. For the band that gave us Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield I just can’t. So I find myself at the same crossroads the band occupies. On my left is the road towards “indie” rock and new loves like Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens. On my right is Pearl Jam’s road and they are the last “rock” band on it. Sadly, in my heart I know I’m going left.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
enough already !!! this is the third time i've seen this shitty blog/ "review" on here today, in three different threads.
i get it, really i do. you dont dig the album, you are "moving on ".
so fucking move on already ! please.
"To question your government is not unpatriotic --
to not question your government is unpatriotic."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel
london2007,copenhagen2007,shepards bush empire 2009,
rotterdam 2009,manchester 2009,london 2009.belfast 2010,berlin 2010.
No time like the present.
its the fact that he keeps posting this or putting a link to it in other threads.
i think i good % of us like the new album and are excited about it. and he keeps posting that.
just let the people who dig it enjoy it. if you dont , sorry.
but by him posting that exact "review" or link to HIS blog 3 or 4 times, its boarding on spam, at the very least he is a fucking troll.
"To question your government is not unpatriotic --
to not question your government is unpatriotic."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel