Amazon.comThough it contains none of the band’s radio staples, No Code may be the one Pearl Jam record that holds up start to finish. Partly this is because of the songs, which like the hypnotic “Who Are You” are unusually straightforward. But it’s also because this is the most musically varied effort of the band’s career: “Hail, Hail” is a full-tilt firestorm, but the quiet “Sometimes” is a hesitating, slow burn. And while “Smile” has a Crazy Horse roar, the unplugged setting of “Off… More >>

No Code

Amazon.comPearl Jam lowered its profile after becoming a worldwide musical phenomenon in the early ’90s, pulling back from the touring, radio, and press fronts. And this diverse 13-song outing, lacking another “Alive” or “Better Man,” isn’t the album to thrust Pearl Jam back into the limelight. Binaural kicks out the jams with a grandiosity worthy of the Who, as Pearl Jam roars through the loose, raucous two-minute-plus opener “Breakerfall” and into another brief rave-up, “God’s Dice…. More >>

Binaural

Amazon.comIt’s strange to think Pearl Jam was once herded under the grunge umbrella alongside pathos-spewing acts like Nirvana and Alice in Chains. The Seattle group’s eighth album (give or take the 72 bootleg-style double CDs they released in 2001) has more in common with classic rock institutions like Crazy Horse and the Band than the snarling forces that were trying to tear away at their legacies. Appropriately, Riot Act is built on thematic pillars–love, death, politics–and fuel… More >>

Riot Act

Album DescriptionJapanese pressing of their 2006 album with no extras.13 tracks. J Records.Amazon.comIf its debut album 15 years ago made Pearl Jam apprehensive with success, the Seattle quintet better buckle in for a return to eminence. On its eighth studio release–and first since 2002–the band socks away the adventurous experimentation that dogged some of its most recent records to investigate a post-September 11, war-ravaged world overflowing with urgency and significa… More >>

Pearl Jam

Amazon.comThe Seattle band once notable for its arena rock anthems is now remarkable mostly for its hushed melodies. On Pearl Jam’s fifth album, the rockers seem slapdash (”Do the Evolution”, “Brain of J”), and the arty experiments sound self-conscious (especially the 67-second knockoff, “-”). That leaves the ballads, especially the lovely lilt of “Low Light” and the clear-eyed lament of “Wishlist.” On the latter song, Ed Vedder (as he now calls himself) yearns to be many different th… More >>

Yield

Amazon.com essential recordingVitalogy reaffirms the Seattle quintet’s status as the principled, proudly confused voice of a generation. On their third album, they’ve found their footing as a raw, forward-looking ’90s rock act that fearlessly tackles the Biggest Questions. Lead track “Spin the Black Circle” celebrates the healing power of Eddie Vedder’s LP collection, but it is overshadowed by such masterstrokes as “Immortality” (which can be read, right or wrong, as a reaction to Kur… More >>

Vitalogy

Amazon.com essential recordingPart of the ’90s Seattle grunge triumvirate completed by Nirvana and Soundgarden, Pearl Jam debuted with Ten, their most accessible, least self-conscious album. Over time, PJ’s rep as a politically correct band just a little too above it all to prostitute its music on MTV has nearly superseded the music. But before that, they were a simply an in-your-face, in-your-head, loud, melodic rock band. And lead singer Eddie Vedder was known for his possessed stag… More >>

Ten

Amazon.comIn an era when pop nihilism fulfilled its dark promise all too regularly, Pearl Jam not only survived, but thrived to become one of rock’s greatest bands. This 33-track double-disc career retrospective documents the arc of a career that went from arena and radio triumphs in the early 90’s (while Nirvana’s promise imploded in the wake of hype, Pearl Jam’s crowd-pleasing fame only burgeoned) to the uncompromising, core audience-focused tack that carried the band into the 21st … More >>

rearviewmirror

Product Description2009 release from Eddie Vedder and the boys, their ninth album overall. For Backspacer, the lasting Grunge rockers decided to do it big. They left label J Records and decided to release to album themselves, since the certainly have enough money to do that. They also hooked up with ’90s Alternative Rock producer du jour Brendan O’Brien (Korn, Bruce Springsteen), the first time that the band has worked with O’Brien since 1998’s Yield. The music on the record features … More >>

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