Music Review

Pearl Jam (2006)

EW's GRADE
B+

Details Release Date: May 02, 2006; Lead Performance: Pearl Jam; Genre: Rock

Image credit: Pearl Jam: Danny Clinch

The announcement that Pearl Jam have a new single called ''World Wide Suicide'' is the sort of thing to inspire both hope and apprehension. Their last stab at topicality, 2002's nose-thumbing ''Bushleaguer,'' didn't exactly establish Eddie Vedder as a go-to guy for geopolitical wisdom. On the other hand, his passionate howl seems more valuable now, pitted against the navel-gazing emo whine that's commandeered the landscape. Tell us about the war, Eddie! we might even nervously ask, knowing that, in a world full of boys sent to do a man's job of rocking, Pearl Jam can still pull off gravitas.

But what we really want — and what they've been stingy with for a decade — is fast, furious, breakneck gravitas. Surprise: They stand and deliver on this belatedly eponymous barnstormer, the seriously hopped-up effort fans have been pining for since Vitalogy. Not that Pearl Jam is a perfect Ten. Vedder's lyrics can still be as clumsy as heartfelt, and the album's probably shorter on band perennials than punky firepower. But a shocking late-career freneticism predominates, married to a seriousness of purpose that is no longer high on pesky moral superiority.

What's got them fired up? War collateral, naturally (''Army Reserve''); the impersonality of big business (''Unemployable''); separation due to divorce or death (''Come Back''). But mostly, with apologies to Dylan Thomas, they sound like a band successfully raging against the dying of their own relevance...as well as, you know, the machine.

Originally posted Apr 21, 2006 Published in issue #874-875 Apr 28, 2006 Order article reprints
You Might Also Like

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.

500 characters remaining
Advertisement