PEARL Jam are the true survivors of the bands that emerged from the mega-selling Seattle scene of the '90s.
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Sure, Alice In Chains are still kicking around in some form and Soundgarden are back after a long lie-down, but Pearl Jam are 20 years into a solid career and still going strong.
Initially viewed (unfairly) as flannel-wearing cash-ins, Pearl Jam have fought the critics, naysayers and even ticketing corporation Ticketmaster. They also faced tragedy at the Roskilde Festival where nine fans died in their moshpit.
Through it all, their legacy and influence is a lasting one. So to celebrate two decades of Pearl Jam, here is part one of our tribute to the band, focusing on their first five albums, which helped make them one of the most important rock bands of the '90s.
Ten (1991)
AWASH with massive guitars, drenched in distortion and reverb and topped with screaming lead breaks and Eddie Vedder's iconic and much-copied drawling howl, Ten's songs sound like they were made to be played in stadiums. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament wrote the bulk of the material to be more hard-rock edged than their previous bands Green River and Mother Love Bone, drawing on the likes of The Who and Led Zeppelin as influences. That 'edge' was amplified by Vedder's often darkly personal lyrics, which were pre-occupied with death, isolation, despair, as well as his own unconventional childhood. Lead single Alive is based on Vedder's experiences in finding out that the man he'd been calling 'Dad' was not his real father and that his real father had recently passed away. A sense of loss seems to have been the middle ground for the band members, particularly Ament and Gossard, whose band Mother Love Bone had ended following the drug-related death of singer Andrew Wood, who inspire the Soundgarden/Pearl Jam supergroup Temple Of The Dog. Those dark emotions and angst struck a chord with teens, sending Ten on a slow crawl up the charts that eventually led to 13 million copies sold in the US. Their timing was perfect. Ten came out before Nevermind but the wave of interest generated by the latter album was one Pearl Jam was able to surf effectively thanks to now-classic tracks like Even Flow, Alive, Black, Oceans and Jeremy. Amazingly, Pearl Jam had only been together for five months and played about 20 shows when they recorded it.
Here's the clip for Alive, which the band performed live rather than lip-synch (a rarity at the time):
Vs (1993)
BETTERING an impressive debut is hard, but Pearl Jam did that with Vs, their best album to date and the one Vedder called the "least enjoyable'', due to it being "too comfortable''. That's part of the record's appeal - Pearl Jam are locked into each other and honed from three years of gigging, giving birth to a sound that feels born in a garage but ideal for a sweaty rock venue. So while Vedder struggled to keep up with writing lyrics, the band was tearing through songs at a staggering pace, writing must of the album through jamming and then recording it mostly live. Powered by Dave Abbruzzese's awesome drumming (he replaced Ten drummer Dave Krusen before Ten was released), Vs opens by blowing up in your face with raw rockers Go and Animal before delivering their first anti-ballad, the much-loved Daughter. There's hardly a dud track - the enjoyable anti-gun rant Glorified G, the acutely realised small-town character portrait Elderly Woman..., lighters-in-the-air closer Indifference, the suitably road-trip-worthy Rearviewmirror and the raucous punk-funk of Blood, to name a few. It's the changes in pace that are another key to Vs success. "It's maybe my favourite Pearl Jam record," Gossard said. "We could be this super hard rock band, have these folk songs, have a ballad, have this song that's kind of a groove kind of song and a midtempo rocker. Vs continues the experiment of Ten in a way that shows we're not going to be just one thing."
Here's a pretty cool live version of Blood featuring Eddie Vedder running his voice ragged before doing a trippy vocal solo (PS. Language warning):
Vitalogy (1994)
RECORDED while the band was relentlessly touring, incessantly arguing and occasionally rehab-ing, Vitalogy is the first sign of any cracks appearing. In an attempt to be experimental, the band dispense some mediocre filler tracks (Bugs, last-minute album addition Hey Foxymophandlemama, Aye Davanita and Pry, To), weakening an otherwise impressive album. The best tracks are among their greatest - Spin The Black Circle, Not For You and Tremor Christ rock hard and shift the album gradually down through the gears in time for the first of Vitalogy's great ballads, Nothingman. The other great quieter moment is Better Man which, along with Corduroy, is one of the few good moments in the record's disappointing second half. Better Man almost made it on to Vs, but Vedder apparently proved his anti-commercial cred by deciding not to record it then because that album's producer Brendan O'Brien was absolutely certain it would be a hit. O'Brien eventually got his way on Vitalogy, but not before Vedder made him re-record the first half of the song as the album was being mixed. It would prove to be their biggest song.
Their ode to the joys of vinyl (records that is) - Spin The Black Circle - :
No Code (1996)
DESPITE disappointing many fans, No Code is a far better album than Vitalogy as it sees the band getting a grip on their desire to experiment. The record lures you in with low-key opener Sometimes before smashing the stage with Hail, Hail and then inviting you for a joyous campfire singalong in Who We Are. Elsewhere, there's the simple-but-effective Smile, rocker In My Tree, acoustic torch-song Off He Goes, second guitarist Mike McCready's slide-driven Red Mosquito, and the sublime garage-pop of Mankind, which featured Gossard's debut on vocals. There are some misfires (notably Vedder contributions Habit, I'm Open and Lukin) and perhaps the best songs here aren't among their absolute greatest, but it's a solid record nonetheless. The band later dismissed the album as rushed and undergoing an inner power struggle when they made it, but the addition of new drummer Jack Irons (ex-RHCP) not only had a calming effect but added a new percussional quality to some of their songs. Irons had joined towards the end of the Vitalogy sessions, playing on Hey Foxymophandlemama, and his innate funkiness helped generate Who We Are and In My Tree.
Pearl Jam get spiritual on Who We Are:
Yield (1998)
BY their fifth album, Pearl Jam were the last men standing - of grunge's big four comprising Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, only the Vedder-led five-piece remained. And on Yield they showed they had no real competitors or comparisons left, honing their diversity further, playing with sounds in a more coherent way than the past. Lo-fi guitar tones gave No Way a dirty edge to its groove, Brain Of J and Do The Evolution were two of rawest songs they'd done to date, the drums on Faithful sound like they were recorded in only a couple of mics, while Push Me, Pull Me was almost industrial with a tidy little chorus. The band even let Irons run wild on the mid-album drum interlude Untitled, but managed to get back to their roots with MFC. Dynamic single Given To Fly was one of their biggest hits since they first came out (it even went gold in Australia), while the sweetly simplistic Wishlist became a fan favourite. Once again, as has happened with every album they've released, critics declared it "a return to form''. And perhaps perversely the band themselves figure it to be their "most cohesive and listener-friendly" record of their early period. It's certainly one of their most under-rated, if not one of their best.
After refusing to do video clips for ages, they suddenly came out with this Todd McFarlane animation for Do The Evolution - one of the coolest clips of all time:
