Pearl Jam [Digipak] - Pearl Jam (CD 2006)

It shouldn't have been too hard to see it coming -- all we had to do is look at the first single. Pearl Jam hasn't released a first single that completely rocked out in over ten years. Sure, "Given to Fly" wasn't a ballad exactly, but it starts slow at least, and any song that finds its closest comparison in Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" can't actually be accused of "completely rocking out". Other than that, what do we have? Going backward from Riot Act, the lead singles for the last five Pearl Jam albums have been "I Am Mine", "Nothing As it Seems", "Given to Fly", and "Who You Are"...

Rejuvenated. That is the word that keeps coming to mind whenever someone asks me what the new Pearl Jam album sounds like. The band truly does sound like they've rediscovered their love of being Pearl Jam. That's not to say their last couple albums were bad or lacking feeling; Binaural and Riot Act both have their share of great songs. It's just that this latest, self-titled effort shows the band recording with the same intensity found in their live performances, something their most recent albums haven't been able to capture. Whereas Riot Act's Bu$hleaguer railed against the president with...

Note: I waited 3.5 years for this thing. You bet your a*s it's a long review! It's hard to believe that it's been over eight years since Pearl Jam released Yield, considered by many of their most loyal fans to be their best record. Since then, the band has been battered: lead singer Eddie Vedder divorced his longtime partner, guitarist Mike McCready battled with the bottle, the entire band watched in horror as nine fans were crushed to death at the Roskilde Festival, and the band took some heavy heat for the song Bushleaguer and how they decided to perform said song live (with Eddie in a Bush.

I'm not sure why I never got into Pearl Jam until now. They're practically legendary within the world of alternative rock, and there are several songs by the band that I'd recognize if I were to hear them today, and I wouldn't be likely to think, "Oh no, it's that song... somebody turn it off!" What little I knew about the band, I generally had a healthy respect for. They were just on that list of highly respected bands that I never got around to checking out, in terms of sitting down with one of their albums and thoroughly digesting it. R.E.M. was on that list until a few years ago, and now..