Yield - Pearl Jam (CD 1998)

There are times when Epinions rating system just doesn't work out well. This is one of those times. Here's the problem, 1988's Yield by Pearl Jam is a fantastic album which is head-and-shoulders above damn near anything that was released in 1988 (or, throughout the 1990's, for that matter). So, it deserves five stars, right? In my view, nope. Here's the thing -- the album is fantastic, but just not as good as the rest of Pearl Jam's discs. In my view, Pearl Jam has never released a bad album, but Yield just doesn't rank up there with the rest of them. So, I've given this fine disc a "four...

Several years ago, a young, disappointed listener would have you believe that Pearl Jam's fifth album is/was anything less than fantastic. My present-day adjective is to dissuade you from the position once taken on this album, Yield, by that young, disappointed listener. After all .. what does he know? And who, pray tell, am I to denounce the opinion of another? In a completely unheralded and startling revelation, I _am_ that young man. I am that young Ten fan who somehow found Ten's emotional complexities and entanglements and anthemic, disaffected bombast more interesting and stimulating...

Make no mistake about it: I am a big Pearl Jam fan. I have all 5 studio albums and the live one. And Yield, released in 1998, is the best they have put out since their debut effort, "Ten." Mix an edge not seen in quite some time from them, along with Eddie Vedder's trademark angerous voice, you get a CD worth spending the money on, and one you'll be listening to for a long time. The CD kicks off to a rocking start with "Brain Of J." With lines like "Who's got the brain of JFK/What's it mean to us now?" you obviously get the impression that it's about JFK. Apparently Eddie is wondering what it.

Pearl Jam has changed its style quite a bit since the release of Ten. Over the past decade, the Seattle rockers have experimented with many different sounds, but I think their true style came across best in 1998 with the release of their fifth album, Yield. Ten and Vs. are regarded as classics that helped define the grunge era. Most of the songs were angry and intense, but they could turn it down into something soothing and beautiful (Black, Elderly Woman ) every now and then. On Vitalogy, they experimented with strange, darker sounds while still producing some big hits. The highly underrated.