Derek Bodner’s Blog

Every three or four years Pearl Jam releases an album, an event that usually triggers a fair amount of nostalgia for me. Pearl Jam was pretty much the band that got me into music when I was an impressionable ten year old (ironically) first finding out what I liked and didn’t like. I was in the 5th grade (I believe) in 1992 when I first heard Ten and was immediately hooked. This is what music was supposed to sound like to me, and I’ve been a fan ever since. I recall buying Ten, Vs., Vitalogy and Yield when they came out (for some reason skipping No Code), taking me right through high school.

For the majority of my music listening life, they have been my favorite band, to the point where I almost can’t talk about them in an unbiased manner. Music is about so much more than technical competency, and the early 90’s Seattle sound (with Pearl Jam at the forefront) will always have a spot on my playlist. Every time I listen to Ten or Vs. I can’t help but remember back to my youth and channel the feelings I had at that time. Pearl Jam’s probably the only band that does that for me.

As is probably obvious, I picked up the new Pearl Jam album (Backspacer) on September 20th, the day it came out. I withheld writing about it for a solid two+ weeks so I could get the requisite listens in, as Pearl Jam albums, particularly after Yield, have gotten progressively better the more I listen to them.

It has become en vogue for die-hard Pearl Jam fans to list some of their newer compilations as the best the band has to offer. Whether this is because of the commercial (and popular) success of Ten and Vs. or just their musical taste I’m not sure (and, for the record, I don’t generally believe there can be a “right” opinion on which is the best. Music is about taste, preference, and the emotions it invokes as much as anything). But, for me, Pearl Jam is at their best with hard, fast, Zeppelin-inspired Arena rock or when channeling their inner Neil Young with acoustic, almost folksy ballads. That’s not to say some of their more experimental efforts weren’t good, but in the end I find these two types to be Pearl Jam’s most consistently enjoyable works.

Backspacer, to me, does that. And does it well.

My opinion of Backspacer was generally favorable right from the beginning, in fact on first listen it’s probably been my favorite Pearl Jam album of the last 10 years (since 1998’s Yield).

The disc opens up with “Gonna See My Friend”, “Got Some”, and “The Fixer”, perhaps the three songs that have been pushed the hardest commercially so far (“The Fixer” being the albums first single and the basis for the Target commercial that is seemingly everywhere). None of these songs are bad, in fact they’re all quite listen-able, but none of them really hold my attention and resonate (either instrumentally or lyrically) either.

The album really picks up, for me, beginning on track 5. In fact, “Just Breathe”, “Amongst the Waves” and “Unthought Known” might be my favorite 3 consecutive song sequence since Vs. came out in 1993. This is where the diversity in Pearl Jams talent begins to shine. Of the album, these were the three that stuck out to me on first listen, and two weeks later these are the three that have been added to my all-time favorite playlist of Pearl Jam songs (“Force of Nature” may make it there as well).

Backspacer may have been more conservative than some of their previous efforts, but for the most part works, and works very well. The album has produced three songs that I’m ready to throw up against the best of the Pearl Jam library, a handful of other very good songs, and hardly a bad track in the album (“Johnny Guitar” is the only one I really skip).

Is it Ten or Vs.? No, I can’t say that it is. Then again, I don’t expect them to ever produce another album as good as those two, for a number of reasons (including Eddie Vedders voice, which whether due to age, 17+ years of heavy touring, or smoking, or any combination, I don’t think can keep tune on some of the faster songs of early Pearl Jam the way he could in his mid-twenties). Ten, Vs. (and to a lesser extent Vitalogy, which while some of the experiments didn’t work, had 5-6 of PJ’s best songs in my opinion) are two of my favorite albums of all time, from any artist. From the nostalgia factor, even if they released an album as technically wonderful as those two it might not have the same hold over me. That being said, in the second tier of Pearl Jam albums, I hold Backspacer right up there with Yield as the best of the non Ten/Vs/Vitalogy efforts. Saying an album might be the 4th/5th best a band has produced might not sound like high praise, but coming from me about Pearl Jam it is.

For the past two weeks I’ve enjoyed listening to a heck of a lot of Pearl Jam and bringing back the memories and feelings of my youth. This is perhaps the most I’ve liked Pearl Jam since my high school days, and Backspacer has added a great new piece to the collections.