I've been waiting for the right moment/album release to jump start this thing. Never pictured a Grizzly Bear album review warranting the big comeback, so I think I've been holding off for an album review of a band that will (presumably) go down in the annals as a more legendary act. Before I get started with the fuss, let me get caught up with a few things since I'd up and left this thing back in January:
1) Animal Collective is good, not great.
2) If the year ended tomorrow, my top five records of the year would be, in no particular order:
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeaus Phoenix
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz!
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Muse - The Uprising
3) I've jumped on the Jay-Z bandwagon 13 years after the fact. I've been to so many shows this year, it makes me want to puke. But the one show that stands out among all others is Mr. Z's 9/11 show at the Garden. Mind-blowing.
...and The Blueprint 3 is not as bad as people want you to think it is.
4) That being said, my most listened to song of the year (so far) according to the iPod is Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind". Yes, I know.
5) The new Rodrigo y Gabriela album snuck up on me, which scares me. I literally had no idea this duo was working on new material much less releasing new material until the day the record came out. As you can see, I'm slipping.
6) Pete Yorn makes Scarlett Johannson listenable.
7) The Beatles remasters are fun, but they really aren't worth the hype OR the money.
8) Good riddance to Oasis. Since this recent Noel Gallagher bullshit, I've officially given up on listening to this band. They have been banished from the iPod(s).
9) I've got nothing else to say about Kanye West until his next record, which will inevitably be fantastic.
10) Weezer might be onto something. Not only am I the only person on the planet that thinks "Raditude" an ingenious name for an album, but the new single is the catchiest song they've released since their Pinkerton days. Weezer is supposed to be catchy, haters.
There's more I'm sure, but at least you now know where my head's at. On to the review:
What better way to reboot a blog than to start with a band that has rebooted itself on it's most recent offering....
Although there's no doubting that Pearl Jam is a band of it's word, perhaps the one thing that has managed to slip thorough the cracks over the years is the sound that Eddie and boys help to revolutionize. Pure at heart, Pearl Jam is band borne from guitars. Loud, crunchy, messy guitars. The holy triumvirate of songs from this band's growing oeuvre that you will be telling your kids about will be "Alive," "Even Flow," and "Jeremy". There's no doubting this. Sure, tunes like "Better Man" and "Daughter" struck mid-90's alt-rock gold, but did these songs ever 100% seem right for a band that penned about teen suicide and told us "[they'd] rather be with an animal"? The sensitive stuff is fit for Eddie's solo material which is, in itself, fantastic. For a band that has perfected three-guitar wizardry, not so much.
Looks like Pearl Jam got the message on it's ninth studio album, Backspacer, released earlier this week. Already stirring up some controversy from it's big record label abandonment and exclusive physical distribution at Target stores, this one's been making waves since it's incendiary first single "The Fixer" hit radio earlier this summer. We haven't heard band cohesion this tight and Eddie's voice so growled since PJ's Vs. days. Eddie preaches about "fighting to get it back again" throughout this pop-rock hybrid. It doesn't take much convincing to realize that they're succeeding in doing so. Quite simply, if you do not appreciate this song, you clearly don't enjoy listening to good music. The band doesn't hesistate to kick this record into first gear. The rockers begin where the others ephemerally leave off. Clocking in just under 40-minutes, this record defines short but sweet. "Gonna See My Friend" and "Got Some" precede the afforementioned single, and could have very well competed for first single status. "Johnny Guitar" is a noteworthy combatant that, aside from lacking some lyrical depth, resides amonst the 1-2-3 guitar-infused euphoria of the standout tracks. "Just Breathe" is a reflectively beautiful song about humility, which is more or less a b-side from the "Into The Wild" soundtrack. All Eddie fingerplucking here with a pretty string section thrown in as an added bonus. This ballad concludes the first rock act pretty well, which unfortunately segues into some old habits. "Amongst The Waves" falls into the same breath as uninspired early-millenium failed singles "Light Years" and "I Am Mine". Whether intentional or not, this tune is luckily an aberration, as we pretty much go full steam ahead throughout the rest of Backspacer. No, "Supersonic," and "Force of Nature" are not covers by a famous Brit-pop band. Rather, they are small slices of heaven that perfectly blend the Pearl Jam we all knew and love with fresh fast-paced tempos and experimental guitar solos that prove that old is new again.
The record concludes with another ballad, "The End," which unfittingly finishes upwith the famous last words: "Give me something to echo in my unknown future, you see, my dear, the end, comes near, I’m here, but not much longer." After listening to this revived stellar effort, I couldn't think of a Pearl Jam lyric further from the truth.
My Rating. 7.8/10
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