Album Description: Japanese pressing of their 2006 album with no extras.13 tracks. J Records.
Amazon.com: If its debut album 15 years ago made Pearl Jam apprehensive with success, the Seattle quintet better buckle in for a return to eminence. On its eighth studio release--and first since 2002--the band socks away the adventurous experimentation that dogged some of its most recent records to investigate a post-September 11, war-ravaged world overflowing with urgency and significance. "It's the same everyday in a hell manmade/What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?" lead singer Eddie Vedder wonders in "World Wide Suicide," one of several contemptuous rants on the Bush administration. Yet the album's spark is more than political. Songs like "Life Wasted," "Comatose" and "Big Wave" embrace the garage-rock past, as guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard play off each other with the primal lucidity of a decade ago and drummer Matt Cameron, one of rock's best, adds raw backing vocals to Vedder's polished craft. But Pearl Jam also turns up some of its most harmonious works since "Daughter," including "Marker in the Sand," with its radio-ready chorus, the tuneful "Parachutes" paced by Gossard's divine strumming, and the burning narrative and Urge Overkill punch of "Umemployable." Finally Vedder pleads for a lover's return in "Come Back," a keyboard-soaked love song complete with a chilling Gossard solo. It's got a soulfulness that begs for Sam Cooke to sing it and an originality that shows that a vibrant and cocksure Pearl Jam is back in town--and ready to retake the world. --Scott Holter
BEST YET The best band in the world released their best album to date. Every album gets progressively better, as well as different than the last one. This should be the opinion of every die hard Pearl Jam fan. There is no best or worst album, they are all equally great for their own reasons.
PJ #8: Yet another MASTERPIECE, only BETTER this time!!! Ok, so it's been a few years since I've reviewed a PJ album... I've just been busy listening to this brilliant album, trying to find the words to describe the degree of it's AWESOME FACTOR. I won't be fancy, ladies and gentlemen... let's just say it's off the charts, and THEN some. It is the legendary band's answer to all the nay-sayers that claim their music has grown too mellow or "tired" sounding in the last several years. PEARL JAM is THEE most energetic album since YIELD. Period. While their last two LP's were more experimental and laid-back (but still GREAT in my opinion), this one is straight up in your face from beginning to end. Very aggressive, hard, energetic sounds that sort of bring you back to their earlier days... VS and VITALOGY in particular. That being said, the thing that sets this beauty apart from their entire body of work is this: the first 5 songs are HARD rockers to say the least. Not even VS can claim that. I won't go into each song here... just a few of the highlights (although the ENTIRE album is a highlight). Severed Hand begins with a riff and feel not unlike the beginning of Corduroy (VITALOGY), and it really gets the adrenalin pumping like nothing else. Marker In The Sand is one of the most funnest, greatest sing-along songs in the history of Pearl Jam. Big Wave has one purpose: to SHUT the mouths of all those pour souls that claim PJ have become old, tired, and boring. The last two songs are great ballads that are up there with the very best of PJ ballads... Come Back perhaps a great candidate for the "next" Yellow Ledbetter, and Inside Job has just a pinch of Stairway To Heaven's (Led Zeppelin) influence to it, starting off slow then building up to a frenzy. The only thing that may count as filler on this album (but it's damn good filler at that) is Wasted Reprise. Ending this masterpiece is a cool, short little blend of sounds that you feel you've just heard dashed here and there through out the whole album. Overall great sounding album with a ton of energy and expert musicianship backing it. Miss the old, glorious days of the early 90's?? Try this one on for size... you WON'T be sorry.
Simply Amazing! This is by far one of PJ's best albums. It's a new Pearl Jam. Playing album after album, better and better syncronized. It's simply amazing. I've being a Pearl Jam fan since they were born and even went to sleep at night hearing Ten or Vs. But after No Code I let them down because they weren't the same. Recently I heard one the songs of the album on the radio and decided to give them a chance. Well. I've just listened to the album 3 times in a row. Chapeaux to the band.
Don't think twice about getting the album. Just buy it. You will love it.
Artsy, Fresh, and A Catharsis of Somesort I must be honest, I use to hate Pearl Jam. Not due to their musicianship, but because I was a cliche' Nirvana loyalist. Broadening my music acceptance over the many years since than I can only say, bummer... man did I miss out.
Listening to the self entitled "Pearl Jam" album was a fresh well needed self realization, that bands out of their glory days can come back with full throttle. From the garage rocking "Life Wasted" to the long 7 minute soft rocking "Inside Job" this albums contains some of the best music of its genre. With short hard rocking gems "Comatose" and the ever progressing intro to "Severed Hand", you obtain a wide scale of rock music varying in degrees but non the less great and interesting. Classic really holding out the right notes at the right time vocally driven songs like "Unemployable" grab you intently.
My pick off the album is "Parachutes" the marriage of vocals and melody is as cohering as ones ability to read a stop sign. Bumping acoustics climbing up pitches and than smoothly descending caught with a rhythmical electric guitar dotting the middle, simply amazing!
What may sound like filler at first run through the album is the more artistic songs trying to bud in the presence of radio worthy songs. Overall Pearl Jams 2006 release is a note worthy album, and possibly a come back of the Pearl Jam of the 90's as oppose to some of their bogged down release previously before this one. Do yourself a favor, grab a copy and relax.
Pearl Jam has still got it! As a longtime Pearl Jam fan, these guys never fail to disappoint me. Eddie Vedder's vocal range is simply breathtaking, and Mike McCready and Stone Gossard are among the best lead guitar-rhythm guitar duos in the history of rock.
But 2006's self-titled release is simply amazing. Whether you bought it because of the radio hit 'Life Wasted' or because you're a huge Pearl Jam fan, it doesn't matter.
This is, by a long shot, their best since 'Vitalogy.' 'Army Reserve,' 'Life Wasted,' 'Comatose,' 'World Wide Suicide' and even the 'Wasted Reprise' are among Pearl Jam's best songs, as well as the soft (for Pearl Jam) rocker 'Gone.'
I have always enjoyed Pearl Jam. And this record is just amazing. And having seen them in concert, they are among the bset live acts I've ever seen. Vedder is quite the showman and quite the entertainer, as this one and 'Live At the Gorge 05/06' both document.
Overall, this is highly recommended for any Pearl Jam fan. It's one of their finest releases to date. You would have to be crazy to not love Pearl Jam.
Highly recommended. A classic record from PJ. ENJOY!!!
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