Pearl Jam Review

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Pearl Jam ReviewIt's quite possible that Pearl Jam is more revered in retrospect than for their musical offerings from the last 5-6 years. Their name is legendary. And their initial 2-3 albums are considered classics. But what have they done lately that hasn't sounded tired and stale?
Even though I'd been burned by PJ's albums in the past, I took a chance on this new one, simply titled Pearl Jam.
Wow. Am I glad I did. Pearl Jam has been reborn!
This album sounds fresh, alive and -- dare I say it? -- vital. They retained their trademark garage band sound and Eddie's sometimes mumbly (but powerful) baritone. But there are melodies and hooks on this album that are infectious. And the playing sounds like a Pearl Jam I haven't heard in a long, long time. It's energetic and meaty.
The album kicks off with the guitar-heavy, toe tapping "Life Wasted," which sports typical Pearl Jam chord progressions but with more oomph behind them.
"World Wide Suicide," the next track, features a sound and energy reminiscent of anything off Vs. or their debut CD (1993 and 1991, respectively).
"Comatose" begins with a Tom Petty-like guitar riff and then explodes in Eddie's growling vocal and bashing, punk-like guitars that would make the Sex Pistols proud.
One of my favorite tracks follows "Comatose": "Severed Hand," which begins with swirling, mysterious-sounding backward-played guitar noodlings before turning into another free-for-all garage band extravaganza.
"Parachutes," a Beatle-esque song featuring acoustic guitar, a jaunty beat and tight vocal arrangements, is a nice change of pace after so many balls-out tracks.
"Unemployable," the next track, is a great riff. Very catchy and upbeat. It reminds me of R.E.M. Very tasty guitar work.
"Wasted Reprise" is totally captivating. Haunting, even. It's less than a minute long, but there's something about it that I absolutely love. The lyrics are sung with such emotion: "I have faced it, a life wasted, I am never going back again."
I can't say enough about this album. It's chock-full of big, BIG guitar riffs, Eddie's over-the-top screaming, crisp production, and heart-on-sleeve lyrics. It's a Pearl Jam you haven't heard in a very long time.
I strongly urge you to buy this new album from Pearl Jam. You won't be sorry.Pearl Jam OverviewWith over 65 million albums sold, Pearl Jam returns with their first studio record in four years. 'World Wide Suicide' is the lead single and video (directed by Danny Clinch) from the album impacting prior to release date. The band will be touring the globe through July 2006 in support of the new album.

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Backspacer Review

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Backspacer ReviewThis is Pearl Jam's best album of the 2000s. Continuing where Pearl Jam left off, the band matches the energy of their last outing with better, tighter songs. The lyrics (notably, all are credited to Vedder) are exceptional. No longer bound by anti-Bush righteous rage, Vedder seems to feel freed to sing songs with more empathy and positive energy. There are still plenty of songs about troubled souls and surfing, but the overall tone is warmer and filled more with empathy than anger.
The band's playing is excellent as always, and Brendan O'Brien's return to the fold is welcome - this album, even more than the Ten Redux cd, is proof positive that O'Brien is THE man to produce Pearl Jam's albums. He adds a few touches of keyboards and strings here and there to augment the standard guitar/bass/drums rock format, and the result is a sound perfectly suited to Pearl Jam's strongest batch of songs in years.
Pearl Jam fans who have been waiting for a new great album but weren't quite convinced by their previous cd should give this one a shot, and fans who have stuck with the band all these years will not be disappointed. This is Pearl Jam for 2009 and beyond.Backspacer Overview

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Hawaian Guitar Banjo Ukulele & Guitar 1926-1949 Review

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Hawaian Guitar Banjo Ukulele & Guitar 1926-1949 ReviewFour decades before Jimi Hendrix played guitar with his teeth, Roy Smeck was biting the strings on America's vaudeville circuit. An astonishing instrumentalist already, Smeck had to compensate for his lack of a singing voice by developing jokes and visual guitar gimmicks. Among his tricks were simulating a banjo duet on a single banjo, or playing Yiddish, Chinese or Scottish instrumental versions of "Yes Sir, That's My Baby." Roy could play anything with strings on it, and he could do it upside down, behind his back, or both. Eventually Hollywood discovered him and he was featured in the first talking picture ever. Ironically, "talkies" proved to be the downfall of vaudeville, and with it went Smeck's career. But to this day, Smeck remains America's original guitar hero. His virtuosity is rivaled by few, and this superb collection by Yazoo features 14 intrumentals with nothin' fancy but incredible playing.Hawaian Guitar Banjo Ukulele & Guitar 1926-1949 Overview

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Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild Review

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Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild ReviewFor all those Pearl Jam fans out there, the release of what is essentially a solo acoustic Eddie Vedder album is manna from heaven. Of course, most PJ fans out there these days are in their 4th or 5th decade of life, and there are many young folks who view PJ as outmoded and other naysayers who have grown tired of Ed's gruff, mumbly baritone. But I belong to the first group, so I think this little album is pretty great.
"Into the Wild" is a 30-minutish album that has Eddie playing a variety of acoustic instruments over 11 short tracks. It's classic Vedder, but stripped-down and bare, kind of in the balladic "No Code" or "Binaural" vein with more acoustic strumming and minimal accompaniment. The tunes were written as a movie soundtrack, and having seen the film, it's hard not to picture Emile Hirsch traipsing over hill and dale during the songs. On the other hand, most of the numbers do have lyrics, which is a bit unusual for a soundtrack, and was sometimes distracting for me in the theater. But this review is about the music...
Many of the tunes are upbeat, rocky-mountain-high, kind of anthems, as on "Setting Forth," "Far Behind," and the all-instrumental "Tuolumne." The other half are more introspective, balladic numbers (in keeping with the kind of celebration of freedom/wasteful tragedy duality of Chris McCandless' tale), as on the banjo-inflected "No Ceiling," "Rise" (the ukelele invokes Ed's "Soon Forget" from Binaural or "Goodbye" from A Broke Down Melody -- I'm thinking an all uke-vocal album by Ed would be pretty great), "Long Nights," "Society," and "The End of the Road." "Hard Sun" is a stand-out in a number of ways -- clearly the one number that might either get radio-play or be released as B-side single. Also, it's written by Robert Peterson (aka Indio) and features some backing chorus vocals by Sleater-Kinney frontwoman Corin Tucker (it would be awesome if Ed made a proper single out of "Modern Girl" and released it with "Hard Sun"). It's definitely the big anthem of the album and the only tune over 4 minutes long. "Society" is the other track not written by Ed -- in this case, the author is Jerry Hannan who also sings back-up underneath. "The Wolf" features Ed doing his Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan inspired vocal howling (reminiscent of "Arc" without the overdubs) over an organ drone. And then there's "Guaranteed," a great tune that really has two versions embedded in the same song -- first the vocal version that has Ed singing over acoustic guitar (this was played during the end credits of the movie) and later, in a "hidden track," the "Humming Version" that starts around 4:40 after a minute or two of silence (who invented hidden tracks anyway? why would I want to endure two minutes of silence or have to press fast forward to get to more music?). The humming version is what opens the film, and features Ed humming the sweet soulful melody over the same guitar rhthym. So for me, the standout tracks are "Hard Sun," "Guaranteed," "Setting Forth," "Far Behind", "Rise," and "The Wolf." That's half the album, so you can see I think it's all pretty great and will leave fans itching for a real solo album someday.
This review wouldn't be complete without some discussion about iTunes. iTunes has available, for $2 more, the "deluxe version" of this album (NOT sold here at Amazon), which augments the original soundtrack with 4 more numbers -- "No More" (a cover) and "Photographs" (a short instrumental) lifted from the soundtrack to the documentary 'Body of War,' a live version of "No More," and a live version of "Here's to the State," one of Ed's concert staples that has him railing against various operatives in the Bush administration. iTunes also sells "Guaranteed (Humming Version)" as a separate track, but it's just the "hidden track" from the 7-minute "Guaranteed" that isn't available as a single downloadable track. Since the original soundtrack is only about a half-hour long, most fans will welcome the extra 12 minutes of music, but the truth is the tunes don't completely fit with the rest of the album and some will no doubt find the strong political messages of "No More" (War) and "Here's to the State," typical of Ed, tiring.
And so, "Into the Wild" is a short little album written as a movie soundtrack that is loaded with little gems by Eddie Vedder on vocals and acoustic strings. If you like Ed and can put up with the brevity of the songs themselves and the album as a whole, it's sure to please, and leave you wishing there were more. And there is a little more, only if you're interested you'll have to get it from iTunes... or somewhere else ;).Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild OverviewThe young, idealistic Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch abandons all possessions and life as most of us known it for the Alaskan wilderness. This incredible and intense true story has touched a nerve with millions around the world.

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