In a world where traditional rock albums are becoming rarer and rarer in a musical climate of teenybopper pop artists, Pearl Jam continues to just put out quality album after quality album, not playing by anyone's rules but their own, and they took even that to a new extreme, for both good and bad, on their sixth studio record, Binaural.
In case you haven't noticed, the boys of Pearl Jam are much happier these days. Long gone are the days of them fighting Ticketmaster and alienating fans. After all, can you really see Eddie Vedder circa 1995 singing Last Kiss?
Binaural is yet another growth for this band, although I must admit that growth is different from the one I expected. This record is more about growing pains than anything else. On the two previous albums, 1998's excellent Yield and 1996's highly under-appreciated No Code, the band, and especially Vedder, had become much more introspective in their songwriting, and Vedder himself relinquished some of the songwriting power to the other members. However, Pearl Jam has gone back to their roots in some ways, fighting the machine they feel is wrong, but doing it in a much more mature way. Unfortunately, the fire and passion that made Pearl Jam so good in the first place is all but lost on this record.
The first three songs are nothing more than generic rockers. Breakerfall steals it's opening crash from The Who'sI Can See For Miles, and the rest of the song isn't all that much better. While it holds up as a live song, it sounds like the band couldn't be more bored on this song.
The next song, the highly charged Gods' Dice, is a fast, faux rocking number that I've done a 180 degree turn on in the past year or two. I at first liked it, but now it bores me to death. It has virtually no replay value after 4-5 spins.
New drummer Matt Cameron (formerly of fellow Seattle supergroup Soundgarden) makes his presence felt on Evacuation, the last of the "hard rocking" opening trifecta. Notice the quotation marks? Evacuation is probably the worst song the band has ever written, and the most annoying to boot.
Light Years, the second single, is the type of building to a crescendo song that Pearl Jam has become famous for. It's by far one of the three best songs on the record, and is very much like 1998's Wishlist in structure, with tinkling guitars, a basic drumbeat, and Vedder's plaintive voice. The biggest difference however is in the chorus, where the band becomes much more assertive, and where Vedder seems to pay tribute to his fans ("We were but stones, your light made us stars."). It's one of the few Pearl Jam classics on this record.
The brooding first single, Nothing As It Seems is really the first true showcase for lead guitarist Mike McCready in 5 years on record (excluding the live album). His bluesy solos in this song has given it a Pink Floyd type of vibe, with it being very dark. It's a challenging song to get into, and even after you do get into it, you're left wondering if it was worth that effort in the first place. Sure, McCready is one fire but that's about all this song has going for it.
Thin Air is a classic acoustic Pearl Jam ballad, with some very sweet lyrics penned by rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard. The bridge in this song is especially to die for, and even though the guitar riffing after the first chorus is a blatant rip off of Eric Clapton's Change the World, this song, while not classic, is still decent.
Insignificance is quite simply put, one of the best straight hard rock songs written in the last five years. While critics seem to be only lukewarm on this track, time will give it it's spot among the all time greatest rock songs ever written. It features some of Vedder's most damning lyrics yet, with by far the best line being "the swallowed seeds of arrogance...breeding in the thoughts of ten thousand fools who fight irrelevance." The song has only become more relevant given who are president is here in 2003.
Of the Girl recalls past classic Pearl Jam slow songs such as Release and Sometimes. The music is soft, and the main instrument is Vedder's voice, although the nice bluesy fills by McCready make this one worth a listen or ten.
You may however find yourself constantly skipping Of the Girl to get to Grievance. The whole band has outdone themselves here. The pounding drum intro by Cameron, the punkish screams by Vedder, and the wailing guitars of Gossard and McCready all come together to make what is by far one of the best songs Pearl Jam has ever done.
From there, the album takes what has become the usual Pearl Jam experimental turn. Rival, a song Gossard wrote about the Columbine massacre, attempts to see what happened through the two gunmen's eyes, and while this is an interesting attempt at songwriting, the song plods along with only minimal interest, although the music leading up to the chorus and into the bridge has some muscle behind it.
Sleight of Hand is a brooding song that takes a while to get anywhere, not to mention more than a few listens to get into, and even then, much like Nothing as it Seems, you're left wondering if it was worth it (although the line "I'll see you on the other side" and the musical buildup that accompanies it is truly awesome).
Soon Forget, which is yet another tribute to the Who by Vedder (see the "thanks P.T." at the bottom of the lyrics in the liner notes), takes pot shots at the rich.
And finally, closing the album out, is the sequel to 1995's Long Road, entitled Parting Ways. Pearl Jam actually employs a small string section, including Matt Cameron's wife April on viola. While not as good as Long Road, Parting Ways is decent, if nothing else.
Perhaps what kills this album more than anything else is the horrible production job done by Tchad Blake. The Binaural recording technique employed for this record (hence the title) didn't do much at all for the sound, and this album actually sounds worse than Ten, the band's uber-popular 1991 debut disc.
So basically, you're left with 3 great tracks, and a few decent ones, amongst 5-6 other songs that are among the worst to make a Pearl Jam album ever. When you take the production values into account, it all adds up to Pearl Jam's weakest effort ever. If you're a casual fan, you can skip over this one and grab the band's latest album, Riot Act, instead.
With the first single Nothing As It Seems already on radio and the band s amazing past records which has built a huge following around the world, Pear...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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