PEARL JAM CD REVIEW

It is pretty rare to see a mid-week post from me but with a little bit of down time, I figured I would post a review of Pearl Jam's new self-titled CD which was released last week. Album releases really heat up at this time of year (second only to the September to December "fall release" season), and the new disc does not dissapoint. Although not the MTV Commercial poster children they used to be, what I have always admired about the band is that they do things their own way, and are not afraid to speak out on certain issues. Yes, they did fight what turned out to be an unwinnable war against Ticketmaster, but atleast they tired to fight the monster. I still believe to this day that if more artists got involved then possibly, the result would have been different. Instead, noone else got invloved, and concert-goers must pay upwards of $300 to see band such as The Rolling Stones, and Madonna.

There has always been a werid sort of irony in Eddie Vedder's song writing, and he had admitted this. When he and guitarist Stone Gossard wrote the song Better Man for the 1994 release Vitology, they only intended it to be a track that dealt with the issue of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, and her fear of moving on. It turned out that the song contained some eery similarities to O.J. Simpon's stalking of his ex-wife (who he was of course accused of murdering). Similarly, over the past several years the band has performed and untitled song live, in which the subject of the composition fears something terrible is about to happen to him (or her) and others, and is calling his loved ones one last time to say goodbye. As it urns out, this song is eerily similar to many of the last calls that the victimes of the 9/11 attacks made to their loved ones. As a result, the band has made the song into a September 11th tribute, and it is now a regular staple of Pearl Jam's live performances.

Pearl Jam waged a similar battle to that of the Ticketmaster "war" against MTV. To protest the fact that the station starting playing less Rock, or music of any kind for that matter in the late 90's, the band put out a hilarious video for the song "Do the Evolution" from their 1998 release Yield. In this video, the only imgage seen is that of a group of five cartoon stick figures (representing the band) dancing and playing instruments during the song. This so infuriated the powers that be at MTV, that the video was pulled after only a few airings, and the band has not released a single video since. This has probably cost the band some exposure and album sales over these last several years, but as in the Ticketmaster fight, someone has to take a stand. It for these reasons , as well as the fact that I love their music, that make Pearl Jam are one of my favorite bands of all time. Having said that, I realize that this review may seem biased to some, a few co-workers of mine included, but so be it.

In contrast to their last few releases, the new disc has less "Jamming" and soloing, in is very heavy in lyrical content, especially ofthe protest variety. It can safely be said that most of the album is a protest against many Bush Administration policies, especially the war in Iraq. The band has used Bush as a dart board before (and righfully so), such as with their 2002 song Bush Leaguer, but this time the criticizm is more pointed. In songs such as the single World Wide Suicide the band makes thir feelings known with lyrics such as: "Medals on a wooden mantel next to a handsome face/thatthe preident took for granted/writing checks that others pay."

The band tackles the issue of the fight against terrorism in the song Marker In the Sand. On this track Vedder sings: "Now you've got both sides/claiming killing in God's name/But God is nowhere to be found, conveniently." My personal favorite track on the disc is Gone, a strong ballad-type song, with great vocals by Vedder. This song evokes previous strong compositions such as In Hiding, and Faithful from Yield.

In summation, this new release probably will not go down as their most commercially successful work, but the band has long ago given up trying to be everyone's vision of a "corporate friendly" rock band, and simply plays for their fans, and that is as it should be.