I'm one of the stubborn lifelong diehards who'll probably buy every album Pearl Jam ever releases, so when a new record comes along with a bit of that dubious "this will win back some of the old Ten fans" hype, I usually just look past it, because I don't particularly like Ten that much anymore, don't think they'll ever really recapture that vibe again, and don't need any motivation to check the new stuff out anyway. Still, the last couple albums were pretty much duds, and I have to admit that all the encouraging signifiers got me pretty excited: Brendan O'Brien back on the boards for the first time since Yield, "The Fixer" being their best single since...Yield, and a running time that shaves almost 10 minutes off their previous shortest album. Short of Jack Irons rejoining the band, that's about the most they could do pique my interest.

After spending a good amount of time with Backspacer, though, it's merely solid and workmanlike, faster and edited more judiciously than most of their albums, but still way less inspired than their messier overlong efforts. Vedder writing all the lyrics for the first time in a long time means no boneheaded Ament moments, although "Johnny Guitar" has such a vividly loony lyrical conceit that it kinda feels like the Ed who wrote "Bugs" is still alive and well, even if he's not breaking the accordion out anytime soon. Unfortunately, his voice is sounding more winded and whiney with every album, while he still belts and bellows the old stuff live pretty well, which kind of reminds me of the way Jay-Z can still rap "Big Pimpin'" live but wouldn't dream of dropping a flow that precise on a new song. PJ usually ends albums with a long slow fade or a masturbatory bonus cut, so the way "The End" actually caps things with a clever and kind of dramatic touch is probably the most uniquely satisfying thing about Backspacer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 1:39 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.