- YIELD
This album represents my introduction to Pearl Jam ; a friend told me if I like the Who I can' t enjoy this band, so I bought this album.For me here there is more grunge and hard-rock than Who, but it' s clear how this band tries ( and often manages ) to create an energetic rock without refusing the melody and the intelligence.From this point of view the comparison with the Who is more obvious ; of course the band isn' t the reincarnation of the Who, even if the will of creating a power rock based on a roaring singer ( they are a powerful and expressive singer according to me, even if he' s not got a great range ), powerful chords and heavy drums is surely near to the features of the live career of the Who.But I have also to admit that this speech isn' t that strong, because the Who were a great source of inspiration for a great number of hard-rock band, they pioneered hard rock, so the Pearl Jam was influenced by the Who nothing more than, say, Nirvana or other of hard-rock bands.But also this spech has its weak points and the reason is very simple : look at the actual musical scene.Are you able to find a real pure rock band?I don' t mean all the heavy-metal stuff, the punk rock, the grunge ( what rests of it ) but a band of solid rockers, able to come out with powerful, diverse, ( a little ) original, loud and angry but also delicate and introspective music?Not that Pearl Jam are pure rockers, the influences of grunge is still strong but coupled with more refined melodies ; for me they are the only truly rock band around the world ( or at least, one of the few : there are also bands like Black Crowes ), just listen to any of their album : for me they have a "classic" sound, a sound able to take only the best things of the '90 ( yes, there are some! ), the power of the grunge but not its lack of melody, coupling them with some old good things ( from the past ) like the importance of the melody, a bit of inteligence in writing the lyrics ( may I dislike the lyrics of the most of the actual ROCK band?Don't get me wrong!Radiohead isn' t a pure rock band and REM and U2 are not what I call actual )....and they didn' t release an album each year, avoiding eventual crap!This long speech only to say that for me the comparison with the Who isn' t that wrong, they are trying with intelligence to imitate what Who did in the past ( I mean and angry hard rock, intelligent, sometimes introspective, sometimes full of social criticism ), but without losing their personality : they are a band of the '90 and this is clear from the first listen, but they are able to not completely loose the link with the tradition and for me, who like when tradition is wisely coupled with experimentation, is a very good thing.
What about the music?I' ve already spoken of this, just let me add that, for what worth they are, they are a very derivative band, not to mention all the inspiration from grunge because it isn' t enough ; when I listen to them I find a lot of sounds I' ve already heard ( even if sometimes there are some weird, but tasteful, escursions in noisemaking or ultra-powerful music ) but, since the quality of songwriting is good, I' ll pass on the originality.I think in the '90 is very difficoult to find a real original band, it' s better to rely on quality or....stick to the '60!
The time is come to speak about the album.The album is very good because the great technique ability of the band of playing in a very powerful and convincing way, thanks to the great work on drums courtesy of Jack Irons, a very exciting drummer, solid and fast, but also very expressive ( in the sense he' s able to adapt his style to the mood of the various songs ) and the furious double guitar assaults.I' ll pass on the very good voice of Eddie Veder ( even if his voice is the kind of voice that you love or hate, no mediation for me, but I can' t explain this statement ).Musically speaking we see the band out of the nodless ( but worth for me ) experimentation of "Vitalogy" in which the band was looking for their new sound after abandoning the pure grunge : her what' ll you get is....Pearl Jam!Giving a precise definition of a genre means for me give each band a different definition in order to be precise....just say classic rock played with the technology and the taste of the '90.All right?Hope so.
One of the main reason of the appealing of this album is surely the lyrics that show the inner and most phylosophycal and spiritual side of Eddie ; for me here you' ll find a depth of thoughts and meanings rarely achieved in their catalogue.Of course this album is a great showcase for their songwriting ability and the album, unlike some of their previous album, is enough diverse, even if I find it a bit overlong for my tastes ( in fact the grunge legacy for my ears is very evident and some songs sound like generic hard-rock/grunge song....please don' t flame me, I find boring also "Nevermind", what you expect from me? ).Howewer most of the song are very listenable and catchy.I include among the highlights of this album the beautiful opening track, maybe my favourite here, with one of their most interesting riff of their catalogue and a mad and steady beat kept by Jack : I really love this kind of drumming, but these are ohly personal tastes.This song is also remarkable for the contrast between the hard-rocking first part and the delicacy of a short interlude in the middle.Another good song is the visceral and passional "Faithfull" on which Eddie sings in a extremely convincing and pathetic ( in technical meaning ) way."No Way" is a song that increases on power while it goes on ; nothig so outstanding but the vocal parts are good for me."Given To Fly" is what I call a "power ballad" in a triumphant mood, with an interesting guitar lines ( expecially in the beginning ).Then we have the delicate "Wish List" the most melodic number here, with lyrics simple but not affected by simplism : they are very good and with some nuances of despair, cool song.I can' t stand "Do The Evolution" a gritty number with highly distorced guitar riff and Eddie pulling his voice to the limits ; the lyrics are a social comment, an angry one but for me the song is ruined by the generic music."MFC"isn' t that bad, expecially for the percussions section but it has an extraordinary lack of melody and the vocals are so obnoxious to my ears.Luckyly among the following songs there is the passional "In Hiding" with its interesting lyrics and great choruses.Oh, I' ve pass on the good melody of "Low Light"."Push Me, Pull Me" tries to be experimental buton this ground my ears are a bit deaf : this song doesn' t lack completely of melody and the drums are quite imaginative, it pass quite softly on your ears and it' s pleasant but don' t call it experimental, it isn' t.The last song is the delicate "All Those Yesterdays", remarkable mainly for its lyrics and the vocal parts ; and it' s also a bit Beatles--esque.
Concluding : this album can' t get an overall rating bigger than 12 because it isn' t that original ( on contrary for me it' s a derivative album, and you know originality is one of my most important rating criteria ) : the quality of the lyrics and of the most of the song is good but for me there aren' t very much of memorable tunes ( even if all the songs are very catchy thanks to the great playing ) and sometimes these guys suffers of lack of melody.Howewer I can' t give it more simply because a lower rating would be an offens to this well refined album but an higher one would be an offence to some of the most original and influencing bands of rock history.If you want to hear nowdays a contemporary band playing good rock buy this!
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A change of direction in comparison with the previous one.And another change of direction doesn' t necessarily means good.This time they boys in the band return to the hard rock but without the dumb and brutal force of "Ten" and "Vs" : here you can find a lot of hard rock songs but the band it' s clearly more oriented towards intelligent pop, as you can easily notice listening to songs like "Light Years", "Thin Air", "Nothing As It Seems" ; all those songs are rock/pop ballads ( and even if they aren' t really classic ballads, they are surely less oriented towards grunge and hard rock, than soft rock ), most of them are a good showcase for the voice of Vedder, there are additional instruments like some keyboards and strings, some gimmicks of the production ( sometimes the sound is a bit rough, but I think it' s so because the band chose so, in order to sound more visceral and violent ).In summa they are trying to find new styles ( intellectual and melodical rock ) but without loosing the grunge fans.
So, after all, this album is a sourt of hybrid, neither soft, neither heavy.Howewer the band is mature enough to make each song pleasant for several reason : the very good drummer ( but to appreciate the man, you should listen to him in the live albums -each of the bootleg from "Binaurall Tour" series would be ok- ), the average but tasteful guitars, the maturity of Vedder' s voice, the quality of the arrangements, the power of the band ( they have a lot of energy and they manage to pull to the limits also trite and generic songs like "God' S Dice" and "Evacuation", making these ugly songs a bit more catchy than they deserve ).Listening to this album will be very tasteful, but a bit boring ( the rockers are solid, and often short, but sometimes they get too sloppy on the ballads, like "Nothing As It Seems", making the songs overlong, or better, making an average song too long to be standed until the end ).My main reproach against this album is that they often get generic, expecially in the rocking numbers ; for instance "Evacuation" has a decent riff, but it' s too underlined, and so it becomes boring after few seconds Vedder stops singing the passional vocal intro."God' S Dice" has the tritest hard-rock riff I' ve ever heard ( there are a lot of songs extremely similar to this ).
Among the most heavy numbers, the best for me is "Insignificance", with pouncing drums at the beginning, an "acid" and scarying riff that suddenly appears ; and I like also the gloomy choruses, while the band sings "..down...".Another remarkable "heavy" song is surely "Breakerfall", with its dynamic and explosive vocal part ( the voice is overdubbed with another lower voice, that makes the mood very dark ), angry riffs, intelligent gimmicks : darkness and frustation perfectly fused in this powerful song.
The "soft" songs are less distinctive ( the songs that underline Pearl Jam identity are surely "Insignificance" and "Breakerfall" ; this doesn' t mean the ballads are generic, but I think PJ haven' t still found their style for this stuff ) and more commercial.The best composed and arranged is surely "Thin Air", which has a really good vocal part ( Vedder begins to have TOO much fun, playing with his voice ) and the acoustic guitars, even if they are a bit obvious, fit very well with this kind of song.I like also "Of The Girl" : simple but expressive chords, conciseness, warm vocals.Another remarkable song is the delicate but passional "Nothing As It Seems", with acoustic guitars interlaced with ( good ) solos on eletric guitar.
Sadly Vedder takes too much inspiration from the Who, but without the talent of Townshend : "Soon Forget" is clearly influenced by "Blue, Red And Grey" ( for the mood, for the instruments, for the arrangements and a bit also for the chords ), but it' s a total failure : where' s the melody?Really obnoxious, maybe with another arrangements.......who knows?
A tasteful album, with a dark and gloomy attitude, but the songwriting isn' t enough strong.Howewer a lot of fun, thanks to Eddie' s voices and good arrangements.
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