Pearl Jam - Backspacer

Pearl Jam are one of those bands – their fans follow them with a fervour most artists can only dream of, as the rapturous reception of their epic, August gig at the O2 showed. But, for the majority of people Pearl Jam are a band who haven’t mattered since 1994 and the death of grunge with its poster boy, Kurt Cobain. The problem is that too many people still agree with the Nirvana frontman’s opinion, that Pearl Jam were nothing more than a corporate-rock cash-in on Seattle’s Generation X explosion – an opinion shared by certain British music magazines for too long now. Their many critics conveniently overlook the succession of fantastic, progressive albums that the band has produced since their 1991 debut, Ten. It is, perhaps, a slightly blinkered attitude to judge a band solely on the basis of a debut, which itself is consistently misunderstood. The band’s evident influences from classic rock in a movement more indebted to punk, worked against them at the time, despite the fact that Nirvana themselves played “Heartbreaker”, by Led Zeppelin, as a live staple throughout their early years. What too many people missed, or preferred to overlook, were the evocative themes and great songs behind what was probably an unfortunately produced album.

From Vs to their eponymous effort of 2006, Pearl Jam have produced deep and moving albums covering themes both personal and political, albums which were honest and gracious without the meaningless posturing of too many bands of recent times. Backspacer, their most recent release, is perhaps the album which can change one opinion of the band as grumpy, old ex-alt-rockers. From the surf-punk opening of first track, “Gonna See My Friend”, to the shivering closer, “The End”, Backspacer is the sound of a band revelling in the companionship and joy of playing music together - Eddie Vedder even sounds happy! While, dissatisfaction and a feeling of “us against the world”, has always been integral to the Pearl Jam sound, this time round the true heirs to the title, “The Last Gang in Town”, have put their battles behind them and made an album for themselves and it sounds incredible. “Got Some” is a perfect slice of melodic punk seeing Mike McCready in explosive form as Vedder howls the lyrics with passion, while “The Fixer” is probably the poppiest song the band have ever done and that is by no means a bad thing as it sounds electrifying. Perhaps the highlight for this reviewer is “The End”, a contemplation of the fleeting nature of mortality and an achingly beautiful song with the fragility and frailty of its subject matter.

There is a slightly ominous side note to this album though, as the listener experiences the silence following the closing track. Backspacer sounds suspiciously like a goodbye, with its themes of hope, joy and parting culminating in a song entitled “The End”. We can only pray this is not the case because if they continue to produce records this good and this imbued with life, modern music would miss them greatly. Backspacer is the shortest album Pearl Jam have put out so far, clocking in at just over thirty-six minutes in length, but the band pack as much into that time as possible. The songs are exceptional, the passion still burns with as much fire as ever and although Pearl Jam are not exactly breaking new ground with this record, if this is what the old ground sounds like then I’m very happy to be staying there.