Album Review
Pearl Jam – Ten
9/10
It seemed only natural that the early ‘90s Seattle scene would take off with Nirvana. It was, after all, fertile enough to produce Nirvana. And when a band gets famous – meaning incredibly, ubiquitously famous – everything remotely associated with them generally gets pulled along for at least part of the ride. The Beatles, after all, were followed across the Atlantic by the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, and countless others. Whether by choice or by popular demand, everything arrives in the vortex of popularity.
This is far from a bad thing. And when Pearl Jam emerged in 1991, with grunge exploding into the mainstream consciousness, they showed the true capacity for talent that Seattle possessed, far beyond the downtuned sludge most other groups had mastered.
The most prevalent quality to the music found on the still-stellar debut Ten would have to be how anthemic each song sounds. There’s weight riding on each note, on each distorted note of heavy, but not bone-crushing guitar. There’s just a little more soul to what they’re doing; far from Nirvana’s intentionally vapid pop/hardcore shtick, there’s a desire for expression, even storytelling, that echoes Bruce Springsteen of all people.
The sound on Ten is excellent; the guitar sound is flawless, being all-consuming but not overwhelming, and lending itself well to everything. Eddie Vedder’s voice carries well over the din, distinctive and howlingly passionate enough to inspire countless pale imitations. The sonic attributes as a whole manage to somehow be expansive and intimate at the same time; for all the sprawl of “Even Flow”, “Oceans”, and “Release”, there’s also the oxymoronically spacious, claustrophobic atmosphere of “Jeremy” and “Black”.
Similarly, the lyrical content shifts seamlessly through the various levels of personal familiarity. There’d be no questioning the legitimacy of the emotional content on “Alive” or “Black”, but the more general yarns – “Even Flow”, “Jeremy” – remain relatable and meaningful. There’s darkness, but never truly depressing amounts. The sorrows and melancholies only serve to provoke, to invigorate, rather than to suppress. It’s equally suited to sitting and brooding as it is to the more energetic forms of musical consumption.
It’d be wrong to compare them to Nirvana. Not due to any lack of respect to either group, but because it’d be like comparing the proverbial apples to the proverbial oranges. Much like Oasis and Blur a few years later, they were the two largest ringleaders of the same specific phenomenon despite having virtually nothing in common. Nirvana prided themselves on their wholehearted embrace of irony and nothingness in every aspect of their music; meanwhile, Pearl Jam went about their business as earnestly as they could, and changed what the grunge era could mean as a result.
