Whatever happened to Pearl Jam? One minute, the slick, multi platinum grunge of "Ten" is everywhere, the next, they're the new Phish – an American heritage rock act, touring the country with a rag-tag rabble of die-hard fans, releasing a new bootleg live album every couple of weeks and generally ducking under the chart radar.
Kurt Cobain's suicide just might have made the difference. It certainly set Eddie Vedder rethinking what he was doing with his life. "Ten" had premier league ambition written all over it - and massive singles like "Alive" and "Jeremy" carried depression, darkness and unbearable burdens right to the top of the Billboard 100 - but suddenly, Vedder was being told it should have been him, not Cobain, who bought the farm. And, fortunately, he reacted creatively. Time for a sharp exit. Where "Vs" was denial rock, "Vitalogy" was a gnarly, problematic meditation on fame, life, whatever. Both contained gems the equal of anything on "Ten" (the beautiful, heartbreaking "Better Man" is balm for aching souls), but by "Yeild" - despite the ominous greatness of lead single "Given To Fly" - few were listening. And from that point on, their albums become difficult to recall. They come out. They exist. But do they matter?
This double collection says yes. Their haymaking years may be behind them forever, but their propensity for long jams, countless live albums and anti-promotion obscures the fact that, hell, Pearl Jam always were a great singles band.
From "Immortal", which trashes everything a big rock ballad is supposed to be about and actually makes you want to listen to it all the way through as a result, to the mighty "Do The Evolution" from "Yeild", Vedder knows exactly when he should roar, when he should mutter; it's a habit plenty of rock vocalists would do well to pick up. The thing is, so does the band, often playing so elementally they appear more a force of nature than a rock group: they swell, they ebb, they suddenly THUNDER, and then rumble on.
It's so unpunk, so unbratty, so apart from any time or place, it's incredible they ever got lumped in with Cobain's gang, really. Pearl Jam were never going to stay at the party long; listen to this compilation and hear just how much more filmic, how much more shaped, Vedder's thumbnail dramas are.
