Eddie Vedder and his four plaid clad buddies have been around for some time now. During the last ten years they have survived the fall-out of the grunge explosion and continued to release albums to an expectant fanbase.
However the goalposts have shifted in the last couple of years and rock music seems to be on the decline. These days the charts are populated by Garage, Pop, R'n'B and Hip-Hop with the only guitar bands making any impact being dumb, snot-nosed fake punks like Blink 182 and the truly awful Bloodhound Gang. Their angst-ridden, often over-blown, classic take on rock casts a lone shadow over the musical landscape.
Given that the odds are stacked against them, and with no scene to belong to, you would expect them to fade rapidly from view, that is until you hear this record. Where once they might have sounded drab and dreary they now appear revitlised, kicking against the pricks and raging against the machine. In the main they have done away with their more stodgy, pretentious material and distilled their sound into a stripped down rawness, and they sound all the better for it.
The trio of sub-three minute blasts of energy and anger that begin 'Binaural' lay down the message of intent. 'Breakerfall' comes across like The Who in a wrestling match with AC/DC, while 'God's Dice' and 'Evacuation' are a return to their hardcore roots that borrow heavily from the MC5. 'Nothing As It Seems', possibly the album's finest moment is a menacing, brooding beast with incendiary, metallic guitars and a claustrophobic intensity. Its as though Neil Young's 'Dead Man' score has been given a vocal accompaniment.
Vedder's frustration and bitterness at a system he feels has failed him is apparent throughout. His solo effort, 'Soon Forget', underpinned by a ukulele, is a barbed attack on materialistic Wall Street culture and the mighty 'Slight Of Hand' rejects the drudgery of routine.
Never in their existence have they sounded so fresh and vital. Sticking steadfastly to their guns and flying in the face of fashion this is a band clearly embracing their position as outsiders. Not succumbing to new technology to focus their vision, 'Binaural' has been influenced by some of the most potent forces in rock history while still retaining their own identity. Never playing the game and shunning the industry, this is an uncompromising, brave yet flawed effort that, on occasion, is as good as it gets.
