On “The Fixer,” the lead single from Pearl Jam’s ninth studio album, Backspacer, frontman Eddie Vedder proclaims, “If something’s old/ I wanna put a bit of shine on it/ When something’s gone/ I wanna fight to get it back again.” This seems to be the strategy the perennial Seattle rock band employs on its first full-length, studio release in three years.
However, the band never lost it. Its previous album, Pearl Jam, was full of songs that delivered and showed the band could still be youthful in the studio. And Backspacer just serves to reiterate the notion that the band is indeed still lively and rocking. However, this isn’t something fans who experienced Pearl Jam’s rousing powerhouse live show — an essential part of the group’s identity — didn’t already know.
Backspacer is Pearl Jam’s shortest album of its career, clocking in at less than 37 minutes. Even album closer “The End” terminates somewhat abruptly, although perhaps fittingly as the pace of Backspacer rarely lets up. “The End” also offers a mysterious last line for a band that will be 20 years old next year: “I’m here, but not much longer.”
However grim the end of the album may be, the beginning has a more ferocious bent. Roaring to life with the punky “Gonna See My Friend” and flowing right into the call-to-arms rocker “Got Some,” high-energy songs constitute much of the material. Backspacer is considerably lighter in tone than downer records such as Riot Act, released 2002.
After a career of political, angry lyrics, Vedder no longer appears as angry on Backspacer. With their first release since President Barack Obama’s election, Pearl Jam seems to have lightened up. The band also reunites with producer Brendan O’Brien, the man behind the boards on four angry Pearl Jam albums from the 1990s.
The effect of having O’Brien back doesn’t seem to re-engage the band politically but lets them know teenage angst has paid off well. He leads the band members to make the most fun-loving record they ever have.
With its get-up-on-your-feet opening riff and plenty of Vedder “yeah yeah yeahs,” album standout track “The Fixer” represents the modern-day Pearl Jam well. Vedder’s lyrics leave little to the imagination, a path spurred by the decision to be more direct with his words.
“The Fixer” is a courageous anthem about reviving love lost. Listeners are likely to understand the messages of most songs on Backspacer without having to analyze too much.
“Amongst The Waves” continues a career-long Pearl Jam tradition: using waves as metaphors and setpieces. This band has more songs about waves than the Beach Boys.
Though the album is mostly fast rock songs, the sound is not as full as the ambitiously arena rock-tinged grunge of Pearl Jam’s classic 1991 debut, Ten. The road the group has paved since its immediate mainstream breakout from Seattle’s grunge scene is a winding one.
Its third record, 1994’s Vitalogy, was released amid Pearl Jam’s anti-Ticketmaster feud. The band’s dedication to its musical integrity shined through on the album. Vitalogy showed audiences a Pearl Jam that wasn’t afraid to play with strange sounds in the studio while still making hard rock tracks in the process.
Masterpiece No Code, released 1996, continued in the experimental vein of Vitalogy.
The band hit a moody patch with the release of its sixth and seventh albums, Binaural and Riot Act, respectively.
2006’s Pearl Jam brings us to where we are now with Backspacer: guitar-focused pop songs with rock ‘n’ roll riffs.
While Pearl Jam has never drastically changed its sound, the feel of its current music fits the band well. More curious, explosive and angsty in their youth, the five bandmates seem to have found comfortable ground in their bring-the-world-some-rock modus operandi. And best of all, it sounds as if they’re having fun.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
rhiggins@umdbk.com
