Happy whatever day today is. I’ve been working from home since March 16, Dallas is under a shelter-in-pace order until at least May 15, I’ve left the house a total of six times in the last month (all necessary) and I wrote most of this in the wee hours of the morning one night as I stayed up waiting to be the first in line to buy toilet paper at the supermarket because there was still a run on the stuff. (Because apparently a major symptom of coronavirus is raging diarrhea.) I hope you all are still washing your hands and staying home.
Anyway.
Welcome back to Jacob’s Letter, a free pop culture newsletter full of puns and occasional badly-PhotoShopped dog photos.
Remember when I said I was going to do more newsletters about niche topics? Here’s the first one, all about why I love 90s grunge rock band Pearl Jam, in honor of the recent release of their 11th studio album “Gigaton.” This newsletter will have a review of the new album, my personal album ranking and song rankings and some other fun thoughts. As always, thanks for reading!
Anger with a side of hope
“Gigaton,” Pearl Jam’s first album in seven years, teems with the most life the band has shown since 1996’s “No Code.” That album was where the band fully stepped outside of its grunge roots to start on their way to becoming the rock band they’re known as today, and the varied styles and sounds on that album heavily influenced the experimental “Gigaton.” They’re back, they’re more pissed than they’ve ever been — but they’re also finding comfort in hope for a better future.
The new album is named for the unit of measurement for the amount of greenhouse gases — 1 billion metric tons, or one gigaton — that will be in the earth’s atmosphere by 2030, as well as the amount of ice scientists say will be gone from the globe’s largest ice sheets. The album art is full of photographs from nature photographer Paul Nicklen, including the ice sheet above. Yes, it’s a political album — all of Pearl Jam’s albums are, as is all art — but it’s more thoughtful and more subtle than they have been in the past. The only explicit references to the current political situation we’re living in come in “Quick Escape,” where frontman Eddie Vedder paints a picture of a world so destroyed we had to go to Mars to “find a place Trump hadn’t f***ed up yet”; and in the acoustic “Seven O’Clock,” where Vedder mourns for the planet and laments having “Sitting Bullshit as our sitting president.” Surface-level observations, to be sure, but it’s better than “Bu$hleaguer,” which was sung as smugly as it looks.
But the album is not all doom and gloom. The band could not have possibly known what situation the world would be in on March 27 when this album was released, but listening to the eerily prescient lyrics is comforting during this pandemic. Opener “Who Ever Said,” written by Vedder, is a nice middle-ground rocker that preaches progress amid turmoil: “Who ever said it’s all been said, gave up on satisfaction.” Even in “Seven O’Clock”s acoustic dirge, there is still a glimmer of hope. On paper, the ending lyrics “Much to be done” look defeated; when sung in Vedder’s plaintive baritone, they sound aspirational.
Elsewhere, “Superblood Wolfmoon,” also written by Vedder, is a straight-away rocker that fits the band’s 21st-century output, sounding right at home with “Johnny Guitar” and “Lightning Bolt.” That song also has some wisdom nestled in there, too, a reminder to enjoy life now: “But the world kept a spinning, always felt like it was ending, and love notwithstanding we are each of us f***ed.”
First-time producer Josh Evans took over from Brendan O’Brien and figured out how to get Vedder and Co. collaborate on something that’s not just a routine walk in the park again. Pearl Jam isn’t really known as a studio album band anymore. Rabid fans have ensured the band’s touring success, and concerts can reach Deadhead or Phish levels of devotion. Oftentimes a lackluster song on an album will become a great addition to a live setlist (that’s most of “Backspacer” and “Lightning Bolt”). Somehow, this album sounds cohesive as its own thing and a great addition to a live show, whenever that show may happen.
Lead single “Dance of the Clairvoyants” is the biggest sonic departure for the band here, as bassist Jeff Ament works the keys and Matt Cameron’s drum progression pushes the song to something close to a Talking Heads tribute. Then Vedder’s growl approximating David Byrne shows up and brings it all the way home. (Side note: I’ve gotten really into Talking Heads as a result of this song, and have now watched their concert doc “Stop Making Sense” three times while staying at home. It is a joy.)
“Clairvoyants” was the first sign this album would show some more life than their last two efforts, and it worked. That attitude carries over into “Alright,” written by bassist Jeff Ament, which starts off with an electronic piano riff, and the short, irregularly-structured “Buckle Up,” written by guitarist Stone Gossard.
The highlight for me is album closer “River Cross,” which wouldn’t be out of place on Vedder’s solo “Into the Wild” soundtrack. Rousing, quiet and moving all at once, Vedder plays a pump organ while Evans plays more keys and Ament plays the kalimba. It all builds to a crescendo as it ends with Vedder singing “Look around at the promise now, here and now…shine the light, won’t hold us down.”
Again, there’s that hope. Pearl Jam is the last remaining, fully intact band from a Seattle grunge scene that included Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and Layne Staley. They’re not the same angry people who wrote “Leash” or “Jeremy” but they’re still mad and still mourning for a world that caused three of their peers to take their own lives. They’ve grown up, and grown into a band that can channel that anger into something hopeful. With “Gigaton,” they finally have an outlet to do that.
Why I love Pearl Jam
Everyone’s got that one band or artist they became fans of a long time ago and still love. Pearl Jam is mine. I own all their studio albums and an unhealthy amount of concert bootlegs. I’m a member of the Ten Club. I’ve only seen them once, but the one show I did see was amazing.
I think the first PJ song I heard was “Alive” on O’ahu’s STAR 101.9 alternative rock station. I was maybe 13, 14 at the time, way past when that song was at its peak popularity. A few years later, it would show up with “Even Flow” on “Guitar Hero,” further cementing its place in the mainstream rock canon.
But I was hooked from the get-go, especially when that final “Who answeeeerss” goes into Mike McCready’s guitar wail. From then I found “Ten” and a lot of Vedder’s solo work, and worked my way up to the present from there. In Dec. 2006, the band opened for U2 in Honolulu at the Neil Blaisdell Arena. I didn’t get to go, but I did see Vedder at Jack Johnson’s Kōkua Festival in 2007, which was where my full obsession with the band began. (The story of that show is linked above, but the actual review it’s attached to got cut off, because of a CMS upgrade at the Statesman a few years ago. Always make PDFs of your articles, kids.)
Vedder did acoustic versions of “Better Man,” “Hide Your Love Away” and a few others, and I was more enraptured by the skinny bearded wine-drunk dude with the scratchy voice than I was by Johnson. I asked for the greatest hits compilation album “Rearviewmirror” for my 16th birthday, and it was over. Pearl Jam’s music has been a go-to soundtrack for me for so many parts of my life, good and bad. They also made me look at more of the bands that influenced them namely The Who and Neil Young.
I think, more than the fact that I genuinely do like all of their music (even the lackluster efforts and even the more thoughtful, acoustic stuff) and the nostalgia value of finding the first band I liked that was because of my own musical tastes and not my family’s, I love this band because of its fan community. I’ve met some good friends over a shared love of this band. Even most of the online communities built around being a Pearl Jam fan are decent, welcoming communities. And finally being able to attend a show in New Orleans in 2016 with Taylor and some of those friends I made because of the band was one of the highlights of the last few years.
May we all find some music or some songs that bring us that much joy to hear.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 against 1: PJ albums, ranked*
Ten- An album of front-to-back killer tracks. This one also set the standard for thoughtful, moody closers (“Release”) that would set the band apart from many of their contemporaries.
Vs.- The band’s sophomore album is angry and full of piss and vinegar with a lot to prove. With “Daughter” and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” it also contains two of the more tender songs in the band’s repertoire.
No Code- As stated above, this is where the band started to sonically experiment a bit more. The drums here are worldly, the sounds range from blues to punk to grunge to balladry, and the thematic material is all a bit less angry and more contemplative. The opening one-two punch of the quiet “Sometimes” into the rocking “Hail, Hail” is this album in a nutshell.
Yield- Some of my favorite individual songs. “Given to Fly,” “Wishlist,” “Do the Evolution.”
Vitalogy- Yes, this one has “Better Man,” “Not For You,” “Corduroy” and “Nothingman.” It also has a lot of ones I skip, like “Bugs,” “Satan’s Bed” and the confounding ending track “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me.”
Riot Act- I have more love than most for Pearl Jam’s second album from the Bush administration. “Love Boat Captain,” “You Are” and “Save You” are all straight-up rock songs that don’t get mentioned a lot, and “I Am Mine” and “Thumbing My Way” shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
Avocado- This is the first studio album the band put out after I became a big fan. It’s self-titled, but known as the Avocado album because of the album art, which is just an avocado. It’s a loose concept album about the Iraq War, and it’s full of some devastating songs about that period in time, namely “Severed Hand,” “Inside Job,” “World Wide Suicide” and “Come Back.” It’s toward the bottom of this ranking but it’s definitely better than its reputation among fans.
Binaural- Maybe the one that gets talked about the least. It’s off-putting and the recording style (two audio tracks, hence the name) means that it’s best experienced with a good pair of headphones instead of a stereo. Still, a lot of the songs used got new life as a part of the “Lost Dogs” rarities album. The tour for this album would also include the infamous Roskilde Festival show, where nine people in the audience died and dozens were injured when some people fell in the crowd.
Backspacer- A tight, 37-minute rock album that’s just the band having fun and not much else. It’s fun to listen to and includes later set list staples “Got Some,” “Just Breathe” and “Unthought Known,” but there’s not a lot for the band to say.
Lighting Bolt- Despite “Sirens,” “Mind Your Manners,” and “Infallible,” this is the band on autopilot, making songs for the setlist. But PJ on autopilot is better than none at all.
*Gigaton isn’t ranked because it’s too early to tell.
Spin the black circle: Top 10 PJ songs, ranked
Release- Gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it years ago, and it still does now. Rumor has it that Vedder did a soundtrack album for “Out of the Furnace” that leaned heavily on a lot of the times in this song. He scrapped it because the songs were supposedly too personal. What an album that would’ve been. The movie still used the song in the opening credits.
Wishlist- “I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me” is a good lyric to remember at all times, but especially now.
Alive- See above. Pure PJ bliss.
Yellow Ledbetter- The lyrics make no dang sense. Vedder changes the lyrics most of the time live, and depending on his state of inebriation, just mutters gibberish like the rest of us. But it’s so much fun to just yell along to with the windows down on a nice summer day.
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town- When I first heard “Rearviewmirror,” I gravitated more to the quieter stuff I hadn’t heard before. This is a go-to karaoke song for me, and powerful in its simplicity.
Black- Apologies to my parents for blaring this all the time. It’s moody and the perfect break-up song. But that’s why it’s got staying power.
Given to Fly- Cathartic, euphoric, and a possibly thinly-veiled reference to Jesus. So, basically, made for me.
Do the Evolution- One of their most righteously angry songs, yet it’s still a jam.
Corduroy- Seeing this live in New Orleans in 2016 was just fantastic.
Come Back- If you have doubts about the Avocado album, listen to this song. The lyrics are haunting.
Present Tense- A bedrock of a song for me in a time when I had no clue what I would be doing or become. I ended up writing an opinion column about it at the paper I was working at at the time.
Letter of Recommendation
If you want to check out other stuff about Pearl Jam, I recommend:
“PJ20,” a documentary directed by Cameron Crowe (“Almost Famous”) released on the 20th anniversary of the band. It’s clearly made by a fan who is also a journalist, and it never gets into hero-worship mode. There’s also a big coffee table book.
“Let’s Play Two,” a concert film showcasing two shows at Wrigley Field in 2016. It’s as much about baseball and the Cubs as it is about Pearl Jam.
“5 Against 1: The Pearl Jam Story,” by Kim Neely. It’s the only biography of the band I’ve been able to find.
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This newsletter is written by me and edited by my favorite person, Taylor Tompkins. Views expressed here are my own and don’t reflect the opinions of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
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See you soon,
Jake