The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Pearl Jam

[#] Pearl Jam (2006)

Cool, but why the avocado?

Reviewed November 20, 2021

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read my first impressions, or read on for how they might have changed.)

Usually considered Pearl Jam's return to form after spending the prior decade on sonic walkabout, 2006's self-titled album reminds you of why you liked them to begin with. This is an expertly-crafted slow burn rock record from a couple of giga-rockstars eight of them in, their strengths with a good riff remembered and their propensity towards being middle American town criers firmly intact. The production is natural and crunchy (no awkward attempts to fit into Ten's oversized stadium sound here), the band go at a variety of speeds, punky on "Comatose" and mournful and agonized on "Come Back", and Eddie Vedder's voice is plenty weathered but still in fine form. It's not perfect, and it'll take you a few tries to fully appreciate, but it's a rewarding record from a matured rock outfit if that's what you're in the mood for.

This was 2006, and the war in Iraq was on every American's mind, most of all Pearl Jam's. Sometimes, like "World Wide Suicide"'s groovy cry against war and hysteria, it works (other times, like when Eddie sticks it to a teenage girl whose father has been enlisted on "Army Reserve", it's a little hideous). Interestingly enough, it's when the record turns personal and inwards—"Gone"'s tale of escaping small town poverty, "Inside Job"'s backwards guitarscapes and epiphanies and pledges of inner growth—that it works the best. Hell, my favorite song on here, "Life Wasted", isn't some rallying cry about soldiers. It's about the feelings you get driving home from a friend's funeral.

Essential:	"Life Wasted", "World Wide Suicide", "Gone"
Quintessential:	"Marker in the Sand"
Non-Essential:	"Unemployable"
Rating:
Further listening:	Pearl Jam's Rediscovering entry