A Meditation on Friendship and Love
Essentially, Pearl Jam's new album Backspacer makes me want to rent a school bus and drive across the country with all my friends for a few months. Anyone up for that?
When I was in high school, Pearl Jam was the band on the scene. They represented everything good about teenage angst and rebellion. Not content with the world as is, hoping for something better. Backspacer is a very Pearl Jam album to be honest. It has that muddied sound that seems to have dogged the band since Vitalogy. And while I've always enjoyed songs the band put out in all the albums that came out after that one, there isn't one that felt as complete and perfect as their first two albums. In fact, after hearing Eddie Vedder's solo work on the Into the Wild soundtrack, I would've been perfectly content for him to focus on a solo career.
This album's not that much different from the last Pearl Jam album, to be honest. Most of the songs I really like. A few I don't. But that said, this album speaks to me a lot more than any other Pearl Jam album has that I can remember. Somehow, it's optimistic, while at the same time completely grounded and heart-breakingly bittersweet. Maybe it's just how my life's been the past year. I've been married 10 years now. A friend from college died. Other deaths have ocurred that made me question everything. And yet, here I am. Not ready to give up. Needing to keep moving on.
"The Fixer" has grown on me a lot since I first heard it last month, and I really dig it's attitude. "When something's gone, I'm want to fight to get it back again...If there's no love, I want to try and love again." Yeah. I want to be that guy.
"Amonst the Waves" is a swelling song embracing love and life. "But I am up riding high amongst the waves, where I can feel like I have a soul that has been saved, Where I can feel like I've put away my early grave."
"Just Breathe" is my favorite by far, though. I've listened to it about 20 times in the past five days, and everytime I hear it, I think I'm going to sob. It's a reflection about life, maybe from the halfway point, about the people we love, and about what we're going to do next, because this life is so temporary. I'm getting a knot in my throat listening to it right now. The album also wraps up with "The End" which might as well be a continuation of "Just Breathe". It's a plea for love and redemption from a guy who knows the end's near, and filled with fear of what comes next, after death, and how it will affect those left behind. And when it ends, almost abrubtly and brutally, you feel like you were squeezing a friend's hand just as he moved onto the next life.
I don't think this album's going to really change anyone's opinion of Pearl Jam, but it's really well put together, and it's hitting me a lot harder than I expected to.
When I was in high school, Pearl Jam was the band on the scene. They represented everything good about teenage angst and rebellion. Not content with the world as is, hoping for something better. Backspacer is a very Pearl Jam album to be honest. It has that muddied sound that seems to have dogged the band since Vitalogy. And while I've always enjoyed songs the band put out in all the albums that came out after that one, there isn't one that felt as complete and perfect as their first two albums. In fact, after hearing Eddie Vedder's solo work on the Into the Wild soundtrack, I would've been perfectly content for him to focus on a solo career.
This album's not that much different from the last Pearl Jam album, to be honest. Most of the songs I really like. A few I don't. But that said, this album speaks to me a lot more than any other Pearl Jam album has that I can remember. Somehow, it's optimistic, while at the same time completely grounded and heart-breakingly bittersweet. Maybe it's just how my life's been the past year. I've been married 10 years now. A friend from college died. Other deaths have ocurred that made me question everything. And yet, here I am. Not ready to give up. Needing to keep moving on.
"The Fixer" has grown on me a lot since I first heard it last month, and I really dig it's attitude. "When something's gone, I'm want to fight to get it back again...If there's no love, I want to try and love again." Yeah. I want to be that guy.
"Amonst the Waves" is a swelling song embracing love and life. "But I am up riding high amongst the waves, where I can feel like I have a soul that has been saved, Where I can feel like I've put away my early grave."
"Just Breathe" is my favorite by far, though. I've listened to it about 20 times in the past five days, and everytime I hear it, I think I'm going to sob. It's a reflection about life, maybe from the halfway point, about the people we love, and about what we're going to do next, because this life is so temporary. I'm getting a knot in my throat listening to it right now. The album also wraps up with "The End" which might as well be a continuation of "Just Breathe". It's a plea for love and redemption from a guy who knows the end's near, and filled with fear of what comes next, after death, and how it will affect those left behind. And when it ends, almost abrubtly and brutally, you feel like you were squeezing a friend's hand just as he moved onto the next life.
I don't think this album's going to really change anyone's opinion of Pearl Jam, but it's really well put together, and it's hitting me a lot harder than I expected to.