(Not a review of the ball of burning gas that heats our solar system, but a review of the new album by The Sun newspaper. )

The furious five
By SIMON COSYNS

PEARL JAM’S heady mix of wasted grunge and straight-up hard rock has always set them apart.
Their reliable knack for weaving in radio-friendly hooks arguably made them America’s premier band of the Nineties.

Debut album Ten and the follow-up Vs are stone-cold classics.

There’s no doubting singer Eddie Vedder’s incredible range . . . he’s the master of raw, lacerating howls and equally of cracked, down-tempo balladry.

Now into their 16th year, Pearl Jam are an institution.

If they’re in a mind to tour, vast stadium after vast stadium awaits.

But, and it’s a big but, they leave this particular listener cold more often than not.

They can seem relentlessly bleak, oddly detached.

Frankly, their mainstream “American” sound can make them quite an unappealing prospect to someone forever smitten by Nirvana, Pixies and The White Stripes.
So it was with some trepidation that I approached Pearl Jam’s self-titled eighth studio album, their first since 2002’s Riot Act.

It proved to be a case of “O ye of little faith.”

What a revelation it is. The bleakness remains but there’s real fire in their bellies this time out.
Like soulmate Neil Young, who’s set to rush release an anti-war album, this bruising collection finds the band railing against the woes of the world in general — and Bush’s America in particular.
The band say: “We’ve got all the instruments going full force, yet co-existing.
It’s like we took our aggressions and shaped something positive from them in a very direct manner.
“Though we’d qualify most of the record as hard-driving, the two quiet ones (Parachutes and Come Back) could be our best attempts yet at pulling the disguises off of loss of life, and even love.”

From the opening notes of Life Wasted, you pick up the angry mood of this album.
It’s an earthquake start with wave upon wave of towering riffs crashing across the first four songs.

World Wide Suicide conjures up nightmarish visions of manmade hell.

Comatose appears to offer the only escape route. Severed Hand maintains the relentless pace.

A little relief comes with Marked In The Sand, a spiky narrative making way for a Springsteenesque chorus.

The aforementioned Parachutes is a waltzy acoustic comedown.

Of the album’s later tracks, the moody, bluesy Come Back finds Vedder giving one of his most affecting vocals on a song about love and loss.

In all, this raging album proves Pearl Jam can be a relevant, vital force in 2006 . . . something I didn’t think possible before hearing these 13 tracks.

Scorched-earth rock never sounded so good.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2006190521,00.html

nice

sweet! thought it was gonna be a negative one there for a minute

wow - that's probably my favorite review so far - it was like the conversion of Paul!

Great stuff from The Soaraway Sun.

Extremely good review, not for being positive or negative, but for doing exactly what a review should do for the casual reader.

You'd think it would be obvious, God bless the Red Tops for showing the more highbrow press how it's done.

Exactly. instead of just talking bullshit like NME or the Guardian.

Yeah my mum's boyfriend brought this home with him, I was properly impressed; the Sun's not reknowned for its taste in anything except wanton nationalism and jingoism, so needless to say I was mightily surprised!

It's always nice to read reviews that talk about the songs

the music section of the Sun is really good. their top 50 albums of last year was excellent, not mainstream shit like u think the Sun would promote.

It would be nice if the rest of the paper was of a similar quality.

That it would.

This guy nailed it, but what I would say, and I have noticed it with many of the reviews, there are some terrific songs towards the end of the album which not everyone has praised.
It's as though they only listened to the first half of the album.
Good review though.

Page 3 ain't half bad either.

The Sun is such a bad paper. There is nothing factual in there what-so-ever... It's a trash paper full of celebrity junk. Ergh... Hate it. The naked girls, OK, that's awesome but its a rag...

Anyway, doesnt he say someone forever smitten with "Nirvana, Pixies and White Stripes" like they are undiscovered underground gems? Dude, these bands are played on radio and TV daily, much, much more than PJ...

Trying to be cool by name checking "indy" band who arent actually indy doesnt work.

The review is good though, wouldnt expect that from the Sun, but I have just worken up...