Opinion:

It's too bad a progressive, honest, humanisitic group of gentlemen like Pearl Jam have no choice but to be part of the Greatest Hits package put out by the Sony Corp.

The recent decline in CD sales across the board and the nose dive of the Corporate Sponsored Live Rock world has led Sony to squeeze all they can from PJ.

When the dust clears from their affiliation with a major, I believe we will see a refreshing natural change from Eddie & the boys. This is the point in their journey when things will really open up. Maybe not the for the "masses", but for a smaller group of listeners. Hopefully, along with some of us "old timers" a younger generation will also climb aboard for the unsponsored, non-commercial ride.

Get off it. I mean really, what's a better way for new fans to get into Pearl Jam than this greatest hits album? This is a great greatest hits with songs from every album and era. It's $13.99 at Amazon for 2CD. Pearl Jam knew what they were getting into when they signed with Sony, it's not like they were some punk band tricked by an A&R guy.

I'm buying it, if for no other reason than the remastered Ten tracks (hopefully they do a deluxe version of the whole album someday and throw on some extra tracks), and in the hopes that some decent liner notes are written.

I pretty much totally agree with the first post.

Yeah, most definitely; greatest hits packages are aimed at the casual fan....and for those folks; this will be the greatest thing since sliced bread. For us hard-core fans I don't think this is as exciting of a release as say a new studio album is or the b-side compilation (Lost Dogs) was. I think when people are bashing it, it is only from a personally view, we are not excited about this....and for the first time in history, there is a Pearl Jam record coming out that most of us just don't care about. That is not to say that it is not a good thing, it's just not for most hard-core fans. Now, having said all of that, the only thing Sony has done to make me consider it, is they are releasing an LP version of the record. Being a vinyl record buff (in my mind) I may have to get it. But I doubt I will rush to buy a bunch of songs that I already own.

i'm gonna buy it regardless of my status as a hardcore old fan

i hope they sell it through the 10C cause even if its more money that is where my dollars choose to be spent. buy direct whenever possible, imho.

oh ya i think this is a great thing for new fans...even if 1 newbie picks it up and goes WOW then the job is done.

Except Pearl Jam already have 34792436762863468234984362343468684542368234 fans.

thats ok with me. the more. the merrier!! i'm simply not that selfish to want to keep them for myself. everyone should know...

It doesnt bother me at all. It was part of the deal they signed I suppose.

And don't quote me on this.. but a little bird I overheard said they may be signing with someone else soon....

I'd love to see them stay completely solo--- but it's a lot of work.

Yes, lot of work. My guess would be they'd have their own label but sign with someone for distribution....something like that.

do any o you realize HOW FREEKING GOOD SONY WAS TO PEARL JAM?!?!?!

pearl jampretty much said "go fuck yoruselves" and thats exactly what they did. not many other record labels would have allowed a band to decline virtually anything and eveyrthing they chose to. if it werent for sony, ppj would not be where they are tonight. pj owes sony. im sure it was a grat relationship.

Yeah, if the goddamn good section would ever work again.

Hi strat. I think sony was great to PJ too...they probably didn't have to let them release all those bootlegs, at such cheap prices none-the-less. Sony knew a good thing when they had it. Greatest hits record was inevitable.

Since Sony owns the rights to all those songs, it wouldn't even have to be in the original record contract to have a greatest hits. 7 studio albums is what they signed for. I'm all for a Pearl Jam greatest hits, except they left out so many good songs.. I hope this album attracts new fans, but in the end I am an elitist and it just means more people will buy tickets to shows and scream out for Jeremy or Evenflow. The setlist of the GH sucks ass, end of story.

Hey strat..

Aside from speculation, only the members of Pearl Jam or Curtis mangement can answer that question. Obviously, there was something about the relationship Pearl Jam was not happy about, or they wouldn't have opted out. They chose not to re-sign with them. Now, you saying Sony did good for Pearl Jam...sure as far as any blood sucking music executives could, I guess. Obvisouly PJ hoped for more and they have apparently been shopping for a better deal.

ok...now put down the crack pipe, dammit

ok honestly everyone who is not happy about the album,get off of it!
find a reason to get excited it's a new release from the band we all love,i'm excited if for anything the breath and solat studio recordings,plus hey it's a new pearl jam release!oh i said that already but jesus h christ,dont start whining sell out untill they start releasing greatest hits like the who!

LOL ya what's up with the bloody who and all those greatest hits cds anyways...LMAO

I'm gonna buy it just so I can add it to my collection, and I really wanna hear those remastered versions of the tracks from Ten. I really hope that it brings in more new fans too.

I agree that in a way, the giant, evil SONY was pretty good to PJ. They allowd them to slowly decline their publicity, 100s of bootlegs, their side projects (which I think I read were in their original contract) etc etc...

PLUS

The "casual fan" or "newbie" really gets a treat. If SONY went in on blindly and put no thought into it they could make the CD Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy, Black, Animal, Daughter, RVM, Betterman, Last Kiss, YLB, Who You Are and Given to Fly (and "Flannel Rain" w/ vocals haha j/k)

Thats 12 hits, they could have packaged it and had it on shelves asap. I am still not going to buy it, unless i see it for super cheap, but I think we need to be impressed with what is being offered. A double disc, spanning PJ's entire career. Its a good deal and great for the newbie

What the hell is wrong with some of you? I don't understand those of you who get all bent out of shape when you find out that Pearl Jam (or Sony in this case) is releasing something OTHER than a new studio album. Who cares?? If I must say so, I think Sony is doing one hell of a job putting it together. Stop and think about it...... a 2-disc set, ALL-NEW MIXES DONE BY FRIGGIN' BRENDAN O'BRIEN OFF TEN, the fact that it's gonna be released on VINYL, etc...... I couldn't be more excited!! Hearing songs off Ten how they actually should have sounded all these years alone will make me be the first in line to buy it. What's more, we get to hear State of Love and Trust on vinyl without having to hunt down and pay big bucks for the Singles soundtrack. Some of you use the term "greatest hits" as if you were referring to the plague. Maybe they don't need it, but if any band deserves one, it's Pearl Jam. It's these teen pop fuckers like Britney Spears who have NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER putting out greatest hits albums after only being out for what, 4 or 5 years? There's your disgrace, folks. Quit your bitching and give Rearviewmirror a chance.