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 Post subject: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:15 pm 
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As news keeps breaking on the new album, we expect a lot more people logging in to find album news, so we'll keep a clean thread of news items at the top here. If we've missed something, PM a mod.

conoalias wrote:
Title: Backspacer
Release date: September 20, 2009
Producer: Brendan O'Brien

Artwork: - by Tom Tomorrow
Image

Track-list: Announced via Ten Club Presale (7/13/09)

1. Gonna See My Friend (Vedder)
2. Got Some (Vedder/Ament)
3. The Fixer (Vedder/Cameron)
4. Johnny Guitar (Vedder/Cameron/Gossard)
5. Just Breathe (Vedder)
6. Amongst The Waves (Vedder/Gossard)
7. Unthought Known (Vedder)
8. Supersonic (Vedder/Gossard)
9. Speed Of Sound (Vedder)
10. Force Of Nature (Vedder/McCready)
11. The End (Vedder)


http://www.pearljamonline.it/curiosit%E ... bumeng.htm


Quote:
Previous working titles or unreleased tracks?

- Shift (written by Stone Gossard & Matt Cameron)
- Dust (written by Mike McCready)
- Forward Thinking (written by Stone Gossard)
- In The Time Of Man (written by Ed Vedder)
- Cigarette Song Part I (written by Vedder)
- Cigarette Song Part II (written by Vedder)
- Agree To Disagree (Pearl Jam)
- High Crime (Pearl Jam)
- Yonder (Pearl Jam)

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 Post subject: Re: NEW ALBUM - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:17 pm 
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Mike McCready wrote:
-The band wrote most of the music with Brendan O’Brien, but without Ed, in LA. They tightened it up, then Ed came in about halfway through to add to it.
- The band has just received final mix of the new album and are reviewing it.
- They hope to release the new album later this year - not end of year, more like fall.

http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/05/mik ... tle-radio/



James McMahon wrote:
I’m sat in a PR’s hotel room at The Edgewater listening to the new Pearl Jam record - a release form I’ve just signed means that I can’t tell you the song titles, while it doesn’t even have a name yet. Yet what I can tell you, it’s that it’s ever, ever so punchy. Eddies vocals sound more honeyed than raspy and there’s a ballad stuck right in the middle that’s just him and a guitar, but is absolutely drenched in strings. There’s hardly any guitar leads either…

http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/05/u-j ... he-new-pj/

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 Post subject: Re: NEW ALBUM - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:07 pm 
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The full blog review ...



Monday, May 18, 2009

The new Pearl Jam album

I'm sat in a PR's hotel room at The Edgewater listening to the new Pearl Jam record - a release form I've just signed means that I can't tell you the song titles, while it doesn't even have a name yet. Yet what I can tell you, it's that it's ever, ever so punchy. Eddies vocals sound more honeyed than raspy and there's a ballad stuck right in the middle that's just him and a guitar, but is absolutely drenched in strings. There's hardly any guitar leads either - personally I'm a fan of that anti-alt-rock thing* and I'd like to see them bust some more of that stuff out. But as collections of garage-y rock go, it's not like you miss them...

( *What I mean by that, is that I never cared much about all the accusations that Pearl Jam were corporate cock rock - I always liked them because they were corporate cock rock (not that a band who've spent all but two of their years trying to sabotage their status as one of the biggest rock bands on the face of the planet could be described thus anymore). Just as some of my favourite music is righteous indie rock - Fugazi, Beat Happening, Bikini Kill - some of my favourite music - AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine, Guns 'N Roses - is corporate cock rock. It's a genre I most definitely enjoy...)

Y'know, it's hard to make sense of records when you've only heard them once, and the view from the hotel window (sea, seabirds, boats and far off mountains) is kinda distracting - I wonder what it'll sound like on a wet, shitty morning in east London? But while I'd like to hear it again - aye, first impressions are promising.

Posted by James McMahon at 1:48 AM

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 Post subject: Re: NEW ALBUM - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:05 pm 
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http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/exc ... 8374.story

Exclusive: Pearl Jam Confirms Target Tie-Up

Pearl Jam was indeed recording a Target commercial under the direction of Cameron Crowe last week at Seattle's Showbox theater, Billboard can confirm. But there's more to the story than an exclusive retail relationship

While it has been known that Pearl Jam are no longer under contract after 18 years of recording for Sony-affiliated labels, there has been only speculation about who would release their next album and how. Kelly Curtis, who has managed Pearl Jam since day one, conducted a wide-ranging interview with Billboard on Sunday night, confirming that the band's next release - rumored to be called "Backspacer" and currently scheduled for an early fall release - would come without a U.S. label, but a consortium of partners, including Target as the "big box" retail partner.

"We'll have a lot of partners," said Curtis, who confirmed that deals were also finished or in the works with an online retailer, a mobile partner, a gaming company and with a network or possibly networks of indie retail stores. "Target ended up allowing us to have other partners. We'll be able to take care of all levels of the Pearl Jam fan...We wish we could tell the whole story right now, but all the deals aren't done. Target was cool enough to realize that little independent record stores are not their competition." Curtis was also quick to note that the album would be for sale via Pearl Jam's fan club, Ten Club.

News of the Target commercial taping first broke last week on antiquiet.com, which is also hosting a bootleg recording from the Target taping of a song that Curtis confirmed was called "The Fixer." While a first single hasn't been definitively chosen from the new album yet, the song is in the running. An official first single will likely be released in July.

Curtis said that the Target commercial was only one reason for the Showbox session; with singer Eddie Vedder on tour supporting his solo work for the next month, "we had a narrow window to get some footage," says Curtis. "We shot three or four songs that night." Curtis said that some of the footage may be used for a project that Cameron Crowe is working on in connection to the band's 20th anniversary.

Pearl Jam will play at least one new song tonight on the debut of "The Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien. "That was booked months ago," said Curtis. "We didn't even know if the album was going to be finished when we booked it. It isn't like we're releasing a single after the show or anything." And while blogs are rampant with speculation that the band will play "The Fixer," Curtis said the band was still kicking around "two or three songs, all of them new" to perform.

Curtis also confirmed that the band would tour to support this latest album, and that internationally, the album would be released via Universal Music Group.

"I make decisions around the band's business that are consistent with their overall philosophy," said Curtis, "which is to sell music in a way that's accessible and affordable to their fans, on every distribution platform that their fans access music, and in a way that takes care of the little guys.

Everyone's making assumptions because Target is a big corporation," said Curtis. "Its important to remember we just got out of this 18 year relationship with Sony, and I'm pretty sure they are a bigger corporation than Target. We have the freedom to pick our partners and more control when we've ever had before. We're excited to choose who we're in business with."

Curtis says it was important to him and to the band to redefine the notion of an "exclusive" retail partnership. "I appreciate the efforts of bands like AC/DC and Radiohead," says the manager, alluding to two of the bands that have self-released albums recently. "But I wanted our plan to be multi-dimensional to address old and modern ways of fans accessing music. It will allow all of our fans to have the same access."

"This is an ongoing experiment," said Curtis. "Every time we do something it's new for us, and were not trying to tackle the whole world at once. All we've been searching for forever is independence and control over our own stuff. The way of releasing records is changing every day. This is the best way we could do it ourselves in America. Right or wrong, we'll figure that out and make it better the next time."

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/22/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:44 pm 
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http://thismodernworld.com/4774

Tom Tomorrow wrote:
So, one of the things I’ve been keeping busy with over the past few months, along with finishing up the children’s book, has been working on some artwork for Pearl Jam. Had to stay quiet about it until now, and I still can’t say too much about it, but I do want to note that the image that Conan held up tonight was only part of a greater whole — it wasn’t the finished album cover. And apart from saying that working with the band has been an utterly fantastic experience, that’s probably most of what I can share at this point.

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/22/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:47 pm 
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http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/06/pearl-jam-to-re.html

Pearl Jam to release new album via partnership with Target
Jun 1, 2009, 06:16 PM | by Whitney Pastorek

Rumors started over the weekend on sites like Antiquiet and Stereogum that Pearl Jam had staged a secret show at Seattle's Showbox theater Thursday night, where they shot a Target commercial with longtime buddy and filmmaker Cameron Crowe. After an interview with Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis, EW can confirm that the band has established a partnership with Target for the release of their next record, currently titled Backspacer, which is tentatively slated to drop September 22.

Curtis, who is in Los Angeles preparing for the band's appearance on the premiere of Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show this evening, says he wishes this information could have stayed in the can a bit longer: "We wanted to announce this when we could talk about everything, who our partners are," he tells Music Mix. "It's not just via Target. They're obviously the big retail chain that we love and adore that's going to release this record. We're also going to release it through our fan club, and Target was cool enough to allow us to pick up little indie [stores], too. They're taking care of the little guy. The little guy is not their competition."

The Thursday night show was indeed a shoot with Crowe: Possible first single "The Fixer" was filmed for the Target ad, and three other tracks (including a cover of band fave "Sonic Reducer") may appear on additional materials for online or European release. Despite the fact that the audience was made up of paid extras -- "There's a lot of unemployed actors in Seattle," says Curtis, "and we wanted to go through all the proper unions and make sure everyone got paid" -- and that all those in attendance signed non-disclosure agreements, word of the Target partnership leaked out via blog posts and Twitter, causing some predictable cries of "selling out" and "hypocrisy" from the usual corners of the net. Curtis, while not thrilled by this turn of events, feels it was inevitable. "Some story was going to come out regardless -- we wanted to at least be able to confirm that it’s not what you think it is. If something is talked about and it's wrong, it just becomes fact."

The new album marks the first to be self-released by the band, who were signed to Sony for the past 18 years. (2006's eponymous avocado album was released by J Records, a Sony subsidiary.) "When we decided we were going to release this record ourselves in America," Curtis says, "we removed that whole layer of the record company. And by the way, [the record company is] a bigger frickin' corporation than Target is. They owned our music and owned our masters. Now we own everything, and control everything, and we're choosing who we want to be partners with. Who will allow us the freedom to pick the kind of people we want to work with? Target was the only one out of all those [big chain] guys that was forward-enough thinking to allow us to think outside the box." Along with making the record available at small independent retailers, Curtis also hints at a cell-phone partnership, and says some green and charity initiatives are in the works.

When asked why the band -- whose anti-corporate stance has, whether perceived or real, become part of their identity over the past two decades -- chose to team up with a big-box retailer rather than following the Radiohead or Trent Reznor models of direct self-release, Curtis says, "With all due respect to everybody, everybody's trying to figure this out, right? I think it's really important to us to be able to have a level playing field, so everybody has access. So it's not just people with computers. It's people that go to Target, it's people that go online, it's people who might want to hear it on their cell phone, it's people who want to go through the fan club.

"This is all an experiment. We're trying to figure it out. It's changing all the time, and this is the best way to do it ourselves that we can think of. By the time we put out our next record it could be completely different, or, you know, all those things will fail and we'll go back with our hat in our hands and beg for our jobs back at Sony." He laughs. "I doubt that. It's not an exact science. And people need to relax just a little bit. We're doing the best we can."

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/22/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:52 pm 
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http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/06/upcoming-album-track-listing-published/

Upcoming Album Track Listing Published
by: Kathy Davis
June 22, 2009

Image
Visions mag scan from Skyvalley123 (via Message Pit and Bugs)

The Pearl Jam world is ablaze with news about the track listing published in German magazine Visions July 2009 issue. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already seen the track list, but here’s an overview of the news and information that is surfacing about “Backspacer”, Pearl Jam’s upcoming 11 song, 39 minute long album.

Stephan from Bugs translates from Visions magazine:

THE NEW PEARL JAM: HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT

Four mountain ridges, a canyon, a copious green valley, a steep rock, a jungle, veld - and an almost punchline ending. Pearl Jam’s ninth studio album “Backspacer” is the first one since “Yield” that has been produced by Brendan O’Brien.

See My Friend: Pearl Jam as you expect them today: straight rock, strong lyrics, hands-on and aggressive. Rolling Stone Magazine discussed this in their Feb. 19, 2009 article: One song, a garage-y composition by Vedder, repeats the lyric “see my friends” over Stooges-meet-the-Who power chords and loose, Johnny Thunders-inspired lead guitar from Mike McCready.

Got Some: Also rock, also straight and almost angry but with some distinctive guitar licks by Mike McCready. Track was performed live on Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien June 1, 2009

The Fixer: The first highlight. A tight, almost classic rock tune but clever at the same time. Slightly odd, and with cool vocal melodies and rhythms this track is a mini anthem. Performed for Target commercial shot by Cameron Crowe at The Showbox in Seattle May 29, 2009. Title confirmed by Kelly Curtis in Billboard Magazine article of June 1, 2009

Johnny Guitar: Fortunately not as bland as the title suggests. Also a rocker, but with a remarkable amount of lyrics and sincerity. Grows above average but still a very classical tune.

Just Breathe: The first break and a moment to take some breath. Lovely acoustic ballad. The fingers fly over the fret board, an unobtrusive string arrangement and lyrics about love - mature, wonderful, terrific vocal delivery.

Amongst The Waves: Finally there’s not only pushing forward but in all directions with a song that tries to reach the sky. The positive build-up reminds of “Given To Fly” as well as the fact that you just can’t point at the root of “Amongst The Waves” (Is it the lyrics? guitars? drums?).

Unthought Known: First very climatic, then a passionate mid-tempo rock song. A slightly blurry ending but still more palpable than anything off the last album. Track performed live by Ed Vedder on his 2008 solo tour in New Jersey- August 7, Montreal- August 10, Washington, D.C.- August 16

Supersonic: The obligatory wild song that you can find on every Pearl Jam album since “Vitalogy”. Almost cheerful, driven by Matt Cameron’s fast pace, in the beginning reminiscent of Soundgarden. But Soundgarden were better at creating those angular bundles of energy. Though likely unrelated, the Seattle Supersonics were an NBA basketball team from 1967-2008. The word itself means “faster than the speed of sound”, which coincidentally is the title of the next album track.

Speed Of Sound: Exotic. A strange pop song with a different sound than the rest of the album and its clear-cut production. Still: piano, tingling, suspense…

Force Of Nature: A rock song like a Pearl Jam concert: An innocent beginning, but it grows naturally and expands and has you totally in its grip before you know it.

The End: The second acoustic song and to be taken literally. One of the strongest ballads by the band since a long time, amongst other things because its urgency manifests in Vedder’s vocals. Even the end of the end needs a worthy ending. Track performed live by Ed Vedder on his 2009 solo tour in Philadelphia - June 12, Baltimore-June 14, Nashville- June 18

The magazine lists September 18 as the release date; perhaps this is the European date with September 22 Short album, you say? It doesn’t need to have a long running time to be brilliant. If you had a chance to pickup R.E.M.’s latest release, last years ”Accelerate”, it should help convince you that short, sweet and to the point is sometimes a better way to go -”Accelerate” turned out to be a perfect return to form, and clocks in at 34 minutes with it’s 11 tracks. The new U2, No Line On The Horizon = 11 tracks, 53 minutes. The boys are keeping good company.

Thanks to: B. Smith; Stephan, Valerio and Dennis from Bugs

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/22/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:20 am 
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First single, The Fixer, becomes available on July 20th.
http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/07/the ... y-july-20/

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/22/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:15 pm 
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Release date of Sunday (?), September 20th.

Quote:
In support of their anticipated new release, Backspacer, in stores September 20th, Pearl Jam will be spending some time back on the road, with a series of select North American tour dates.


http://www.tenclub.net/news/pearl-jam-a ... backspacer

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/20/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:40 pm 
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Mike Interview:
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news ... ll-record/

Quote:
Pearl Jam plan to release their ninth studio album, entitled Backspacer, through Universal on September 22. Coming in at a tight 36 minutes (!?!-KD) the record has been produced by Brendan O’Brien, who last worked with the band on 1992’s (1998-KD) Yield.
Among the songs set for inclusion are The Fixer, Got Some, See My Friend, Just Breathe, The End, Supersonic and Amongst The Waves.

“I’d sum it up as kind of a tight, concise, rock’n’roll record with kind of pop or maybe new wave elements to it,” guitarist Mike McCready told Classic Rock. “It’s a really quick record, but I like that element to it. I like the sparseness of the songs and the way that Brendan pulled us together and made us play as good as we could.”

McCready joined with guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron for some initial writing sessions at Ament’s house in Montana last year, before taking the ideas back to Seattle and singer Eddie Vedder, who brought in a batch of his own tunes too. At Brendan O’Brien’s suggestion, the album was recorded in LA.

“[When] we got together with Ed and it really started getting more cohesive, we took that momentum down to Los Angeles with Brendan,” says McCready. “It was a great idea to get us out of Seattle. You’ve gotta get out your comfort zone, and we’ve talked about doing that for the past ten years and kind of haven’t, so we trusted Brendan’s judgment.”


Pearl Jam will play two UK shows this year, at Manchester MEN Arena on August 17 and London 02 August 18.
Director Cameron Crowe has begun work on a Pearl Jam movie, tentatively set for release in 2011 to coincide with the band’s 20th anniversary celebrations.

“We have thousands of hours of footage of ourselves, going back maybe even to our first show,” says McCready. “We’ve known Cameron forever and we just trust him. He’s a rocker. He was on the road with Zeppelin. We hope to put up a cool movie of our highlights and lowlights.”

– Jon Hotten

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 Post subject: Re: BACKSPACER (09/20/09) - Official News and Reviews
PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:58 pm 
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Ten Club Pre-Sale magically begins:

Image

The Fixer/Got Some: $5.99 (+ $8.50 S&H), 7" White vinyl 45 rpm record. Street date 8/24. We'll get it to you as close to then as possible. Item must be purchased separately.

Backspacer Ten Club/Indie Package CD: $13.99, Hard-bound book style jacket ala the Avocado package. Street date 9/20. We'll do our best to have it to you by then. Order before 9/1 and get free shipping in the U.S.

Backspacer Vinyl: $19.98 (+ $7.50 S&H), 180-gram vinyl. 24-page full-sized (11.75" x 11.75") full-color booklet, Original art by Tom Tomorrow (This Modern World). Release date 9/20. We'll do our best to deliver to you by then.

Tracklist: 1. Gonna See My Friend 2. Got Some 3. The Fixer 4. Johnny Guitar 5. Just Breathe 6. Amongst The Waves 7. Unthought Known 8. Supersonic 9. Speed Of Sound 10. Force Of Nature 11. The End

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 Post subject: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:55 pm 
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Backspacer

To jump right to the end, Pearl Jam knocked this one out of the park. It’s obviously way too early to tell how these songs will age (S/T did not age well), and what will strike a long term chord once the novelty wears off, but for the first time in a LONG time (if I exclude the art tracks in Vitalogy this would go all the way back to Ten for me) Pearl Jam has released a record where every song is pretty good to great. They flow together beautifully, and the band almost never misses a note. Even the songs that I don’t love do what they’re supposed to do—it’s just that what they’re supposed to do doesn’t necessarily appeal to me. It’s definitely a record by a band with a long history—almost every song harkens back in part to something that’s come before, but in a way that sounds familiar and comfortable rather than repetitive. They’re also trying enough that’s new that the record feels very fresh without really deviating much beyond the conventional 2-3 guitars, drum, bass format (BoB does do a really nice job dressing up a bunch of these songs though). The whole album has a bit of an 80s/New Wave feel to it which helps give it that feeling of newness.

I’d recommend listening to Release and In Hiding before listening to Backspacer, since both of these songs help frame what the record is trying to accomplish. More on this in a moment.

With Backspacer I think we can officially divide Pearl Jam’s career into two arcs, with Backspacer closing the second chapter. We’re all familiar with the first chapter. Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy are angry, forceful records, with betrayal as the theme uniting all three. They are rebellions against a lost inheritance, a lost promise, the corruption of love, trust, and even purity. No Code and Yield are the redemption components of that cycle. We close this chapter with Yield, but it doesn’t end the story. As we’ve seen in the records that follows, Yield’s catharsis and closure doesn’t hold. It’s not even clear that it held on during the record itself. With the exception of Given To Fly and Wishlist these are songs about running and hiding, ducking confrontation. Hell, it’s even in the title of the record, and I never noticed this until I started listening to Backspacer. Yield provides an illusion of resolution, and thinking back on this it should have been apparent as soon as we heard Binaural, which begins the second chapter of this story.

Thanks to Red Mosquito, I finally got introduced to Nick Cave, and my favorite song on his most recent record features the following verse

“Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious disease
Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions
Well, it does in your brain
And we call upon the author to explain”

Pearl Jam was always defined by confrontation, and the solution we found in Yield was never going to hold. Binaural is a closed, claustrophobic, almost haunted record. It’s trying to fight an enemy it cannot name or even see, but just about every song is trying to confront something—war, death, society, and above all else loss—without ever quite managing to get a handle on it. It’s a frightened record, in part because it resets the journey that seemed to have worked itself out in Yield. Riot Act personifies this terror in the figure of George W. Bush, and his weight oppresses that entire record, adding a burden almost impossible to bear. The band finds its footing on S/T and tries to fight back, and the conviction is there, but in retrospect (like Yield) it is the illusion of conviction, or conviction without conclusion. The willingness to fight is there, but it’s a fight that they don’t necessarily expect to win, and so the burdens are there, and the grandiose statement that is supposed to end the album ends up falling flat.

Backspacer finishes this journey. Bush is all over this record, present in the form of a conspicuous absence. Eddie said in numerous interviews that writing after Bush felt different, and we see the results here. This is a profoundly free and unburdened record, the first in what is just about a twenty year career. It’s fun (FUN?!), loose, and utterly comfortable in its own skin. It’s a victory lap. In 1991 Pearl Jam closes out Ten with Eddie begging for release. It is one of the most powerful moments in their catalogue, and incredibly cathartic, but for the listener, not for the singer. It’s a desperate wish, one that he spent 20 years waiting to be answered. There was an attempt to finally let go on Yield, but I think In Hiding really encapsulates the failure of that attempt. Even on top of the lyrics (which are about the need to escape—which is not a permanent solution since sooner or later you have to come back—you have to emerge) the feel of the song itself reveals the lie. He’s trying to convince himself that everything is fine, and the song musically is meant to be simple (compared to the much busier anthems of earlier records), but the simplicity in the end doesn’t quite work. There is still too much weight bearing down on the skeleton of this song, and he’s still suffering underneath it.

You can hear it almost from the start of Backspacer that this time is different. The world has changed, and Eddie has grown, enough that he (and the rest of the band) have finally set down their burdens. It may be that the weight of Bush is gone (I suspect his legacy will return in future records), it might be the presence of permanent joy in his life (children), or it could be something entirely different, but the person (and the band) performing on this record is just so much freer than they’ve ever been. The songs are not overlong and get right to the point. They don’t fear conclusions (although there are still too many god damned fade outs). They’re not afraid to have fun. While everyone does a great job (Matt and Jeff really shine throughout, especially) the real hero of this record is Eddie, and I think we have Into the Wild to thank for quite a bit of this. Eddie’s voice will never regain the power that it had 15 years ago, but here he’s fully embraced his talent for melody, and just about every song has such a wonderful sense of movement about it. He propels the record along with craft since he can no longer get by on power. Plus he finally commits himself to what each song truly needs, and is alternately soaring, naked, aggressive, or playful as the song requires. This is excellent work performed by an incredibly limber craftsmen.

Okay—onto the songs themselves:

Gonna See My Friend: The way this song just explodes calls to mind Brain of J or Breakerfall, but the vocal melody here is just killer (much better than those two songs, although Brain of J has a better riff), and there’s a looseness to it (not in the playing, which is tight, but the overall feel of the song) that makes it playful and celebratory in the way that those songs (which are apocalyptic and judgmental) are not. They figured out how to have Eddie use his screaming go-for-broke voice in a song that makes you smile. This is the kind of song that David Grohl has been trying and failing to write since he formed the Foo Fighters. I love the ending. Even though the obvious comparisons are to Brain of J and Breakerfall because they’re openers, you can hear a lot of Habit in this song (although this is a much better song), if habit was a celebration.

Got Some: I love how propulsive this one is right off the bat, and Matt and Jeff really shine here. A few people have commented that the song sounds a little robotic. I think I’d say thin, but I know what you mean. The slower parts of the song sound like they’re waiting to be filled in, but the song really picks up steam once it gets past the ‘got some if you need it’ parts. The backing vocals were a nice touch—understated but they make the song richer. What’s interesting here is how this manages to sound dirty and clean at the same time. Excellent outro. The beginning and the end are the best parts of the song. Overall I think this is probably the weakest of the opening 1-2-3 punch (the other two songs sound fuller) but keep that comment in context. All three tracks are very good. I wonder if supersonic would have worked better here instead of Got Some (and move Got Some to later in the record), or just have Johnny guitar serve as the third song.

Eddie’s little growl/moan/whatever it is at the beginning is pretty unnecessary. Not sure why it’s there.

The Fixer: I’ve already talked about this at length so I won’t say that much here, except to say that this, along with Amongst the Waves, one of the most important tracks on this record (that doesn’t mean it’s the best, which it isn’t). But it is very very good. Infectious, upbeat, deceptively simple (this will be one of those songs filled with little discoveries), I think even people who were not crazy about it will like it more in the context of the record. The lyrics get a lot of undeserved grief because of one clunky line, but they’re well written (complexity does not equal quality) and the help capture what’s at stake with this record—starting over, letting go, and in the process recapturing what was lost (what Yield was missing). ‘Fight to get it back again’ may be the most important lyric on Backspacer.

Johnny Guitar: I feared another Love Boat Captain with this one, and every time I listen to this I’m kinda shocked by just how good this one is. This is quite possibly the best thing Matt’s written for the band, Matt and Eddie channeling Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler. I’m not sure they could have written a song this playful and fun (these words keep coming up, but they’re the ones that make sense) before Backspacer. What’s remarkable about this song is that it’s a song about being profoundly disappointed, but instead of wallowing in it they celebrate all of our absurd fantasies. Ten years ago they tried to write light and fun and gave us U and Leatherman. Here we got Fixer and Johnny Guitar. What a difference.

On an album full of great vocal melodies this one might be the best.

Just Breathe: If the best vocal melody isn’t in Johnny Guitar it’s in the verses of Just Breathe Eddie just floats along so gracefully here. Vocally there are a few places where he’s just a touch too nasely for me, but otherwise this is an excellent vocal performance. He sounds old, but he’s not weighed down by it. He sounds delicate, but confident, lived in, but dignified.

This could have been a song that the band could have overdone, but everyone combines to make this lush instead of crowded. I hope that R.E.M. covers this someday, because this takes me back to Out of Time

Lyrically this one seems pretty strong. One of my concerns with a few post Vitalogy. Eddie lyrics is that I didn’t quite buy the wisdom he was offering—at times it could come across as trite and clichéd. He’s starting to figure out how to pull it off.

We’ve got a few songs on here dealing with death (Just Breathe, Supersonic, and The End) but they’re all animated by a sense of just how blessed the singer is, how hard it is to let go of a life as full of miracles as his has been. So this song is reflective, and content despite it all. It’s not really a goodbye as much as it is a chance to make sure everything that needs to be said gets said so there won’t be any regrets later 5 years ago this would have been Thumbing My Way, and it wouldn’t work. Imagine a lyric like ‘practice all my sins, never gonna let me win’ on Riot Act. Actually we don’t have to. It’s in All or None, but the delivery and the context completely transform the meaning.

I was apprehensive about the chorus of this song, and it is still a little overwrought (certainly the part of the song I like the least) but it works, especially since this song is ultimately a thank you to the people in his life he cares the most about. He’s entitled, and the over the topness of the beginning is softened by how well it segues back into the verses.

Amongst the Waves: A very good song that is middle of the pack for Backspacer, which speaks to the depth of this record. The simple riff at the beginning puts me in mind of In Hiding (although I like this one a lot more—better lyrics and a much better melody) but thematically it’s much closer to Given To Fly. In theory Pearl Jam should be able to write a song like this in their sleep, but for whatever reason they usually shy away from doing it. They tend to poison their mid tempo anthems so that they stay grounded (Compare Light Years to its earlier incarnation as Puzzles and Games). It’s such a relief to see them follow through on one for a change. This isn’t the best riff they’ve ever written, but the band really embraces the song and the whole thing is carried by an almost formless energy. I’ve listened to Amongst the Waves a few times now and I’m not sure I could hum the music but I know I really like what I’m hearing.

I think I could have gone for a slightly more involved outro—the best pearl jam anthems take you high and then hold you at the peak for a while. This song has that peak, but it doesn’t leave me there. Mike’s solo in the middle is pretty good, but I’m not sure how well it fits here. It sounds like it should be part of a darker song than this one.

I’m really looking forward to getting the lyrics to this one—some nice lines in what I’ve heard so far.

As an aside, in a lot of these songs the verses are catchier than the chorus (like here, for instance). Usually it’s the opposite.

Unthought Known: This may be the best song on an excellent record. It starts out simple but has that ‘Stairway to Heaven’ style build with more and more getting added as the song progresses leading to an incredible build. The very best songs (like the best experiences) will have that moment when your step quickens, your heart starts to beat faster, you can’t help but smile, and you’re just carried away on the energy of the moment. Unthought Known pulls that off. This is a classic Pearl Jam anthem in the best sense of the word, the kind that just leaves you with a feeling of release, the confidence that everything is going to be okay. Eddie and the rest of the band just let this song carry them away and this one SOARS before gently returning to earth. There are a few places where Backspacer channels the promise of Given to Fly, but it never fulfills it more than here.

There’s already been some question as to what the “Dream the dreams of other men and you’ll be no one’s rival” lyric means. On the face of it this can cut a few ways, and my first time hearing it I took it as a call for people to assert themselves, to dream. If you limit yourself to what others think of you you’ll never realize the potential within you. You’ll be no one’s rival because there will be nothing within you for others to be jealous of or threatened by. But others have argued that it should be taken as a call for empathy—imagine others as they see and understand themselves and you’ll be able to bridge the barriers that separate us. The lyric right before it “see the waves on distant shores awaiting your arrival” makes me lean towards the first interpretation, but they both work. The last lyric in the song “so whatcha giving?” works for both though. Empathy and human potential are equally worthy gifts.

Supersonic: This is the low point of the record for me, but having said that it’s still a decent song, and it answers the burning question in every Pearl Jam fan’s mind—what would have happened if Eddie had sang mankind. Now we know

The resemblance to Mankind is unfortunate, since I’m not a fan of that song and it starts the song out with a strike, but it’s a pretty good riff and the song is catchy. It’s maybe a little too slick and bright for me—too much pop punk here, but it is a fun little rave up and there are certainly parts that I find myself singing along to (Cut the crease, put the shit in the hole).

The problem is that this may be a little too light, given how weighty (which is not the same thing as burdened) the record really is from Just Breathe straight through to The End. The transition into Speed of Sound doesn’t quite work for me either. Since it’s such a short record it takes some time to build that sense of expectation and importance back up. I can’t help but feel like this is exactly what a b-side should be—fun, energetic, worth listening to on occasion, but not really belonging on the record. But to be fair to Supersonic, it’s well crafted. It just happens to be a well crafted example of a song style I don’t really go for.

The bridge is a great, bluesy mini jam that reminds me a bit of the Marker Bridge, something cool, and probably worth constructing a song around, but it doesn’t really get with the song that surrounds it.

Speed of Sound: I can’t get my mind around this one. I had gotten pretty used to the demo (which I liked but didn’t love) and this sounds so different the whole song feels sort of alien. The music adds to that as well. The song has an alt-country Off He Goes feel to it, but there’s so much busy stuff surrounding it that I find myself removed from what would other be an extremely intimate song (especially the lyrics). This song has ADD.

Thematically this one picks up where Just Breathe left off, taking stock of life and pondering mortality, trying to figure out how to just stop and enjoy what’s happening while everything is passing by so fast. The music gives the song a more frantic (as opposed to reflective) urgency then the demo had, but again it’s so cluttered I’m not quite sure what mood it’s trying to develop.

This would be second up from the bottom for me. The only song on Backspacer I like less is Supersonic, but I still like this one. I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do with this one. If you’re still reading this far you know I don’t usually have trouble talking about Pearl Jam (I may get it wrong, but I have something to say) and I’m just stymied here. I look forward to the day when this one clicks.

Force of Nature: I was really looking forward to this one, and while it did not disappoint it was not what I was expecting either. I figured this would be Amongst the Waves II, and was surprised with how muscular it ended up being. It’s got a really cool deep crunch to it. This song is bad ass, and you don’t find many bands outside of Pearl Jam who can write heavy songs like this without sacrificing lyrical depth. I’m only starting to unpack this one but I am expecting this to be the lyrical highpoint not only of this record, but possibly going all the way back to Binaural (or further). And kudos to eddie for writing an entire song about storms without ever using the word waves.

More than any song on the record this one recalls early (Ten/Vs) era Pearl Jam, for its power and its stubborn defiance, but it’s tempered by years of experience and maturity. Right now Unthought Known is my favorite thing on this record, but ask me in a month it could very easily be this one.

My favorite Mike part on the record is probably his playing during the outro


The End: This one lived up to its expectations, and this is their best closer since Immortality (sorry Parting Ways) Eddie has never sounded more vulnerable, and the juxtaposition between the immediacy of his vocals, the simplicity of the strumming, and the cinematic quality of the background orchestration is pretty stunning.
There’s more texture in Eddie’s performance here than in almost anything else he’s done. He so fully inhabits this it almost feels like spying. Almost every line has some striking inflection or moment. The way he has that deep break when he sings “slide” was my favorite until the hushed end of the song, especially the gasp underneath the final lyric. WoW
Lyrically this is the dark side of the Just Breathe/Speed of Sound/The End thematic trilogy. The music is peaceful but the performance and the lyric are desperate, begging and clinging. It’s nice to hear a song like this about NOT letting go for once. “I just want to hold on and know I’m worth your love”—what a great lyric. The highpoint of the song
But as great as this song is the most striking part of it might be the sudden stop. It’s frustrating because the song is so good but it’s how this one HAD to end, and there are worse ways a record can end than leaving you wanting more.
***
Early rankings (I’m not going to give songs 5s and I’m trying, as much as possible, to control for the new album excitement. I want to give Got Some and Amongst the Waves 4s but that might be the newness talking)

Gonna See My Friend: 4/5
Got Some: 3.5/5
The Fixer: 4/5
Johnny Guitar: 4/5
Just Breathe: 4/5
Amongst the Waves: 3.5/5
Unthought Known: 4.5/5
Supersonic: 3
Speed of Sound: 3
Force of Nature: 4.5/5
The End: 4.5/5

I tend to overvalue PJ records when they first come out since they’re so new, but I don’t know if I ever liked an album of theirs as much on the first listen. I can’t call this a masterpiece or rank it next to other albums in a meaningful way just yet, but this is an excellent record that closes a dark decade on a soaring, uplifting note—an album the band could not have written ten years ago, if ever, and one that was well worth the wait.

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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:56 pm 
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awesome.... pure awesome. every drip is sweet.

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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
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I wish I knew the acceptable code to get this...


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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:59 pm 
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incredible........

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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
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Harmless wrote:
I wish I knew the acceptable code to get this...


You and me both, man. Days like this I wish I was internet savvy.

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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:00 pm 
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How is the quality of the leak, out of curiosity?


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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:00 pm 
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so the whole album is out there????? or only a few songs?

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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:01 pm 
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Sandler wrote:
Harmless wrote:
I wish I knew the acceptable code to get this...


You and me both, man. Days like this I wish I was internet savvy.


Something tells me it isn't on Myspace or iTunes. Beyond that, I'm stuck.


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 Post subject: Re: Backspacer - The album thread!
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:01 pm 
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I'm holding out... but would like to read some detailed reviews

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