The boys gain a (good) review from the Chronicle.

PEARL JAM

First off, let's talk about that avocado on the cover. There's no getting past it, is there? What does it mean? Is it a paid advertisement by the guacamole industry? Some slightly vulgar in-joke like the band's name (go on, picture what Pearl Jam might look like in your head)? Or just another example of bad Photoshop work? Ponder that for a moment while we examine the music inside. The good news is the second most famous Seattle band ever seems to have finally grown out of its difficult experimental phase, marked by endless, tuneless jams, Eddie Vedder's incessant groaning and a deluge of terrible live albums. At first glance, the group's self-titled eighth album feels like a throwback to its first, 1991's "Ten," which sold 9.4 million copies in the United States and gave birth to slog-rock bands like Creed, Staind and just about every aspiring rocker that has ever appeared on "American Idol." New songs such as "World Wide Suicide" and "Big Wave" are lean, loud and surprisingly free of the bluster that tanked the quintet's previous album, 2002's "Riot Act." Pearl Jam seems to have rediscovered its metal roots while coming to terms with is position as a classic-rock torchbearer. The album alternates between breathless riffs and brooding ballads like "Parachutes" and "Come Back." In some ways, this better represents the band than its 2004 greatest-hits collection, "rearviewmirror," editing away the fat and flubs for a disc that fully represents what Pearl Jam stands for at every turn, even if it is doggedly morose, middle-aged and monotonous. So there you have it -- Pearl Jam, still the pits. Not that there's anything wrong with that. -- Aidin Vaziri

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/30/PKGU9GIRT61.DTL&hw=Pearl+Jam&sn=001&sc=1000

"metal roots". I resent that. Yuck. The Chronicle sucks

maybe if there was a song about gay marriage on teh album the Chronicle would like to get behind it.