Taken from Comics101.com...

Sea Change: Wherein Josh Jabcuga gets his feet wet with the latest release from Pearl Jam and decides the album is most definitely not wishy-washy, but may be a bit murky, despite the consensus among most mainstream rock critics.

Number of tracks on Pearl Jam's self-titled new album: 12
Number of tracks with references to water, the sea, waves or crustaceans: 6
Number of tracks criticizing the Bush administration: 12?

So here I sit on a Thursday with the new PEARL JAM album in my hands, almost a full week before the official street date of the release. The album's design, resembling a slim, mini hardcover book with an avocado sliced open on the cover, is being hailed by more than one critic as the group's "best effort in ten years," and as the band making a concerted effort to do what it does best again, that being, to jam. Of course this is all just media hyperbole. Was it the great prophet Ozzy Osbourne who once proclaimed, "The media sells it and you live the role"? In this case, Pearl Jam is selling it and the media is living out their role.

See, that's the rub. For the diehard PEARL JAM fans out there, we know the band never went anywhere. The band retreated from the mainstream, shying away from the press and doing things a bit askew in terms of promotional tactics, such as not releasing videos with their counterpart singles. Or were they just ahead of their time? Where can one even find an outlet to watch music videos these days? Youtube.com? If you're lucky, you have access to VH1 Classics, but that's neither here nor there.

One might get the sense that the one-time critics' darlings are actually being courted by the critics once again, and not the other way around, which is an interesting position for any artist to be in. PEARL JAM has been making political records for longer than the press realizes. And that's one of the reasons why the band fell off the radar of so many critics and fans alike; they took on a global perspective. Instead of fighting the war from the inside-out, like in their earlier radio-friendly days with hits like "Jeremy" and "Black," they started fighting the war from the outside-in. Case in point: the musically intricate "Insignificance" from the album BINAURAL, released on May 16 of 2000, where Vedder describes a town full of "ten thousand fools" who sit on their hands idly only to be moved when the ground literally shakes somewhere, perhaps here, perhaps over there, as bombs drop down. Vedder concludes the song with a plea for forgiveness, for the hometown, with their self-perceived insignificance. The consequences of inaction can be greater than any overt threat, and sometimes silence is louder than any words.

As if taking direct aim at the ridiculous terrorist threat level warnings on CNN and Fox News (among other things, the least of which is not President Bush), Vedder sings on the album's opening track, "Life Wasted," "You're always saying that there's something wrong/ I'm starting to believe it's your plan all along/ Death came around, forced to hear its song/ And know tomorrow can't be depended on." In 2006 the truth has come out, and whether we were listening or not, we've all heard the choruses of this song. There really were no Weapons of Mass Destruction. And September 11, 2001, was the realest nightmare anyone could dream up. PEARL JAM is no longer warning us; they're no longer trying to stir up the hornets' nest, nor are they chastising us for our political bliss that we've now been forced to shake off like a snake peeling out of its skin. They're helping us pick up the pieces; enough damage has been done, enough time wasted, we need to move onward, move forward. Midway through, Vedder howls "Why swim the channel just to get this far?/ Halfway there, why would you turn around?"

This is the perfect timing for a political album, indeed. As relevant as anything BOB DYLAN fired out of his harmonica at just the right moment, as necessary as anything PUBLIC ENEMY hit us with in just the opportune time, PEARL JAM have unleashed this muckraking machine. So what are we saying, besides to give peace a chance? The war has caught up with the soldiers, or the soldiers have caught up with the war? There are too many casualties to sweep under the carpet, too much blood and not enough answers? On "Marker in the Sand," Vedder gives his vocal cords a workout: "Those undecided, / needn't have faith to be free / and those misguided, / there was a plan for them to be / now you got both sides / claiming killing in God's name / but God is nowhere, / to be found, conveniently."

On "Army Reserve" the band addresses the effects the war has on the families of those fighting overseas: "Her son's slanted / always giving her / the sideways eye / an empty chair where dad sits" and "I'm not frantic / I can feel it coming / darling you'll save me / if you save yourself."

The cynics out there will cite the band's reinvigorated promotional march as being the commitment of new bosses, that is to say, perhaps an act of obligation enforced upon them by their new record label. PEARL JAM recently appeared on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, their first appearance since the band's heyday in 1994. They're on tap for Letterman on May 4, although this is nothing new for them. They've been doing spots on Dave's show since the release of the album NO CODE. They do seem a bit more media-savvy these days, though. There's talk of a music video. Vedder was recently interviewed by ROLLING STONE magazine, a publication the band has steered clear of for some time. Rest assured the band is not selling out, as with their booming tour business, the band is in no immediate danger of going bankrupt. PEARL JAM simply wants this album to be heard, by you, by me, by anyone that'll listen. It's genuine.

One concert I attended a few years back saw the band do a haunting cover of "I Am a Patriot," where Vedder improvved, "I ain't no Democrat, sure as f--- ain't that other thing." Following the song, Vedder gave a monologue as the band watched in silence in the background, informing the audience that he was tired of globalization, tired of the war, and finally, tired of the troops not getting equal pay for the hazards they faced. This was at a time when the war had just started, and many people were afraid to say boo about Bush. And there in the third row, in the frontline of the trenches, I could feel the mood of the crowd shift drastically, like the ocean tide Vedder muses about all too often. A significant portion of the crowd began to boo and hiss, and as I turned back to face thousands of quote-unquote fans, I could see many arms, not "raised in a V" to quote some lyrics from the band's hit "Jeremy," but raised with the middle finger at the ends of them, on display for Vedder. The believers had begun to cast stones at their messiah. These people hadn't bothered to listen to what Vedder was saying, or perhaps they were listening, but they didn't really hear the message.

Vedder had been criticizing Bush with that speech during that gig in West Palm Beach, sure, but he was also asking for more support for our troops. Last I checked, that was a good thing. The crowd saw it the other way and were quick to jump to conclusions, just as some believe Bush was quick to jump to his own conclusions. I'm not sure how many people walked away with that message on that strange night. This new album is about the message, more than the music. The real question is not if people will hear it, but whether or not people will actually listen to the message.[/url]

I can't even comprhrehend this this is the reviewedGod damn i[m drui'm ddddrunnk. come on kate.

While not a very good review of the album itself, which I don't think was what the guy was going for anyway, it's a very decent account for those people who've neglected the band for the past few years, who've taken up a new interest because of Avocado.

Good read, the guy knows his shit

ah, memories of uniondale.

There are 13 tracks.