Losing the code? (No Code - Pearl Jam)

Member Name: Fatlad

Product:	No Code - Pearl Jam
Date:	31/07/00 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Textured music

Disadvantages: tends to lose the plot

Pearl Jam’s fourth studio album, and perhaps the most sensitive. By this I don’t mean they’ve gone all soft and slushy, (perish the thought!) but it is the most experimental work to date. Rather than an album of all rocky songs, say like “vs.” they’ve taken time to add a bit more texture and feeling here. It follows on in much the same vein as ‘94’s “Vitalogy” but takes it a step further. With the exception of “Who you are” it works very well, it is also the first full album new drummer Jack Irons (ex Red Hot Chilli Peppers) has played on for them.

Starting with the soft, sensitive “Sometimes” the album gets off to a good start and leads straight into the rocking “Hail, Hail” with is delivered almost incoherently, but effectively. “Who you are” seems to be a play on words (in the title at least) of the Who song “Who are you”, the Pearl Jam song though has a more African tribal beat and vibe to it. It sounds like something from the Paul Simon “Graceland” era, but sadly it doesn’t quite work. There are moments when you think, and hope that they’ll pull it off but it ends up as a glorious mess. But it is thoroughly redeemed by what follows next “In my tree” is a great song. It song revolving around a rumbling bass that really takes off during the chorus, sounding almost like U2 during the “Joshua Tree” era. “Off he goes” out REM’s REM, an acoustic ditty that reminds me of the aforementioned band pre “Automatic for the people”. Other great songs here include “Red mosquito”, a Neil Young style song, but not a rip off with a great closing melody, and lest we not forget “Present tense.” A Vedder/McCreedy collaboration that has a delicate feel to it in keeping with the rest of the record that has echoes of “Release” and “Indiff
erence”.

The album closes with two very delicate songs “I’m open” and the Vedder lullaby “Around the bend”; “I’m open” being about the lost innocence of youth. A good album, but probably the most forgettable by this band that have achieved legendary status in our times.

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