Vs. - Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam came together in 1991 and quickly made their mark as one of the great 90s grunge bands. I was 14 at the time and the fresh new sound and emotive political lyrics struck a chord with that has lasted a life time. Before their debut album 'Ten' Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass) had worked together in previous bands, most acclaimed Green River. They then hooked up through friends with Mike McCready (lead guitar), Eddie Vedder (vocals) and drummer Dave Ambruzzese. The band managed to capture the grunge scene with political and angst ridden lyrics, simple rhythm chords, heavy guitar riffs and gravelly vocals and combined it with technical skill ...  Read the complete review

Pearl Jam’s second offering, Vs was the first time I heard the band and I can say I’ve never looked back since. I’m gonna attempt to blitz all their albums for dooyoo – but it’s going to be some task to get over how much I love this band. Vs kicks in with ‘Go’ full of pulsating riffs and pounding drums and bass. I can’t help think of Kurt Cobain when listening to this track. In April 1994 at a Pearl Jam gig in Atlanta Georgia, I remember Eddie dedicating this song to Kurt with the pleading lyrics, “please don’t go on me” – a few days later Kurt was gone. Eddie’s grating ...  Read the complete review

Pearl Jam – Vs When you record one of the most successful albums of the 90’s as your debut its obviously going to be quite a feat to record a follow up album that has the same effect. Vs was the first album that Eddie Vedder picked up the guitar on to play alongside the more accomplished Stone Gossard and Mike McCready. When recording Vs Pearl Jam were obviously under a lot of pressure to reproduce the success of Ten and this showed in the final product. With Pearl Jams grunge rivals Nirvana recording a successful follow up to their huge Nevermind album in the form of In Utero the pressure was really on. Go Pearl Jam had to ...  Read the complete review

The second album from the multi-million selling Seattle superstars sees them moving away from the mainstream into more alternative hardcore roots territory. It also sees the start of what will become an ongoing saga, the revolving drum stool; here we find Dave Krusen leaving and Dave Abbruzzie taking over. From the first moment you can tell this is a hard-edged affair with the punky guitar-opening riff of “Go”. No sooner than this has finished that we are straight into “Animal”, another punky song with no too small amount of self awareness in it too. The chorus chants “Five against one”, maybe referring to their ever ...  Read the complete review

Pearl Jam appeared in the early nineties from the remnants of Mother Love Bone and Green River. They were quickly lumped into the "grunge" category and left to fend against such acts as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. Their first album Ten was highly acclaimed and is still one of the biggest selling albums in the world today. This was there supposedly "difficult" second album, as they attempted to revive the hype of their first album. Tracks. ------- ----Go---- The first single off this albums stumbles into life. It is a rant about somebody who is suicidal, with Eddie shouting out ...  Read the complete review