Backspacer

As the posts of top villains have come to a standstill I will take some time to talk about important music. Pearl Jam and their new release Backspacer. Since No Code has been released, maybe Yield, I have been trying to figure out where the greatest rock band of the Post Rolling Stones era fits in to the music world. I know where they arrange themselves in my world and that is firmly at the top. As mentioned previously, a new band can be currently "the greatest music I have ever heard" (a typical overenthusiastic overstatement), but prefaced with the note that Pearl Jam is the greatest band of all time. They are our Rolling Stones, our Led Zepplin.

Critics seem to be tired of their act and that is not surprising because critics, whether they admit it or not, are out to "make a band famous" or at least relevant (go to any music "blog" and see what I mean**). A critic has nothing to gain by praising Pearl Jam. They are giants, they are Mount Olympus, they are outer space. They can't get bigger so there is no motivation to "sing their praise", plus if an artist isn't -reinventing music itself- then it is thought of as pedestrian ...kind of laughable really (this gets into music snobbery and that is a post all to itself). My point here isn't to highlight the ridiculousness of music critics because their absurdity is evident; my purpose is to talk about a great album and a greater band. How can a band be greater than the albums they put out? They put on amazing live performances that take a great studio recording and blow it up in a chemistry set.

Backspacer is the best Pearl Jam album since No Code. It contains all the great things you want from a PJ album. The first three songs rattle your window panes. Gonna See My Friends, Get Some, and Fixer are in the vain of Animal or Go, Hail, Hail, or Alive. They are the "play fucking loud" Pearl Jam songs that can make someone in his 30's act like a high school kid again. Then you have Just Breathe, Amongst the Waves, and easily my favorite Unthought Known (the keys in this song are great, you almost want it to break into a little E-Street but nonetheless it sounds great). Eddie Vedder, slowing it down a bit. His strength is in his ability to write great rock songs and also good "songwriter songs" like the ones he wrote for Into the Wild.

I started to wonder if I liked newly released Pearl Jam albums because they are Pearl Jam and I have great memories tied to their old records. The last few definitely made me wonder if I liked what they put out anymore...at least in the way that I used to. Backspacer is great. It is apolitical. It is a rock album in a musical world where the attempt to reinvent music is at a premium and where good rock music is sometimes lost. Go buy it and listen to it until you can't do it anymore.

**The Sun Sets On Indiana is a machine, not a blog