... Formed from the remains of Mother Love, a band split due to the death of their vocalist and Californian singer/songwriter Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam were responsible for one of the most grunge defining albums of the 90’s, Ten.
Hounded by the press for being ‘Fake Grunge’ at the time the band ... Read review
Advantages: Pioneers of grunge, originality. Disadvantages: Couple of weaker tracks.
...affect the music at all. Ten is a grungy, riff-based, intelligent marvel of a record.
And if you were expecting grunge then you wont be disappointed – opener ‘Once’ is built on a rough riff, heavy drum beat and Vedder’s raw vocals. Oh and of course, solo’s aplenty. This heavier element is witnessed at several key points throughout the album – second tracks ‘Even Flow’ continues what ‘Once’ started with again the heavy guitar sound, ... ...did. This isn’t true and Ten shows this with its blend of mellow and hard, soft and strong, hard riffs and chill out slow burning tracks. With Nirvana often being named as the band who created grunge, Pearl Jam do perhaps get over looked. But this is a band who have stood the test of time and are still releasing music over ten years after their explosive debut, ‘Ten’. With the timely revival of grunge in the shape of Bush, InMe, Everclear and Nickleback ... more
PEARL JAM – TEN
Perhaps it’s because their lead singer didn’t die an untimely death. Perhaps it’s because the band never burnt away but carried on going and stood the test of time. Perhaps it’s because the band weren’t thrown into the media spotlight in the same way Mr. Cobain and co. were. Whatever the reason is this album, which helped to define grunge in exactly equal measures to Nirvana’s Nevermind album has been overshadowed by its fellow genre giant – and unfairly so.
When the grunge scene exploded from Seattle in the early 90’s bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and indeed Pearl Jam were those leading the way. Formed from the remains of Mother Love, a band split due to the death of their vocalist and Californian singer/songwriter Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam were responsible for one of the most grunge defining albums of the 90’s, Ten. Hounded by the press for being ‘Fake Grunge’ at the time the band spent less time in the spotlight than Nirvana but this didn’t affect the music at all. Ten is a grungy, riff-based, intelligent marvel of a record.
And if you were expecting grunge then you wont be disappointed – opener ‘Once’ is built on a rough riff, heavy drum beat and Vedder’s raw vocals. Oh and of course, solo’s aplenty. This heavier element is witnessed at several key points throughout the album – second tracks ‘Even Flow’ continues what ‘Once’ started with again the heavy guitar sound, peaking chorus and emotion riddled raw vocals. Perhaps the best known track on the album ‘Alive’ is a grunge anthem and along with ‘Teen Spirit’, is one of the best grunge songs ever written and definitely a highlight as is the steady giant ‘Jeremy’ a song about a boy in Texas who killed himself in front of his school class.
Other tracks demonstrating the original grunge sound which so many bands have tried…and failed to reproduce (yes Nickleback we are talking about you…) include Porch, an album highlight as its hectic sound flattens out into a chorus sung by Vedder like a man desperately trying to get words out of his mouth on his final breath of air, Why Go and Deep which complete the grungey core of this album.
But what’s that? There’s more to Pearl Jam than the grunge they created? That’s right. The band has a more subtle, quieter side to them – much like their front man. Black, often hailed by today’s elite brand of rock stars as one of the greatest songs if not just by Pearl Jam but of all time is a creative jem on the album. Sounding like a lost man Vedder sings with a regretful tone to a slow burning and powerful tracks tinted with emotion, especially on its final peak as Vedder cries ‘I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life…why can’t it be with me?’. A highlight for any album. Though other mellower tracks on the album, such as the chilled out ‘Oceans’, the sleepy ‘Garden’ which builds into a powerful yet slow chorus, the anathematic ballad of ‘Release’ and the faint ‘Wash’, don’t grab you in the way Black does, they are all tracks of beauty that balance out the mix between heavy and mellow that the band have created on the album. The album finishes on ‘Dirty Frank’ an upbeat comedy tracks bearing a striking resemblance to ‘Give It Away’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers with erratic lyrics – a positive closing to what is a very complete album.
As the pioneers of grunge it is often assumed by those who haven’t given the band a proper chance that this is all they did. This isn’t true and Ten shows this with its blend of mellow and hard, soft and strong, hard riffs and chill out slow burning tracks. With Nirvana often being named as the band who created grunge, Pearl Jam do perhaps get over looked. But this is a band who have stood the test of time and are still releasing music over ten years after their explosive debut, ‘Ten’. With the timely revival of grunge in the shape of Bush, InMe, Everclear and Nickleback and another growth in the popularity of Nirvana due to box-sets, journals and law suits etc… perhaps its time to take a look back to and remember where it all started with the original and the best ten years ago, ‘Ten’.
Advantages: Eddies vocals, some nice tunes. Disadvantages: The Nirvana "connection"
PEARL JAM - TEN
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Pearl Jam, are a slightly unknown band in this country, which is a big shame as we seem to miss out on so much great american rock music, and end up with the watered down pop, even when we do get a nice guitar in a song, its by a "band" such as Busted, now dont get me wrong, i can see why lots of young kids like their music but it doesnt rock!
So this brings me to an album that does Rock, released way back in 1991, ... ...got into, i mean i was only 11 at the time!!
know 12 years later this album is still as strong and fresh as it was then.
THE BAND
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Pearl Jam were originally known as Mother Love Bone, but with the tragic death of their lead singer Andrew Wood, there came this great band.
Forming after the lead singer Eddie Vedder got a demo tape from the then Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer, Jack Irons, who later went on to be a Pearl Jam drummer.
This ...
kylecoare 16.08.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Advantages: Every track is a true gem. 'Black', 'Alive' and 'Evenflow' are personal favourites. Disadvantages: That there's only 11 songs!
Pearl Jam can be summed up simply: grunge for the thinking man. More intelligent than Nirvana but equally edgy, this album should be as famous as the latter's 'Nevermind,' but for some inexplicable reason, it isn't. This is their best album, a classic, and contains a massive variety of musical styles and ideas. 'Jeremy,' MTV's video of the year at the time is one of many outstanding grunge anthems. Evenflow is punchy and rocks on a steady groove, ... ...as opposed to Nirvana's 'ground-breaking' Smells Like Teen Spirit. However it's not all Eddie Vedder's trademark grunty voice over hard rock songs, this album has a sensitive side aswell, which is brought out best in 'Black' and 'Oceans', tracks that also prove the bands musical ability. These guys can really play their instruments, in particular bassist Jeff Ament, who, whilst having a penchant for wearing silly hats, plays 8 and 12 string basses ...
Roboleg 05.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Advantages: Stunning, jaw-dropping, powerful and immediate, I hope that's an advantage. Disadvantages: That is wasn't four times as long on the same vibe, as Pearl Jam lost the edge after this debut.
Pearl Jam 10 is without doubt the best debut around. No frills no spills, just simply the best. When they got together, they had just four days of solid practising and jamming before launching into a gig, and the album followed very soon after. With a raw edge about it, it has a warmth to it that very few artists acheive in the studio, a real immediacy.
Starting with the driving Once it sets its path from the off, before launching furiously into ... ...with another blues anchored speed solo.Alive comes next and what an anthum it is before slipping into the screeching, aggresive Why go. Then the mood eases for Black, beautiful and emotional, Jeremy and Oceans, the only track that doesn't have the live potential of the others. Back on to the harder rock vibe sees Porch scream by (check out MTV Unplugged for the best version of Porch - and my favourite rock song - that you'll ever hear) and shift ...
privatejoker 03.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Advantages: a classic Disadvantages: quite old now
this was a brilliant album, everyone said Pearl Jam were like nirvana but I always thought they were more like guns and roses. They could do the punky fast paced songs like nivana eg Why Go home and Porch but could also do the big rock ballards like Jeremy and Black. The lyrics are really personal and Eddie Vedder who is the lead singer has a very deep voice but has a good range and good delivery. Every song is a classic from this album starting ...
zef 16.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Advantages: Good lyrics, strong vocals Disadvantages: None
...in, and I bought the Ten album then. "Black" in particular got my attention, as well as "Porch". Both songs are heartbreaking and seem remarkably personal for a band, which makes a lot of noise. Lyrically strong, and Eddie’s voice going through into your core, gives for an excellent CD. ...
Misha13 22.06.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Originality
Lyrics
Quality and consistency...
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Reviews which might be of interest for "Ten - Pearl Jam"
Advantages: Veder, his band, the songs, the lyrics.... Disadvantages: slight production muffles
everything that PearlJam's music stood for; loud and proud. The song itself depicts a boy, obviously known as Jeremy, a social outcast with a secret side which only the quiet ones tend to have; ("Clearly I remember pickin' on the boy, seemed a harmless little fuck. Ooo, but we unleashed a lion"). It is therefore that the Columbine comparisons come about, as Jeremy eventually lashes out against those who've previously done him wrong: ("And he hit me with a surprise left. My jaw left hurtin', ooo, dropped wide open"). Although 'Jeremy' defined both PearlJam and 'Ten' as a whole, it was far from the only memorable moment to be had over the course an hour or so.
'Why Go' tells the tale of a lost soul, a child placed in some non-descript mental institute, left to rot by her very own mother ("She scratches a letter into a wall made of stone, Maybe ...
RockBoi 23.09.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
Advantages: Better sound Disadvantages: Same album content
Kinda sounds redundant. The original Ten album was released in 1992. The mixed recording was released in 2006. Does that sound like a marketing gimmick? The bottom line is that the original version of Ten cannot be beat. Unless you collect PearlJam memorabilia like I do. This version of Ten looks like a tiney vinyl phonograph. How cute is that? It contain all of the great songs from PearlJam such as: Once, Even Flow, Alive, Why Go, Black, Jeremy, Oceans, Porch, Garden, Deep, and Release. I rarely listen to this version because I have the same songs on the original Ten. It's more of a collectors item. Although granted the audio does sound a little better than the original released in 1992. And for the same price (just about) you might just want to shoot for a tiney vinyl. ...
heypaizon 13.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Ten - Pearl Jam
After becoming instantly popular with their amazing debut album TEN, Seatles PearlJam went on to release a series of albums, each unique, some more popular than others.
BINAURAL starts off with a bang, with the band wanting to show that they can still rock. This initial pace soon wears off however and is replaced by some of the sweetest and and most heartfelt tunes you could ever wish for. The PearlJam sound is there from the begining but the album never seems to know where it's heading. This said, it's still a great listen and does a good job of re-capturing the power and emotion that the band are very capable of. ...
Pearl Jam: Eddie Vedder (vocals); Mike McCreedy, Stone Gossard (guitar); Jeff Ament (bass); Dave Krusen (drums). Additional personnel: Walter Gray (cello); Rick Parashar (piano, organ, percussion). Engineers: Dave Hills, Don Gilmore, Adrian Moore. Recorded at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington from March to April, 1991. TEN, Pearl Jam's debut album, was released less than a month before Nirvana's NEVERMIND, and although it took longer to climb the pop charts it also hung around longer, eventually outselling its Seattle rival. Together, the two albums reinvigorated rock and roll, whose share of the pop marketplace had been slipping through the late 1980s. But while Nirvana's bruising punk rock was an all-out assault on the classic-rock dinosaur, Pearl Jam's accomplished hard rock was an attack from within the system. The drawn-out, bluesy guitar riffing and anthemic choruses that dominated TEN instantly gave away roots in the same popular hard rock and heavy metal that Nirvana was intent on crushing. Indeed, before forming Pearl Jam, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament (who between them wrote most of the music on TEN) were the core of two '70s-influenced metal bands, Green River and Mother Love Bone. But in place of the self-aggrandizing, larger-than-life singers that led most such bands, Gossard and Ament found Eddie Vedder, a ravage-voiced vocalist more apt to identify with the abused and misunderstood children he was singing about than with any other rock stars. When he exploded into one of TEN's many memorable choruses, Vedder offered transcendence for the people who needed it most. The storyline of the album's breakthrough single, "Jeremy," was typically vague and elusive (despite a highly suggestive video), but the message was not. The meek and the misunderstood, Pearl Jam seemed to be saying, would rise and inherit the world, even if it was only a world of their own invention.
Album Reviews
Spin (9/99, p.136) - Ranked #32 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Q (12/99, p.74) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Spin (1/93) - Ranked #15 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of 1991. Village Voice (3/2/93, p.5) - Ranked #34 in the Village Voice's list of the 40 Best Albums Of 1992. Q (1/93, p.73) - Included in Q's list of the 50 Best Albums Of 1992. Q (3/92, pg.79) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a raucous modern rock, spiked with infectious guitar motifs and powered with driving bass and drums...may well be the face of the 90's metal..." Stereo Review (1/92, pg.80) - Performance "Challenging" / Recording "Good" - "...the band sounds larger than life, producing a towering inferno of roaring guitars, monumental bass and drums, and from-the-gut vocals...the tunes here surge, ebb, and surge again..."
Titles on disc 1
1.
Once
2.
Even Flow
3.
Alive
4.
Why Go
5.
Black
6.
Jeremy
7.
Oceans
8.
Porch
9.
Garden
10.
Deep
11.
Release
12.
Master/Slave (hidden track)
13.
Wash
14.
Dirty Frank
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