`90s may be over, but Pearl Jam`s still here`

"Binaural"; Pearl Jam; Epic.

If Kurt Cobaine`s suicide put an end to all things grunge and the series finale of "Beverly Hills 90210" pounded the final nail in the `90s` coffin, how come Pearl Jam`s still around?

Since the release of "Ten" in 1991, the band has put out an album just about every two years. And in each one, the group`s playfully pulled back from their plaid-shirt Seattle roots. For better or worse, they`ve never radically altered their sound or fallen prey to the electronica or hip-hop trends. "Binaural," the group`s sixth studio album, is yet another example of Pearl Jam`s consistent and classic-rock sound. It`s not their best effort, but it`s almost certainly not their last.

Their last release, "Yield," is a superb album. In it, the Seattle-based band seriously bent and broke boundaries, powerfully striding against the flavor of the day, and producing something highly original. "Binaural" pulls back from the experimentation. The album returns to the band`s sparser early-`90s sound best-evoked in "Ten," "Vs," and "Vitalogy." It`s archtypical Pearl Jam: a combination of three kinds of songs. There are full-blast anthems similar to familiar tracks such as "Alive" and "Not for You," slow, contemplative tracks like "Indifference" on "Vs.," and pop-styled, pseudo-ballads along the lines of "Vitalogy`s" "Better Man."

The group has always successfully played the line between pretension and hard-core rock by using a pop sensibility. "Evacuation," off of "Binaural," demonstrates this aptly. Frontman Eddie Vedder breaks up its fast-paced (and repetitive) chorus with slower stanzas. It`s this playing with tempo that makes Pearl Jam far more interesting then four-chord favorites The Offspring or most flavor-of-the-day rock bands. And, the lyrics are Vedder at his best. He wails: "the sirens scream wanton attention/time to take heed and change directions."

Could this bode for the band`s future? If the rest of the album is any indication, the answer is no. "Breakerfall" is straightforward hard rock; its first 30 seconds sound like classic AC/DC.

A few other songs stand out. The rockabilly stylings of "Thin Air" hold you with a ripe twanginess. And, when Vedder`s lyrics meet bassist Jeff Ament`s music, the results are just fine. Their song "Insignificance" has the kind of fast-paced tempos and haunting chords that made "Alive" and "Not For You" so powerful. And guitarist Stone Gossard?s "Of the Girl" is a promising start at songwriting. It`s an honest, lonely tune that doesn`t get bogged down in theatrics.

However, some songs just aren`t up to par. "Light Years" is too similar in sound to "Vitalogy`s" "Nothingman." Ament`s stabs at lyrics seem to clone Vedder and ring false. And, though Vedder`s vocals remain distinctively grainy and powerful, the media-shy singer has a tendency to wander off into the land of the contrived. In "Soon Forget", a pretty number on the ukulele, he predictability remonstrates "the fool that trades his soul for a Corvette."

The album is expertly produced, sounding almost too-finely strung together. Perhaps this is because Vedder, Gossard, Ament and guitarist Mike McCready have been together for so long (the band has not consistently had the same drummer). Or, maybe, this is just a part of a rock band`s maturation: an inability to replicate the intense, young energy of its earlier days.

To this end, comparisons between the group (mainly Vedder) and Neil Young are common. Critics are saying that, like Young, Pearl Jam can be relied on to produce consistently good albums that don`t generate media splash, but sell well to a loyal audience.

Pearl Jam: classic rock for the new millennium? It certainly works better than grunge.

(c)Visit Copley News Service

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: Emily Friedlander