Digging For Gems Pearl Jam Has Worked Hard To Finesse Its Sound In ‘Yield’
Pearl Jam “Yield” (Epic Records) ****
Thank the rock and roll gods for a band that doesn’t spoon-feed its music to listeners like so much sugar-coated candy.
Thank them for Pearl Jam.
For years now Pearl Jam has been flogged by media and listeners alike for not being accessible enough - in interviews, in concert, in video and in their music.
Their fourth album, “No Code,” was greeted with sluggish sales and indifference compared to previous efforts. Why? In part because the band gave few interviews, failed to do videos and, in general, refused to prostitute themselves to the promotion machine.
Also, the album was just plain … different. It was so clearly no longer that which had brought them fame. It was not grunge. Some might even say it was experimental. Gasp.
“We have to work too hard,” whined the masses who prefer to mindlessly gobble up MTV videos and poppy radio hits as though they were gummy bears.
Fortunately, Pearl Jam seems undaunted. They understand that the best things in life are worked for, rather than handed over - that to truly appreciate something you must delve into it. Dig a bit.
Their fifth album, “Yield,” which was released Tuesday, is a perfect example of that ethic. This is good work here, but much of the album must be carefully explored to be truly appreciated.
This is music that challenges, that sounds as though the band is exploring, stretching and growing - and taking the conscientious listener along with it. The brilliance is in there but it’s not on the surface.
How nice.
Songs like “Brain of J.” and “MFC” run at a raw and jagged pace. “Push Me, Pull Me” is more spoken word than song. The garagey “Do the Evolution,” with its haunting choir sing-song set midway through, is a rugged gem. “Pilate” is an interesting lyrical head-scratcher.
But for all the digging and prying back of layers to get to the guts of “Yield,” there are plenty of moments in which Pearl Jam cracks open the door for its listeners. The first single, “Given To Fly,” and the song “Wish List” swath the ears in a soaring beauty akin to “Off He Goes” from “No Code.” “Low Light” is lush prettiness and “All Those Yesterdays” is a fun, easy rocker.
Eddie Vedder’s voice remains that brittle-yet-brawny thing that manages to convey so much emotion without sounding overwrought.
“I’m not trying to make a difference, I stopped trying to make a difference, no way,” Vedder sings.
Somehow I doubt that.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT ‘YIELD’ Here are some other views of “Yield”:
Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe: Pearl Jam’s “Yield” does not sound like a Major Statement made by an Important Band. This is good. And “Yield,” where the charms are unveiled, onionlike, with repeated listenings, is a very good album. Over time, beginning with 1994’s “Vitalogy” and continuing on 1996’s “No Code,” Pearl Jam has moved away from the rock anthems and power ballads of yore to a sound that’s less obvious. The advance single, “Given to Fly,” already a big radio hit, is representative of Pearl Jam’s current direction. The song bears a marked resemblance to Led Zeppelin’s “Goin’ To California,” from Zep’s so-called “ZOSO” album, the record that signaled there might be more to Zep than hard blues and lemon squeezing. It was a harbinger of Zep’s shift toward progressive rock. … Much of Pearl Jam’s appeal lies in voice of Eddie Vedder, and he’s at the center of this disc.With “Yield,” Pearl Jam continues on its journey, making grown-up rock that’s more about nooks and crevices than about big pictures.
Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times: Should the band yield to the temptation of trying to go back and regain the commercial momentum of “Ten,” or should it face the challenge of trying to push the boundaries of its music even further? In its moment of truth, Pearl Jam didn’t blink. In such tracks as “Brain of J” and “MFC,” Pearl Jam has come up with music as combustible as “Corduroy,” the fireball song from “Vitalogy” that is one of the group’s most electric numbers. Elsewhere, however, there is music that glides along with the warmth and soulfulness of such Pearl Jam high points as “Long Road” and “Around the Bend.” There is even the kind of naked idealism in the new “Wishlist” that we heard from U2’s Bono before he got tired of being ridiculed for his beliefs. … We won’t know (yet) … whether “Yield” will reverse Pearl Jam’s commercial fortunes, but the album’s contents answer the most important question. The band’s music continues to grow in all the important ways.
Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant: Pearl Jam sounds more down to earth than it has since it first emerged with “Ten” and the attendant, unwanted fame six years ago. … There’s a bit of the experimentation on most Pearl Jam albums, which fans learn to skip. There’s a sped-up and slowed-down percussion of a song that doesn’t get a title and a spoken-word piece that eventually issues a chorus, “Push Me, Pull Me.” An Eastern-flavored instrumental in a hidden track sounds like it was composed when Vedder was out of the room. Other songs have an unfinished feel as well. … On an album that’s barely over 45 minutes long, even counting the filler, “Yield” seems a bit skimpy. Even with its handful of the band’s strongest songs in years, it stops short of being a major statement. To be sure, Pearl Jam is still far better than its legion of imitators, from Matchbox 20 to Creed. It has heart; it’s searching for answers; it seeks to keep in touch with its fans, despite its absence from the marketplace.
Richard Harrington, Washington Post: “Yield” includes … moody meditations while also embracing the rootsier, folk-textured tracts of 1996’s “No Code” album as well as the thick, noisy, guitar-fueled sound familiar from Pearl Jam’s incendiary debut, “Ten.”
Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe: Pearl Jam’s “Yield” does not sound like a Major Statement made by an Important Band. This is good. And “Yield,” where the charms are unveiled, onionlike, with repeated listenings, is a very good album. Over time, beginning with 1994’s “Vitalogy” and continuing on 1996’s “No Code,” Pearl Jam has moved away from the rock anthems and power ballads of yore to a sound that’s less obvious. The advance single, “Given to Fly,” already a big radio hit, is representative of Pearl Jam’s current direction. The song bears a marked resemblance to Led Zeppelin’s “Goin’ To California,” from Zep’s so-called “ZOSO” album, the record that signaled there might be more to Zep than hard blues and lemon squeezing. It was a harbinger of Zep’s shift toward progressive rock. … Much of Pearl Jam’s appeal lies in voice of Eddie Vedder, and he’s at the center of this disc.With “Yield,” Pearl Jam continues on its journey, making grown-up rock that’s more about nooks and crevices than about big pictures.
Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times: Should the band yield to the temptation of trying to go back and regain the commercial momentum of “Ten,” or should it face the challenge of trying to push the boundaries of its music even further? In its moment of truth, Pearl Jam didn’t blink. In such tracks as “Brain of J” and “MFC,” Pearl Jam has come up with music as combustible as “Corduroy,” the fireball song from “Vitalogy” that is one of the group’s most electric numbers. Elsewhere, however, there is music that glides along with the warmth and soulfulness of such Pearl Jam high points as “Long Road” and “Around the Bend.” There is even the kind of naked idealism in the new “Wishlist” that we heard from U2’s Bono before he got tired of being ridiculed for his beliefs. … We won’t know (yet) … whether “Yield” will reverse Pearl Jam’s commercial fortunes, but the album’s contents answer the most important question. The band’s music continues to grow in all the important ways.
Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant: Pearl Jam sounds more down to earth than it has since it first emerged with “Ten” and the attendant, unwanted fame six years ago. … There’s a bit of the experimentation on most Pearl Jam albums, which fans learn to skip. There’s a sped-up and slowed-down percussion of a song that doesn’t get a title and a spoken-word piece that eventually issues a chorus, “Push Me, Pull Me.” An Eastern-flavored instrumental in a hidden track sounds like it was composed when Vedder was out of the room. Other songs have an unfinished feel as well. … On an album that’s barely over 45 minutes long, even counting the filler, “Yield” seems a bit skimpy. Even with its handful of the band’s strongest songs in years, it stops short of being a major statement. To be sure, Pearl Jam is still far better than its legion of imitators, from Matchbox 20 to Creed. It has heart; it’s searching for answers; it seeks to keep in touch with its fans, despite its absence from the marketplace.
Richard Harrington, Washington Post: “Yield” includes … moody meditations while also embracing the rootsier, folk-textured tracts of 1996’s “No Code” album as well as the thick, noisy, guitar-fueled sound familiar from Pearl Jam’s incendiary debut, “Ten.”