OK, you know what was awesome? For those of us who were 15 and lived on the other side of the country, anyway? “Grunge” music and its byproducts. I haven’t listened to this album in ages (I just don’t bust out the cassette player very often), but man, I am not ashamed to say that I totally dug it at the time. I don’t really understand why anyone thought Pearl Jam had anything to do with Nirvana — other than their home town, of course — but whatever, they totally rocked, and my flannel-wearin’ ass was all over ‘em, I can’t deny it. Hey, even the cool kids at KCMU were down with Pearl Jam from the get go! This is a short one, but I felt that it was an important historical document. It also contains the best description of Pearl Jam’s music I’ve ever read.
| “Doesn’t quite have the energy of their live shows, but the songs all come off fairly well. Slick, major-label production doesn’t add too much to their sound. But a crispy offering none the less.”
“Sizzling rock ‘n’ roll! ‘Alive‘” “‘Black’ really gets under my skin.” “When they try to jam or funk it up they sound like session wankers in street attire. But when they go for that mtn-climbing pseudo-gospel power ballad thing they’re a big deal indeed.” |
Mountain climbing pseudo-gospel power ballads. Indeed!
4 Comments
Awesome find! It’s great to see the notes and compare them to what happened to Pearl Jam afterwards. After all, they’re practically the only ones who are still going strong from that era.
This just totally made my day.
weird that these editorials ring true on even their latest works. Sometimes writing is universal, even when describing the best live band from this country
Can’t wait to see the band play live in Columbia on Monday!!!