(Note. This review is kind of half assed. My blood sugar is really low. I’m hungry. Thanks.)
Pearl Jam – Binaural – 2000 (iTunes)
I like Binaural. I’m not exactly sure why, though. Sure it kicks off with a great rabble rouser (Breakherfall) and it gets denser as the album gets longer, but by the end I started to think about Pearl Jam as a business. I don’t know if they think of themselves that way, but bands have to. This is their job, yes? They seem to know how to write “Pearl Jam” songs. But I don’t know if even they like the product. There is almost no emotion on this record.
And yet, I liked it.
The title refers to, among other things, the fact that we listen to music “binaurally”, using two ears. And on my little piece of shit earbuds this record kicks. But when I play it on my 5.1 stereo with enhanced sound it comes out sluggish and slushy and like a bad Soundgarden record. That can’t be good, right? (And, yes, I know that this is the first record with ex-Soundgarden drummer, Matt Cameron.)
The music is lusher, more layered, more constructed than anything I’ve heard from them since…well, since Vs.
This is definitely a “headsets” record but one that you should hear.
Note: Soon Forget, featuring Eddie and a Ukukele is the kind of experimentation I can get behind. Finally!
Grade B
ASide: Breakerfall, Nothing as it Seems, Insignificance
BlindSide: Light Years, Thin Air, Soon Forget, Parting Ways.
DownSide: Grievance
