It took awhile of browsing to figure out another album to compare this to. Scouring my previous rankings, I wanted to come up with a comparison that would explain the sudden drop in quality that happened with Backspacer. So here's the analogy I have come up with: Backspacer is to Pearl Jam as In Through The Out Door is to Led Zeppelin; there is a fairly continuous stream of quality preceding it but then somewhere, someone dropped the ball.
Even before I heard this album, I had heard that I should be aware that it's "more poppy" than anything I've heard from Pearl Jam before. That sure isn't wrong. For song after song, my feet were tapping, but I wasn't engaged to the level I have come to expect from their music.
There are two exceptions: the first is awesomely titled "Unthought Known." In this song, Pearl Jam keeps true to the spirit of the rest of the album, but does it really well. There's an escalatory jamming piano part, with occasional howls from Eddie Vedder, and everything just clicks.
The other great song, "Supersonic" goes further astray from expectations and still manages to nail it. As far as I'm concerned, "Supersonic" may be a cover of a Jerry Lee Lewis song, but it still sounds great with Pearl Jam's gritty sound.
This wasn't really how I wanted to wrap up our Pearl Jam celebration but hey, eventually, I'll have to review Riot Act.
Rating: 3.1 stars
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