Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Music Pearl Jam: 40
Posted by Greg Akers on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 3:14 PM
I’ve chosen to implement a completely different strategy for determining my Pearl Jam list than my last one, however. With U2, I listened to every album for a refresher and then made my list after the fact. For Pearl Jam, I have listened to each album, in order, and ranked each song as they played. (To wit: “Once” was number-one on my list until I listened to “Alive,” and then it dropped to two, until I listened to “Why Go,” when it dropped to three, and so on.)
Pearl Jam recently released a new album, Backspacer. I haven’t listened to it yet, and it seemed mildly appropriate to work up a list based on everything that came before it. Consider this a snapshot of my Pearl Jam opinions the day before I buy their next.
A note about eligibility: Pearl Jam has something like an open-source relationship with their fans. They’re prolific and they release scads of material in non-traditional formats such as fan-club extras, soundtracks, tributes, EPs, singles, official bootlegs, etc. In light of this, I created a list that assumed no studio Pearl Jam song was off-limits. That’s not to say I’ve heard everything there is out there. But I made a fairly concerted effort to access as much as is commonly available. Many rarities were collected on the band’s Lost Dogs two-disker, and I highly recommend it to anybody who’s into Pearl Jam enough to still be reading the words I’m typing here.
I ruled ineligible all live versions, because I just ain't got that kind of time on my hands. This is Knowledge Bowl season, yaknow.
Pearl Jam Top 40 Songs:
2. State of Love and Trust (Singles soundtrack)
3. Porch (Ten)
4. Off He Goes (No Code)
5. Smile (No Code)
6. Love Boat Captain (Riot Act)
7. Hail, Hail (No Code)
8. Of the Girl (Binaural)
9. Can’t Keep (Riot Act)
10. Whipping (Vitalogy)
11. MFC (Yield)
12. Grievance (Binaural)
14. Rearviewmirror (Vs.)
15. Sometimes (No Code)
16. Yellow Ledbetter (Lost Dogs)
17. Breath (Singles soundtrack)
18. Light Years (Binaural)
19. In My Tree (No Code)
20. Corduroy (Vitalogy)
21. Rival (Binaural)
22. Come Back (Pearl Jam)
23. I Am Mine (Riot Act)
25. Deep (Ten)
26. Long Road (Merkin Ball)
27. Save You (Riot Act)
28. Insignificance (Binaural)
29. Footsteps (Lost Dogs)
30. Cropduster (Riot Act)
31. Faithful (Yield)
32. Wishlist (Yield)
33. Wash (Lost Dogs)
34. Army Reserve (Pearl Jam)
35. Black, Red, Yellow (Lost Dogs)
37. 1/2 Full (Riot Act)
38. Severed Hand (Pearl Jam)
39. Last Kiss (Lost Dogs)
40. Push Me, Pull Me (Yield)
Like Pilate, I have a statistics:
Ten: 4 songs
Vs.: 1 song
Vitalogy: 2 songs
No Code: 5 songs
Yield: 4 songs
Binaural: 5 songs
Riot Act: 6 songs
Pearl Jam: 4 songs
Lost Dogs/Non-album releases: 9 songs
Analysis:
Since the day, I've always existed with the knowledge that Ten is my favorite PJ album. Apparently, it's not. I will say that Ten performs well over the life of my complete-catalog list (which I have composed with all due diligence, and it is available upon request) — there's only one song I don't really like from it ("Jeremy"), and even that isn't hate so much as boredom with.
I've also always had high regard for Vs., but it just doesn't bear out in a top 40. For what it's worth, I've got "Elderly Woman" at #42 and "Go" at #44.
No Code makes a strong case for best album, with 3 in the top 10 and 5 in the top 20. Riot Act is deep and is the album with the most songs in the 40, and Binaural shows well, too.
Non-album songs are the strongest of all, which is weird but not necessarily the result of liking weird for weird's sake. "Yellow Ledbetter" and "Last Kiss" are two of the most loved Pearl Jam songs in the canon, and the band's two songs from the Singles soundtrack are considered primary-source material.
Vitalogy has always been my least favorite album. I love love love the songs I love and I hate hate hate the songs I hate. My three least favorite Pearl Jam songs are #140 "Aye Davanita," #141 "Pry, To," and #142 "Bugs." Barf.
Showing 1-3 of 3
Great list, and as a long time PJ fan, i agree with most of your choices. But. And it's a big But. To me, Vs. is their second best album. As such, I'd like to see more from that. Leash is the song I think of most when it comes to capturing their live sound in a studio song. And Indifference haunts me to this day.
Other than that minor complaint, this list is great for new Pearl Jam fans.
P.S. Back Spacer is BY FAR their best studio album of the last several years. I think you'll like it. :)
Hmmm... good list. Mine is forthcoming. Stay tuned. And you are fool. Aye Davanita is amazing. Just because it's an instrumental doesn't mean you have to be so crabby about it. Don't be a hater, hater.
And yes, PJ's new album is stellar. The packaging is awesome too, so buy the CD... don't download it mmkay?
Thanks for the comments. Still haven't acquired Backspacer, but...tomorrow hopefully.
I'm a big fan of Vs., too, and was surprised it didn't fare better in my top 40. Here's my Vs. rankings, if you're interested:
14. Rearviewmirror
42. Elderly Woman
44. Go
51. Blood
79. WMA
88. Daughter
89. Leash
91. Indifference
93. Dissident
95. Animal
115. Rats
122. Glorified G
Top Commenters
Flyer Flashback
Flyer Flashback
To mark the Flyer's 20th anniversary, we're looking back at stories from our first two decades.
THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
Comments (3) RSS