The Greatest Album Is Vs.

 

The Greatest Album Is… VS

Every band that has been around for a while and released great records runs into this debate; what is their greatest album? The greatest album is… is a column dedicated to tackling that age-old question. What is the greatest album recorded by Pearl Jam? Join with us now as the question is answered and arguments are made that the greatest Pearl Jam album is Vs.

After their debut album Ten received critical and commercial success, Pearl Jam was under immense pressure to release a second album that met or exceeded expectations. They needed to avoid the dreaded “sophomore jinx” and release an album that fans would appreciate and come to love as much as they did Ten. What they came out of the studio with was not only better than their first album, it was the best Pearl Jam album ever recorded. Upon release, the album shattered first week sales records, selling over 950,000 copies in five days. It would remain the number one selling album on the Billboard 200 chart for five weeks and catapulted Pearl Jam to superstardom.

Vs. is a masterpiece. From the guitar crunch opening of “Go” to the quiet closing of “Indifference” Vs. delivers one of the greatest musical journeys ever travelled on a record. Vs. is filled with themes of the time it was released. Police racism is covered on “W.M.A.,” child abuse is tackled on “Daughter,” and gun control vs. gun enthusiasts is documented on “Glorified G.” Pearl Jam used the culture of that time to make beautiful music that portrayed their feelings on some tough issues. Vedder’s lyrical talent was still reaching its peak and he created spectacular words to go along with the astounding music created. The poetic symmetry can be heard on every song.

Hit songs are vast on this album. “Daughter,” “Dissident” and “Rearviewmirror” all went on to be fan favorites. All six singles that were released charted in the top 40 in the US, with “Daughter” going to number 1. The musical spectrum is broad as well. There’s hard rockers (“Go,” “Animal”), soft ballads, (“Elderly Woman…,” “Indifference”), and arena sing along songs (“Dissident,” “Rearviewmirror”).  “Daughter” mixes a clever acoustic intro with a hard rocking bridge and chorus to perfection while presenting a difficult theme to the listening audience. “Dissident” is pure rock, reminiscent of songs from their debut record. And “Rearviewmirror” contains an exceptional opening guitar riff that melts the listener’s ears and then is ingrained in their memory evermore.

While it is filed with staple hits of the Pearl Jam catalog, Vs. also contains a lesser known gem that rarely gets recognized. “Leash” is one of the best songs Peral Jam has ever created. It’s a hard rocking, fist pounding, screaming anthem to youth and uncertainty written at the perfect time in the band’s life cycle. An older more experienced version of Pearl Jam would not have been able to craft such a gem. It took a young, hungry, confused and angry version of Pearl Jam to make such a terrific piece.

Song for song and note for note Vs. is Pearl Jam’s greatest album. One could argue that Ten should hold that honor, and other arguments could be made for Yield, but after careful listening consideration there is only one album that truly stands above all the others. The music is much more urgent on Vs. and the originality is at its best. Vs. took a hungry band that had just reached a small level of fame and notoriety and pushed them into the stratosphere of rock gods. And while the band may have hated all the attention this album brought them, it cemented their career, secured their lifelong fans, and solidified them as one of the best alternative rock bands in the history of rock and roll.  

The greatest Pearl Jam album is…Vs.

Vital Statistics

Released: October 19, 1993

Produced by: Brendan O’Brien

RIAA Sales: 7x Platinum

Peak Position On US Charts: 1

Vs. sold 950,378 copies in its first five days of release

No music videos were made to support this album

Singles

Go

Daughter

Animal

Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town

Dissident

Glorified G

Track Listing

Go

Animal

Daughter

Glorified G

Dissident

W.M.A.

Blood

Rearviewmirror

Rats

Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town

Leash

Indifference

Band Members

Eddie Vedder – vocals

Mike McCready – lead guitar

Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar

Jeff Ament – bass guitar

Dave Abbruzzese – drums

Friday's Rockin' Roundup - Chris Cornell Edition

As I am sure most of you reading this are aware, there was sad news in the music world this week as we learned of the passing of Chris Cornell. Details surrounding the death were still being investigated as of this writing, but evidence and reports point to an apparent suicide. I was stunned when I heard the news and deeply saddened since. I know I did not personally know the man, but his music and his voice brought so much joy to my life. I was a huge Soundgarden fan during the height of their fame, and the first Audioslave album navigated me through some dark times in my life. Eventually I will write the Reflections On…Audioslave post that I have on my “to write” list, which will explain that navigation in much more detail.

Since hearing the news of his death, I have been listening to a lot of Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Chris Cornell solo work. Each song I listen to holds a special memory in my head and a special place in my heart. I was fortunate enough to see Soundgarden live once, with Nine Inch Nails (another post that I should write), and I am now more grateful than ever that I got to see him perform live. Superunknown, Down on The Upside, and the aforementioned Audioslave were all soundtracks to my life at one point or another.

This edition of Friday’s Rockin’ Roundup is dedicated to Chris Cornell. He was a vocal talent unlike any I’ve listened to and he will be missed. May he rest in peace.

Here’s the Chris Cornell Tributes that rocked:

New York Times Obituary

The New York Times wrote a detailed obituary on this legend that is worth reading. Their tribute to Chris Cornell is a touching remembrance on all the joy that Cornell brought to people across the world.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post also gave a touching tribute to the legend that follows his career from the early days in Seattle all the way through the current tour.

Gizmodo’s Take on Cornell’s Passing

Gizmodo posted their take on the passing of Chris Cornell, but also on the unexpected passing of celebrities in general. The article discusses the “strange new ritual” that fans go through when remembering a fallen hero---diving through the internet for social media posts in the celebrities’ final moments. An interesting quick read that reflects how tributes have changed over the past decade.

USA Today Collects Tweeted Tributes

USA Today gathered a lot of the early tweets from musicians that paid tribute to Cornell. It’s clear that he meant a lot not just to fans, but also to his peers.

A legend has passed. He will be missed, but his music will be remembered for ages

Temple Of The Dog To Tour For The First Time Ever

Temple of the Dog — the Seattle supergroup featuring Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, and drummer Matt Cameron(who plays drums with both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) — has reunited and will tour for the first time ever since forming in 1990. The band will play five cities, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, in November.

A special ticket pre-sale for fans signed up to the Ten Club, Soundgarden, and Chris Cornell email lists begins immediately and runs through July 27^th. Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 12:00 PM local time on Friday the 29^th. $1.50 from each ticket sold will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and an additional $1.50 will benefit Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation.

The tour marksthe 25^th anniversary of the release of Temple of the Dog’s first and only album, a self-titled set that was released by A&M Records on April 16^th, 1991. “We wanted to do the one thing we never got to do… play shows and see what it feels like to be the band that we walked away from 25 years ago,” Cornell says of the 2016 tour.

On September 30^th UMe will release a special Temple of the Dog 25^th anniversary reissue collection of their landmark album,newly mixed by Brendan O’Brien. The collection will be available in four configurations, including a four disc Super Deluxe, a double LP, a two CD Deluxe, and a single CD. Physical pre-orders are available today along with a detailed list of the contents of each configuration HERE.

Temple of the Dog came together from the ashes of Mother Love Bone following the death from a drug overdose of its frontman Andrew Wood, Cornell’s close friend and roommate. Cornell wrote future TOTD songs “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and “Reach Down” to help process his grief, “but the songs didn’t have any destination,” he says. “I was compelled to write them and there they were – written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy. My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute.”

Mother Love Bone’s Gossard and Ament began playing with McCready, and they brought in Soundgarden’s Cameron to drum on demos. Because this was a collaboration, and a tribute, there was no commercial expectation for the Temple of the Dog album. It would be, Gossard would later observe, “the easiest and most beautiful record that we’ve ever been involved with.” Adds Cornell: “Temple was about making an album simply for the joy of doing it. We weren’t concerned what anyone outside of our group of friends would think of it. It was the first and maybe only stress-free album that we all made.”

Gossard, Ament, and McCready were also simultaneously forming a new band, which more than six months later would be known as Pearl Jam. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was vying to lead the project, came into the studio to sing background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell thought another song, “Hunger Strike,” needed a duet, Vedder was enlisted. “Hunger Strike” became a hit single, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.               

Temple of the Dog performed live only a handful of times, most notably in Seattle, in November and December of 1990. Those shows have become some of the most legendary Seattle concerts of all-time. Their 2016 shows mark the first time the band has ever toured. (Cornell joined Pearl Jam in 2014 at the Bridge School show and for two nights at PJ20 in Alpine Valley, WI, and the Temple line-up played “Reach Down” and “Call Me a Dog” at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in January 2015.)

“This is something no one has ever seen,” Cornell says of the official reunion. “We wanted to stop and recognize that we did this and pay homage.”

Temple of the Dog’s upcoming tour dates are as follows:

11/04  Philadelphia, PA      Tower Theater

11/07  New York, NY           Madison Square Garden

11/11  San Francisco, CA  Bill Graham Civic Center

11/14  Los Angeles, CA      The Forum

11/20  Seattle, WA               Paramount Theater