160. Pearl Jam, "Ten"

 

Straight-up Gen X touchstone, I wore this album fucking OUT in '92-'93, and for good reason - there are so many great songs on here.  Of course it suffered by comparison to Nirvana's Nevermind, which came out a month later, because both albums were thrown in the same Pacific Northwest Grunge bin even though they are very, very different albums doing very different things.  

Listening back to it now for the first time in a long time, it slowly dawned on me that this isn't a gunge album at all; it owes more to classic rock and heavy metal than most "grunge," however you want to define it.  In fact, I was reminded specifically, believe it or not, of Iron Maiden, who married strong vocal melodies to crunching, attacking guitars - and, of course, Led Zeppelin, whose influence is obvious.

There are very few albums that open as strongly.  The first four songs are "Once," "Even Flow," "Alive," and "Why Go," then followed by "Black" and "Jeremy."  Every one of those songs is a near-perfect rock gem, each one bringing something different to the table.  The throughline is Eddie Vedder's voice.  You furst hear it as a sharp growl almost a minute into "Once" ("I admit it/What's to say").  It soars in "Even Flow," punching out a chorus melody that is instantly memorable.

One aspect of the album that is most definitely grungelike is the lyrics, which are, for the most part, about some heavy shit.  "Even Flow" is about homelessness, "Why Go" is set in a psych ward, "Black" is about a failed relationship.  The worst one might be "Alive," which tricks you into thinking "ok, maybe this isn't so bad!" with the chorus ("Oh, I, oh I'm still alive/Hey, I, oh I'm still alive/Hey, I, oh I'm still alive") but then you find out it's about a guy finding out his father is actually not his real father and then his mom coming on to him.  (The part about believing your stepfather is your real father actually happened to Vedder; hopefully the mom part didn't.)

We've got to talk about "Jeremy."  Based on a true story about an actual kid named Jeremy who shot himself in front of his class, the lyrics, some of the best on this album or this year, for that matter, sketch out a depiction of a troubled kid who lives in a fantasy world after being cast aside in the real one:

At home drawing pictures of mountain tops
With him on top, lemon yellow sun
Arms raised in a "V"
And the dead lay in pools of maroon below

Daddy didn't give attention
Oh, to the fact that mommy didn't care
King Jeremy the wicked
Oh, ruled his world

Although the kid in "Jeremy" - in the song and in real life - killed himself, that wasn't especially clear in the song and now it feels like it presaged the wave of school shootings that we continue to live through.  I remember seeing the video all the time on MTV in the early 90's; after that, the band backed off making videos.

This album (named after NBA player Mookie Blaylock's jersey number - the band was originaly named "Mookie Blaylock," thank god they changed it) went on to sell 13 million copies or so.  I must close with one final note about the only thing I don't like about the album, the cover, which shows the bandmates' hands together in some kind of high five thing.  It always seemed a little bro-y to me, but  maybe that's just my thing.  

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? You bet.