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Pearl Jam Yield Epic I must be getting old; it seems like barely five minutes since Pearl Jam released Ten. Back then, Jeremy was played on MTV 24 hours a day, the sun always shone, and the likes of Oasis were only a twinkle in a PR man’s eye. But now, they’re onto their fifth (yes, count them) album, and haven’t made a video since. The thought did cross my mind that this album may have been another Vitalogy, with equal measures of self-indulgent tripe and tunes but for once it’s nice to be proved wrong. Following on from No Code, it finally seems that Pearl Jam have got their act together. As a whole, Yield is most like a hybrid of all of their previous efforts, which is by no means a bad thing. Opener Brain Of J leaps into action, with Eddie Vedder sounding as good as you knew he would, spitting adrenaline and asking what JFK’s brain means to us (possibly one of his less philosophical moments) before giving way to a new entry in the PJ air guitar hall of fame. Single Given To Fly soars into a chorus of Epic proportions, much in the style of the early 90’s RAWK that made this group so famous, but now Eddie and co. have grown, and have more strings to their bow.Do The Evolution struts along like the best of Captain Beefheart only to veer into choirsong halfway through, and In Hiding features one of the catchiest PJ riffs to date.Yield also shows Pearl Jam still have a sensitive side, with the sublime Low Light and All Those Yesterdays not quite being in the league of Black but pleasant enough all the same. Of course, I could not leave my room completely unscathed by the curse of Vitalogy, with the unnamed track 8 into fooling me that I had left my Songs From Sesame Street CD on. And for the other clever tracks, well if you like hidden bonus tracks, washing machine noises AND Russian Folk Songs, then boy are you in for a treat. Although it falls down occasionally, Yield is a solid album, and a nice companion for No Code in your record collection. It may not be a legend of an album, but it’s a pretty damned good one. 8/10 Karl Cremin.
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