In advance of Pearl Jam’s new album, due next month, I offer a review of their recent remastered and remixed release of their debut album,<\/p>\n
Sometimes I wish that we could access all the information in our brains as computers would, so we could track the metadata of our lives. Am I the only one who wants to know what song I\u2019ve heard the most (I\u2019m betting \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d or some Christmas standard), what movie I\u2019ve seen the most (Something starring Chevy), etc.?<\/p>\n
If you set aside birthday and holiday music, I imagine that Pearl Jam\u2019s Ten<\/em> would pop up as the album I\u2019ve listened to the most. Between hearing the singles on the radio for 17 years, seeing the videos for the first three singles for a year or so, listening to the album constantly for 18 months, and then hearing the songs on the dozen or so live CDs and DVDs I own, the first 11 songs that Pearl Jam released almost certainly qualify as the collective work I\u2019ve spun most often.<\/p>\n That said, I would imagine I am like most dedicated Pearl Jam fans: while I consider the album to be their classic work, I don\u2019t consider it to be their best.* And, to be honest, after 17 years I\u2019m kind of sick of most of the songs. Thus, when the band released a remastered version of the album last March, I didn\u2019t rush out to get it. I\u2019m always leery of remastered versions of classic albums. Even if the band is trying to make it \u201csound the way we meant it to sound,\u201d** the differences are often too subtle to notice or distracting. When you\u2019ve listened to something for nearly 20 years, it\u2019s hard to hear it in a new way.<\/p>\n ** I think most hard-core Pearl Jam fans would list either Vs<\/em>. or Vitalogy<\/em> as their favorite. I bounce back-and-forth between those two.<\/p>\n *** Isn\u2019t that what every band says?<\/p>\n However, a couple friends who are also big fans picked up the new version and suggested that I would probably like it more than I expected, especially if I focused on the second disk, dubbed Ten Redux<\/em>. Unlike the first disk, which is a straight remaster of the 1991 album, Ten Redux<\/em> is a remix of the original songs. It\u2019s not just cleaned up, but deconstructed and then reconstructed.<\/p>\n I noticed that the two-disk Legacy version of the updated Ten<\/em> was available at Target for $10, so I picked it up a couple weeks ago. I\u2019ve been listening to Ten Redux<\/em> a lot since then. My friends did not lie: it\u2019s pretty good.<\/p>\n The changes are indeed subtle, but certainly noticeable. The elements of each song that blended together in the past are now isolated, giving the album a live-in-the-studio feel. There is an energy, a shimmer that wasn\u2019t on the original disk, but the fundamental sound remains the same. Take a song like \u201cPorch,\u201d for example. It was a rocker to begin with. With the remix, though, it\u2019s cranked up to 11.<\/p>\n This new sense of separation affects the vocals, as well. There is an edge to Eddie Vedder\u2019s voice that was missing on the \u201891 disk. For a collection of songs that is already full of anger and emotion, that edge adds a new sense of drama. This is most noticeable in \u201cAlive,\u201d where you can almost see Vedder spitting the lyrics out between gritted teeth.<\/p>\n The process doesn\u2019t always work, however. \u201cJeremy\u201d* is the one song where the changes are almost too distracting. In the final third of the song, the vocal that was most prominent on the original mix has been reduced, the backing vocal brought forward, and the result takes away from what had been a brilliant moment of musical chaos.<\/p>\n ** Can we talk about \u201cJeremy\u201d for a minute? It is famously the song that caused Pearl Jam to stop making videos. Legend has it that another musician told Vedder that the video ruined the song for him. \u201cIt\u2019s too artsy,\u201d Eddie was told. Added to the band\u2019s desire to pull back from the media onslaught, they cited the video\u2019s massive success as a reason to cease making further videos. They wanted people to remember their songs, not the images associated with them.<\/p>\n Fair enough. But that\u2019s a shame. \u201cJeremy\u201d is a stunning video. One of the greatest ever. Artsy? Sure. But freaking great art. It remains one of the iconic moments in 90s music.<\/p>\n I do understand the band\u2019s view, though, about wanting to be remembered for their music. If you take away the video, the meaning of \u201cJeremy\u201d can be ambiguous. How exactly did Jeremy speak in class? Is that a metaphor? Or is he a kid who never said anything and literally opened his mouth and let words come out for the first time? While some forced editing by MTV kept some ambiguity in the video (They wouldn\u2019t show Jeremy with the gun in his mouth. Without that image, the next scene, in which his classmates are frozen, covered in blood, it isn\u2019t obvious whether he shot them or himself.) the meaning has been narrowed down significantly. I suppose that\u2019s one good thing about MTV turning into reality show hell and rarely showing videos anymore: we can assign our own meanings to songs rather than having one forced upon us.*<\/p>\n Another downer is the bonus material. Pearl Jam has always been a big B-side band. Their Lost Dogs<\/em> collection, released in 2003, brought together most of their best B-sides and unreleased tracks. Between the single B-sides and Lost Dogs<\/em>, most obsessive fans own just about everything that was recorded in 1991-92. In an effort to offer something new, there are some early mixes of \u201cBreath\u201d and \u201cState Of Love And Trust,\u201d which both appeared on the Singles<\/em> soundtrack. Neither version compares to what ended up in the movie. Other bonus tracks are those that never made it past the embryonic phase. But only a minor quibble since most people who care already own most of the non-album material.<\/p>\n Casual listeners may not notice much of a difference between Ten<\/em> and Ten Redux<\/em>. But those of us who have memorized every growl and guitar flourish and drum fill will find lots of new sounds to commit to memory. Most of those sounds are good. And for $10, it\u2019s worth it if you are or were once a fan. It\u2019s helped me to remember that fabulous summer of 1992, when the music world was changing, and fall back in love with one of my favorite albums ever.<\/p>\n \u2756<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In advance of Pearl Jam’s new album, due next month, I offer a review of their recent remastered and remixed release of their debut album, Sometimes I wish that we could access all the information in our brains as computers would, so we could track the metadata of our lives. Am I the only one who wants to know what song I\u2019ve heard the most (I\u2019m betting \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d or some Christmas standard), what movie I\u2019ve seen the most (Something starring Chevy), etc.? If you set aside birthday and holiday music, I imagine that Pearl Jam\u2019s Ten would pop up as the album I\u2019ve listened to the most. Between hearing the singles on the radio for 17 years, seeing the videos for the first three singles for a year or so, listening to the album constantly for 18 months, and then hearing the songs on the dozen or so live CDs and DVDs I own, the first 11 songs that Pearl Jam released almost certainly qualify as the collective work I\u2019ve spun most often. That said, I would imagine I am like most dedicated Pearl Jam fans: while I consider the album to be their classic work, I don\u2019t consider it to be their best.* And, to be honest, after 17 years I\u2019m kind of sick of most of the songs. Thus, when the band released a remastered version of the album last March, I didn\u2019t rush out to get it. I\u2019m always leery of remastered versions of classic albums. Even if the band is trying to make it \u201csound the way we meant it to sound,\u201d** the differences are often too subtle to notice or distracting. When you\u2019ve listened to something for nearly 20 years, it\u2019s hard to hear it in a new way. ** I think most hard-core Pearl Jam fans would list either Vs. or Vitalogy as their favorite. I bounce back-and-forth between those two. *** Isn\u2019t that what every band says? However, a couple friends who are also big fans picked up the new version and suggested that I would probably like it more than I expected, especially if I focused on the second disk, dubbed Ten Redux. Unlike the first disk, which is a straight remaster of the 1991 album, Ten Redux is a remix of the original songs. It\u2019s not just cleaned up, but deconstructed and then reconstructed. I noticed that the two-disk Legacy version of the updated Ten was available at Target for $10, so I picked it up a couple weeks ago. I\u2019ve been listening to Ten Redux a lot since then. My friends did not lie: it\u2019s pretty good. The changes are indeed subtle, but certainly noticeable. The elements of each song that blended together in the past are now isolated, giving the album a live-in-the-studio feel. There is an energy, a shimmer that wasn\u2019t on the original disk, but the fundamental sound remains the same. Take a song like \u201cPorch,\u201d for example. It was a rocker to begin with. With the remix, though, it\u2019s cranked up to 11. This new sense of separation affects the vocals, as well. There is an edge to Eddie Vedder\u2019s voice that was missing on the \u201891 disk. For a collection of songs that is already full of anger and emotion, that edge adds a new sense of drama. This is most noticeable in \u201cAlive,\u201d where you can almost see Vedder spitting the lyrics out between gritted teeth. The process doesn\u2019t always work, however. \u201cJeremy\u201d* is the one song where the changes are almost too distracting. In the final third of the song, the vocal that was most prominent on the original mix has been reduced, the backing vocal brought forward, and the result takes away from what had been a brilliant moment of musical chaos. ** Can we talk about \u201cJeremy\u201d for a minute? It is famously the song that caused Pearl Jam to stop making videos. Legend has it that another musician told Vedder that the video ruined the song for him. \u201cIt\u2019s too artsy,\u201d Eddie was told. Added to the band\u2019s desire to pull back from the media onslaught, they cited the video\u2019s massive success as a reason to cease making further videos. They wanted people to remember their songs, not the images associated with them. Fair enough. But that\u2019s a shame. \u201cJeremy\u201d is a stunning video. One of the greatest ever. Artsy? Sure. But freaking great art. It remains one of the iconic moments in 90s music. I do understand the band\u2019s view, though, about wanting to be remembered for their music. If you take away the video, the meaning of \u201cJeremy\u201d can be ambiguous. How exactly did Jeremy speak in class? Is that a metaphor? Or is he a kid who never said anything and literally opened his mouth and let words come out for the first time? While some forced editing by MTV kept some ambiguity in the video (They wouldn\u2019t show Jeremy with the gun in his mouth. Without that image, the next scene, in which his classmates are frozen, covered in blood, it isn\u2019t obvious whether he shot them or himself.) the meaning has been narrowed down significantly. I suppose that\u2019s one good thing about MTV turning into reality show hell and rarely showing videos anymore: we can assign our own meanings to songs rather than having one forced upon us.* Another downer is the bonus material. Pearl Jam has always been a big B-side band. Their Lost Dogs collection, released in 2003, brought together most of their best B-sides and unreleased tracks. Between the single B-sides and Lost Dogs, most obsessive fans own just about everything that was recorded in 1991-92. In an effort to offer something new, there are some early mixes of \u201cBreath\u201d and \u201cState Of Love And Trust,\u201d which both appeared on the Singles soundtrack. Neither version compares to what ended up in the movie. Other bonus tracks are those that never made it past the embryonic phase. But only a minor quibble since most people who care already own most of the non-album material. Casual listeners may not notice much of a difference between Ten and Ten Redux. But those of us who have memorized every growl and guitar flourish and drum fill will find lots of new sounds to commit to memory. Most of those sounds are good. And for $10, it\u2019s worth it if you are or were once a fan. It\u2019s helped me to remember that fabulous summer of 1992, when the music world was changing, and fall back in love with one of my favorite albums ever. \u2756 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,97],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-music","tag-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14997,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions\/14997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}