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Pearl Jam 'Rearview Mirror'
When Pearl Jam look in their rearviewmirror, what is it that they see? Do they see years of wrangling with the evil forces of Ticketmaster as they sought to lower the prices of their shows? Or do they see the black clouds that were left on Seattle, and grunge, by the suicide of their rival-come-compadre, Kurt Cobain?
Maybe a career littered with bitterness, with sniping and back-stabbing, for a band too mainstream to be accepted by their alternative peers and too awkward to move in from the periphery. They probably see none of these things. Because, despite a wide-of-the-mark public perception of them as a meat and two veg rock band, Pearl Jam have always been forward-sounding and forward-thinking. When they look back, all they should see is songs. And more songs. And more songs. That’s why ‘Rearview Mirror’ is all you need to know.
Eroding the memory of some recent less-than-brilliant compilations (dodgy live albums, inferior to their own bootleg collections and an even-dodgier acoustic live album), ‘Rearview Mirror’ is, simply, all Pearl Jam’s best work put it in one place. Despite being separated into two simpleton-friendly ‘Upside’ and ‘Downside’ discs, the collection aptly charts their evolution as a challenging rock band. The first five tracks alone strap dynamite to the groins of Creed and Puddle Of Mudd and remind us what made Pearl Jam so special in the first place; the jittering murder-jibes of ‘Once’, the suicidal tale of a lost youth called ‘Jeremy’, the romantic insanity of ‘State Of Love And Trust’ and the song that sent them interglobal, ‘Alive’.
Instead of the ponderous self-loathing that his pretenders drowned in, Eddie Vedder was always more interested in projecting his anger onto others, in, essentially, spinning a good yarn. The bigger they got, the more they revelled in contradictions. The songs became catchier, but they also became darker. ‘Go’ and ‘Animal’, both from the trillion-selling ‘Vs.’, are regular fast-paced, fist-pumping rock songs. Except one is a plea to a friend not to commit suicide and one is about – possibly – a gang rape. Whilst the ever-more elusive Cobain was getting lost inside his own mind, Vedder became more and more explicitly honest. The album’s title track is a cutting vignette to the abuse he suffered as a child, but it’s hidden beneath a sea of Neil Young screams and Pete Townshend riffing.
The ‘Downside’ disc, meanwhile, demonstrates their U2-like ability to not so much tug on the heartstrings but tie an anchor to them. ‘Black’ – treated, like ‘Once’ and ‘Alive’, to a 2004 remix – is a dark lullaby that descends into harmonic mantras, ‘Daughter’ and ‘Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town’ are alt.folk for the larger audience, whilst the experimental tribalism of ‘Who You Are’ expressed the band’s desire never to stand still, even if it meant losing fans in the process. It’s in ‘Immortality’, from the dark, retreating ‘Vitalogy’ album, that Vedder – and the band – make their manifesto abundantly clear. "Some die just to live" goes the clearly-sung climax, a reference to Cobain. Pearl Jam chose to live and fight and ‘Rearviewmirror’ is a stunning timeline of a band that haven’t only entered middle-age gracefully, they’ve done it admirably.
Pearl Jam 'Rearview Mirror' (Sony) Released November 29 2004.
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