Issue #71: Pearl Jam – Vs.

Released:  October 19th, 1993

Recorded:  March – May 199

Genre:  Grunge, Alternative

Record Label:  Epic

Duration:  46:11

Producers:  Brendan O’Brien, Pearl Jam

Personnel

Track Listing

Singles

Why Vs. is One of My Favorites

Having just come off of Insomniac, which was Green Day’s plunge into darker waters while struggling to cope with their success, we come to a similar story a couple of years earlier with Pearl Jam’s Vs.  After the monumental success of Ten, Vs. may have been one of the most anticipated albums of the decade.  But ever the tortured artist, the band wanted to do something different.  They also wanted to undo a great deal of the mainstream attention they were receiving, resulting in a significant lessening of media exposure, including the refusal to shoot music videos for their singles.  If you’ve ever read about Vs., you’ve probably read that Vedder had difficulty finishing the album and resorted to spending nights in his truck to keep himself going.

I know, all of this sounds a little pretentious.  What happened to just making music?  Why not let it come naturally?  If you have to force it, what’s the point?  These are all good questions, and some of this oddness definitely pulls through on the album.  In fact, as an album, it can be a little tough to swallow.  However, even though Pearl Jam went in a little bit of an experimental direction here, it produced a number of great songs.  It was a precarious approach – Vs. could’ve been a total disaster – but it sort of works, even if it has trouble sticking together as an album at times.

I was a little young in 93, so it wasn’t until all the “grunge dust” had settled that I really took in this type of music.  I suppose that for this reason I wasn’t as hung up on what was and wasn’t grunge; to me, Pearl Jam was grunge and that was that.  But looking back on Ten, I see Vs. as a defining shift towards alternative rock and the first move to all the post-grunge that would begin popping up the following year.

“Go” opens the album with what sounds like Pearl Jam with funk rhythms added in.  Throw in the metal-esque riffing and the short but pungent guitar solo, and it’s definitely a Pearl Jam that is distancing itself from grunge.  There’s really not any grunge in this track at all. “Animal” follows, sounding a little like “Even Flow Part II.”  Vedder’s usual moan/croon is back with a little of Cornell’s softness thrown in.  As the song continues, the same rhythms that remind me of “Even Flow” take on (yet again) a bit of an underlying funk sound.  Grunge roots are here, but it’s clear that the music is moving in a more lively direction with less emphasis on conventional structure.

“Daughter,” the track from Vs. that everyone knows, is a poster child for the post-grunge alternative landscape that would soon emerge.  The melody here is one of Pearl Jam’s best (right up there with “Better Man” from their next album).  Lyrically, “Daughter” comes from similar territory to that of “Jeremy” as it focuses on a couple’s inability to deal with their daughter’s learning disabilities.  “Glorified G” has a great sound to it with its Southern-rock influenced guitar riff and Vedder’s less pained vocals.  The lyrics represent a bit of an oversimplification of gun issues, but this I can forgive.  “Dissident” is another song that makes use of lead guitar to carry a tune contrapuntal to the rising and falling vocals.  Livening up for its last minute or so of run-time, it’s a great transition between the straightforward sound of Ten and the more diverse presentation on Vs.

“W.M.A.” is the strangest cut so far and truly represents Pearl Jam’s desire to experiment on the record.  Tribal-like percussion drives the song, while Vedder moans and cries out in the distance.  The guitars come to drown everything out once in a while, but overall “W.M.A.” tends to meander a little too much for my tastes.  At 6 minutes long, I’ll admit that I generally tend to pass on this one.

“Blood” kicks off a more approachable second half of the album.  The third track from the album underscored with funk, it has that “waka waka” sound going on during the verses.  Then, it explodes into a loud and ferocious chorus with both punk and metal tendencies.  It’s easily the album’s wildest and hardest hitting cut.  “Rearviewmirror” sports a punky bass line and simple drum beat that really allow Vedder’s unique vocal style to shine.   Another easy favorite.  “Rats” sounds like a mash-up between Primus and Pearl Jam for most of its run time.  It as a unique, offbeat rhythm that kind of reminds me of Primus’ “Shake Hands with Beef,” at least until the guitar interlude, after which is sort of buried in a wall of alt guitar fuzz.  The lyrics fall on the goofy side (something about comparing rats to people) but the music is fun enough to listen to.

“Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Time” is one of the band’s shining moments on Vs.  The somber, semi-acoustic music works well with the wistful melody, as well as the bittersweet tale of a woman who’s spent her whole life in a small town.  “Leash” takes Pearl Jam into an Alice in Chains direction with the prominent squealing of guitars and Vedder’s screamed vocals.  It’s a punchy, confrontational song about freedom from a controlling relationship and makes me wonder why Pearl Jam didn’t take their music in a heavier direction a la Soundgarden or the aforementioned Alice in Chains.

“Indifference” closes the album with spooky, ghostly croons, and a lonely guitar.  The song is about going through “one more day in hell,” presumably to “make a difference” in the life of someone he cares about.  However, I’m left confused as to whether this act of self-sacrifice is truly noble or a gesture of weakness.  Is “how much difference does it make?” a sarcastic quib suggesting that he’s incapable of making a difference no matter how he tries?  Or is he truly gauging the effectiveness of his efforts?  I guess putting one’s on spin on it is the fun part.

So there we have the bumpy and uneven ride that is Vs. It’s probably best that they didn’t put out another exact copy of Ten because grunge is one of those things that’s only musically interesting for a limited time.  Vs. still hangs on to some of the hallmarks of the genre, mostly the actual sound of the backing guitars, their use as a rhythmic element, and Vedder’s pained delivery.  But it’s clear that the guys are trying to branch out as well, mostly turning this into a collection of alternative rock with various odds and ends thrown in.  I like most of these songs to some degree (“W.M.A.” being the big exception), with my favorites being “Leash,” “Rearviewmirror,” “Daughter,” “Glorified G,” “Blood,” and “Elderly Woman…”

The problem is all of these come together to form an album.  I don’t know if a different order would’ve made more sense, of it would’ve been better to record more songs and divide them into two stylistic camps via a double EP (I know, crazy idea) or what, but there’s a serious lack of flow from one song to the next, especially as it constantly jumps from those that are steps away from Ten (“Leash,” “Rearviewmirror,” “Dissent”) to those that are leaps away from Ten (“Animal,” “W.M.A.”, “Rats”).  There are too many moods and feelings flying around here to establish something cohesive, and the songs themselves aren’t different enough to work as an eclectic collection.  I can listen to Vs. as an album, but I prefer to skip around depending (roughly) on whether I’m in a “less grungy” or “more grungy” mood.  If slammed together with everything on Ten and Vitalogy and put on shuffle the result is a workable chunk of Pearl Jam to behold, but these 12 songs in this particular order feel jump and disconnected.

And so we have another rare entry in this series where the songs eclipse the album and the format doesn’t best serve its constituents.  It happens.  But taken at face value, much of what’s on Vs. is memorable and worthwhile, even if they can’t quite get along with each other.  In a bizarre twist of events, they let “stardom not going to their heads” actually go to their heads.  I don’t have a list of every quote that every band member has made about Vs. since its release 21 years ago, but a lot of Vedder’s statements boil down to wanting to make a record that wasn’t going to be liked – where’s the sense there?  I understand experimental, I understand branching out, I understand taking some time to do something you want to do, but actually shunning away from accessibility in all its forms is not only extreme but completely pretentious and oxymoronic to the very idea behind music. Fortunately, while this may have left us with a fractured album, it does leave us with a pretty good to very good smattering of Pearl Jam songs.

Written by The Cubist

Other albums from Pearl Jam in this series:

• 1991 – Ten – Issue #32

Back to The Cubist’s 90’s Albums

Written by The Cubist

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I collect as much video gaming paraphernalia as I can get my hands on, especially when it comes to hardware. With over 40 systems including oldies like the ColecoVision and Intellivision, obscurities like the CD-i and 3DO, and the latest and greatest including the Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, and PS Vita, I get easily overwhelmed. Most of the time you can find me firmly nestled sometime between 1985 and 1995 when it comes to my games of choice, but I’m also having a great time seeing what the 8th generation has to offer.

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