Album Review : Pearl Jam by Pearl Jam

Four years ago, my favourite band in the world (they share that coveted spot along with the Barenaked Ladies) released what, according to me, was their last album on Sony. Riot Act had it's moments (like "Love Boat Captain" & "I Am Mine") but overall it seemed like a hasty goodbye to their big lable. In between these four years, Seattle's ...... no make that America's finest also released Lost Dogs - an excellent double album of their unreleased material, which would be gems on any other band's list- and a best of double album Rearviewmirror. That seemed to signal the end of an era for the Jammers. You could'nt be more right! Now the Jam can do things their own way and we, their fans, are all the better for it. They are back to being somewhere near their lofty best, with loud guitars and screaming vocals. Over now to the review of an album which I was dearly looking forward to.

The bustling first tracks Life Wasted starts things off with a bang. And if you hadn't heard the next song but heard everything else, you would have thought that the opener was the best track of the lot. But no, Pearl Jam, in a repeat of what happned in 1999 when they released a huge hit Last Kiss, gives us another big hit which again stuns, pleases & surprises us. World Wide Suicide is the anthemn the world has been looking forward to, to rally around and to shake our fists in the air when we sing the chorus. If Last Kiss was the soundtrack to the war in Kosovo, this one is about he war in Iraq but can also be about wars & goverments who create them in general. Heck, this is a world anthemn. It is a beauty and a No.1 hit single. Comatose is a good song and the strikingly melancholic Parachutes and Marker in the Sand left images in my mind about the characters depicted in the songs. Sure, Pearl Jam are as anti-war as ever but it's not all verbose fury. Army Reserve is personal and heartfelt, registering the anxiety of the parents and children of soldiers. Stunning album highlights Come Back and Inside Job, the two closing tracks, build slowly and offer optimism and veracity.

Although I felt that they could have done a better job of the production (hang me if you want to, but it could have sounded a bit more "slick") and I felt that it was a great song or two from being declared a classic and a saviour of music, you have to admit, the album is a welcome relief from the usual muck that floats out there. Who cannot love the rambunctious World Wide Suicide and give a big fuck you to Mr.Bush?!!!

Worldwide Suicide Lyrics

I felt the earth on Monday
It moved beneath my feet
In the form of a morning paper
Laid out for me to see
I saw his face in a color picture
I recognized the name
Could not stop staring at the
Face I'd never see again

It's a shame to awaken, world aflame
What does it mean when the war has taken over?
It's the same every day in a hell man-made
What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

The whole world...
world over
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

Medals on a wooden mantle
Next to a handsome face
That the president took for granted
Writing checks that others pay
And in all the madness
Thought becomes numb and naive
So much to talk about and
Nothing for them to say

It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder
Laying claim to the take that soldiers save
Tell them to quit it, the truth's already out there

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

Looking in the eyes of the fallen
You got to know there is another, another, another, another, another...
Way

It's a shame to awaken, world aflame
What does it mean when the war has taken over?
It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide

The whole world...
Will now burn...
Yeah, it's a world wide suicide


Song for the day - "World Wide Suicide" - PEARL JAM