“I’ve tasted a life wasted and I’m never goin’ back again…”

Pearl Jam has been in a weird spot since their debut album “Ten”. They’ve constantly tried to branch out and experiment with mixed success, and they’ve gone through different drummers (Matt Cameron, former Soundgarden drummer being their current one since “Binaural”). They’ve shunned the mainstream, but are repeatedly pulled back in (the release of their cover of “Last Kiss” certainly didn’t help).

In this album Pearl Jam seems to suddenly find themselves after stumbling a bit since the excellent (but relatively ignored) “Yield”. They’ve woken up, and found that they can still make music like they used to, but in a much more mature and purposeful way. The album focuses mostly on political issues, and almost in response it finds Pearl Jam returning somewhat to the punk roots that started Grunge first place. There are lots of quick and heavy songs, usually intercepted with some of Mike or Stone’s fast metallic soloing.

Of course this doesn’t mean that Pearl Jam has abandoned the blues, folk, and alternative strummings they’ve been working on since 1993′s “Vs.”, but everything on this album fits, and it’s as near a perfect album as you could want, with not a single song you’d want to skip. Songs like “Comatose”, “Severed Hand”, and “Life Wasted” (as well as the single “World Wide Suicide”) somehow are able to capture the fun and excitement of old school rock combined with the arena sounds of “Ten” (minus the heavy use of effects). The lyrical quality is top notch, and the production is fortunately some of the best we’ve seen from Pearl Jam in years. If there was ever a record that could potentially bring Pearl Jam back into the mainstream it’s this one. Pearl Jam has finally reached the place they’ve always been trying to get.