Album review - Pearl Jam ‘Ten’ (1991)

 Album review - Pearl Jam ‘Ten’ (1991)

Ten is the debut studio album by Pearl Jam. The album was released on August 27, 1991. Often seen as one of the greatest albums of all time, the album skyrocketed Pearl Jam into stardom as one of rock’s biggest bands. The album reached number two on the Billboard 200 by the end of 1992, and has earned its place on many other top album lists, such as number one on Rolling Stone’s “10 Greatest Debut Albums”, and Q’s “100 Greatest Albums Ever”, on which it ranked at 42. 

Music 

Despite being a quintessential grunge record, the music on Ten draws a heavy influence from 60s and 70s rock acts like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. There are some anthems on this album. ANTHEMS. The album opens with an anticipation building interlude, ‘Master’ which lasts for about 20 seconds,  before a piercing distorted guitar riff sending the listeners full-swing into ‘Once’. This song proves as a great introduction to the sound of Pearl Jam, most notably, the creative drumming of Dave Krusen, as well as Eddie Vedder’s fantastic voice. Featuring an incredible guitar solo, the song's upbeat tempo and drumming give it a real driving feel. That driving feel is continued into the next track, ‘Even Flow’, and is aided by a funky guitar riff. The guitar work on this song, in particular, is absolutely brilliant, from the licks in the song’s second verse, providing extra creative ‘spice’, to the whammy guitar in the chorus, which really fills the music’s space. One of my favourite sections of the song (besides the whole thing) is the post guitar solo build-up when the funky guitar lick builds up to the final chorus. With lyrics written by Eddie Vedder about homelessness, this song has a truly vibrant energy, mostly due to it being played by real musicians, and not by computers like most pop music today. The song’s energy lasts right into the outro, making it one of the heaviest songs on the album. The third track on the album is ‘Alive’. One of the highlights of this song for me is its lyrics, written by Eddie Vedder. The song’s lyrics are about Vedder never knowing his real dad and growing up being told that his stepfather (whom he hated) was his dad, only to find out as an adult that this was not true. The lyrics tell a dark story of a widowed mother, who begins an incestuous relationship with her son in her grief. Over time, however, the lyrics of this song appear to have been misinterpreted by many Pearl Jam fans (including me), most likely due to the chorus lyrics “I, oh, I’m still alive”. Personally, I have a very deep emotional connection to these lyrics. This song ends in a frenzied fashion, with another awesome guitar solo, as the band builds the intensity into the outro. 

The next track on the album is ‘Why Go’. This song's drum intro really showcases the explosive drum sound of Ten. The bass enters, followed by the shuddering whammy guitar. The band pauses at the first chorus, letting their instruments ring out and decay into near silence, as Vedder sings the chorus lyric, “why go home, why go home, why go home” before the band fires up again, lurching into the second verse. This time around, the band continues with Vedder into the chorus. This is followed by a guitar solo (surprise) and another chorus. The outro leads us straight into ‘Black’, one of the album’s most exceptional moments. One of the first songs written by Pearl Jam, the guitar intro leads into the first verse, with the same simple chord progression, and a simple drum beat. Simple, but brilliant. That’s a pretty good explanation of this song. Much of the guitar work on ‘Black’ is inspired by early blues, and most notably, Jimi Hendrix, evident in the small licks that guitarist Mike McCreedy plays throughout the verses of the song. The lyrics to ‘Black’ are not only some of Vedder’s best, but some of the best ever written. Vedder wrote the lyrics to ‘Black’ while on a plane travelling from San Diego to Seattle, where he would meet Pearl Jam for the first time. Vedder wrote the lyrics about a past relationship. There are some truly beautiful lines in his lyrics, such as ‘sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay’, referring to his relationship as a blank page or a new beginning. Another stand-out line being in the chorus, “And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass of what was everything. These lyrics are enough to send shivers down the spine of any listener, along with, ‘I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you will be a star, in somebody else’s sky, but why can’t it be mine’. The song reaches its best point in the final chorus and outro, with the repeat of a now-iconic guitar melody. The producer of ‘Black’, Rick Parasher, happened to be a keyboard player and added some keyboard parts to ‘Black’, like a Wurlitzer piano in the verse, and a grand piano in the elaborate outro section, which makes it sound huge and powerful. Layers and layers of sweeping melodies are added to the outro as it fades to silence. Following this song is the 12-string bass intro of ‘Jeremy’, a dark, haunting song about an 11-year-old boy who shot himself in front of his English class. The bass riff evolves as the song progresses. ‘Jeremy’ proves once again that simplicity is the key to writing a great rock song. The song features Eddie Vedder’s best vocals on the entire album, and remains one of Pearl Jam’s most commercially successful songs. 

Next up is ‘Oceans’ which can be seen as almost the ‘palate cleanser’ of Ten. it has great stylistic and musical differences to the rest of the album, featuring drummer Dave Krusen on only percussion instruments instead of a drum kit.  Eddie Vedder’s vocals are harmonized, with two overlapping vocal tracks. The guitar plays the song out, leading into ‘Porch’, an upbeat contrast to ‘Oceans’. ‘Porch’ features a long instrumental break in the middle section, often the moment in Pearl Jam’s early live shows where Eddie Vedder would perform some dangerous stunt, like diving into the audience from a camera crane, or hanging from a theatre balcony, then letting go, the audience breaking a potential fall to his death. ‘Garden’ features an intricate guitar riff, and the band playing generally more laid back, with softer vocals from Vedder. In similarity to other songs on the album, the energy lifts in the chorus, with louder drums and Vedder’s vocals intensifying. At the end of the guitar solo, the band drops out, leaving the guitar ringing, before Vedder ushers the band back in for the final chorus. The song fades, leading into ‘Deep’, the song on the album with possibly the most influence from 60s and 70s rock and blues. Ten finishes with an elaborate, 9-minute song called ‘Release’. Technically, this track has two parts to it: there’s the song ‘Release’, and then ‘Slave’, an interlude similar to that which opens the album. ‘Release’ opens with an intricate guitar riff, which fades in slowly, followed by the drum track, and the sound of some kind of synthesizer, or keyboard instrument. The song’s soft, swinging, relaxed feel is what I enjoy about it the most. The vocals enter, singing the same note as the synthesiser. This is the song on the album where the vocals really get time to shine, due to the relaxed nature of the music. After the first chorus, the guitar drops out, casting even more light on the outstanding vocals. Small synthesiser melodies are played at the end of each vocal line. The song ramps up as Vedder sings, “I hold the pain, release me”. ‘Release’ ends in true Pearl Jam style, with (unsurprisingly) great vocals, and guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCreedy cranking out the chords. The rest of the band ceases, leaving the guitar playing a repeat of three chords, which fade into silence. At this point, the unfamiliar listener would conclude that the album is over. The silence lasts a few seconds before the outro track ‘Slave’ fades in. ‘Slave’ is written mainly revolving around Jeff Ament’s bass riff, with the addition of a very simple drum beat. Timpani parts are added later in the track, with weird synth sounds seeping all over the track. ‘Master/Slave’ has a heavy resemblance to 60s psychedelic rock interludes by bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Rick Parasher, the album’s producer, played a large part in the writing of this song, improvising programmed keyboard sections along with the bass line. I like the experimentality of this song, and I feel that it is a great way to open and close the album

 Background 

Part 1: Grunge

Ten is seen as one of the first albums of the grunge era (the album was released a month before Nirvana’s Nevermind). The grunge era was a three-year musical period that remains one of my favourites in history. The genre was the rebellion against the hair metal bands of the 1980s like Motley Crue, Poison and Journey. By the end of the 1980s, as bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden were starting up, the public had grown bored of the repetitive, obnoxious nonsense of the hair metal era, and was ready for something different. That something different would be embraced by the world on September 10, 1991, in the form of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. This song was the lead single from Nevermind and completely changed rock radio. Now bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and of course Pearl Jam were suddenly getting regular airplay. These bands quickly went from playing clubs and bars together to playing sold-out arena tours together. Despite being a global music phenomenon, the bands of the grunge movement were always resentful of the spotlight. I often wonder how grunge became mainstream, rather than remaining part of the underground music scene. The genre managed to keep up its punk rock roots after going mainstream. Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder hated interviews and would often outclass interviewers, simply because they had been thrust into the spotlight and were longing for a sense of normalcy. This is also why Pearl Jam did everything in their power to prevent ‘Black’ from being released as a single from Ten. They knew that the song would give them more fame than they ever wanted.

Part 2: Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam formed following the demise of other Seattle bands. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were part of an 80s grunge band called Green River. After they disbanded, the pair began playing with vocalist Andrew Wood, from another band called Malfunkshun. After recruiting Wood, the band Mother Love Bone was formed. Mother Love Bone recorded and toured intensively in 1988 and 1989, and were eventually signed to a record label, PolyGram, in early 1989. The band released their debut album, Apple, in July 1990, but the band had since fallen apart after Wood died four months earlier of a heroin overdose. A few months after the demise of Mother Love Bone, Gossard began writing and rehearsing with Mike McCreedy. After reconnecting with Ament, the trio compiled a five song demo tape, which they sent out trying to find a vocalist. Among the songs on this tape were some of the songs that were eventually released on Ten. this tape eventually found its way to Eddie Vedder. Vedder listened to the tape and wrote lyrics to three of the songs. Two of these songs would later become ‘Once’ and ‘Alive’. The band were impressed enough with Vedder’s vocals to fly him to Seattle to jam, writing 3 more songs together. Within a week, Vedder had joined the band. In March 1991, the band recorded Ten. Ten remains Pearl Jam’s most well-known and successful album.

Commercial Success

Ten was not an immediate success for Pearl Jam. Even after Nirvana had made their MTV debut in September 1991, completely changing rock radio,  very few people were talking about Pearl Jam. Music fans were, but the mainstream was not. It wasn’t until April 1992, with the release of the second single, ‘Even Flow’, that Pearl Jam blew up and were embraced by the mainstream. The album made it into the top ten of the Billboard 200 on May 30, 1992, nine months after it was released, reaching number eight. Ten would peak at number two on the Billboard 200. The album spent a total of 264 weeks on the charts, making it one of the top 15 charting albums of all time. Ten’s success continued into 1993, when it out sold Nirvana’s Nevermind, and Pearl Jam’s second album, Vs. As of February 2013, Ten had sold 13 million copies in the US and was certified 13x platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The album’s single ‘Jeremy’ was nominated in two categories at the 35th annual Grammy awards in 1993: ‘Best Rock Song’ and ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’, and also received four awards at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, including ‘Video Of The Year’ and ‘Best Group Video’. 

Conclusion 

In August of this year, 2021, Ten will celebrate its 30th anniversary. While there is no doubt that this is a huge milestone for Pearl Jam, to me, and many other fans of this album, age couldn’t matter less. This is a timeless album. The brilliant, anthemic songs on this album are songs that know no boundaries of time. They are like blazing bright flames that will continue to burn and resonate with many more future generations. Pearl Jam is a band that I believe has made a name for themselves for many years to come and will no doubt be an influence for the future generations of musicians and bands.