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 Dark and powerful debut of Pearl Jam... Mar 21, 2010
Pearl Jam came out of left field and knocked the music industry on its rear with their debut release "Ten". On its release date of August 27, 1991, it was not yet successful. It wasn't until they released the single `Jeremy' with its memorable and controversial music video that Pearl Jam's popularity exploded.
"Ten" is a perfect 10! Lyrically dark and depressing, but musically uplifting and powerful! Mike McCready and Stone Gossard make the album soar with their amazing guitars. Jeff Ament beautifully accents and carries the melodies with his top-notch bass. Dave Krusen assaults each song with his hammering drums. Eddie Vedder scolds life and faces demons with his amazing voice and thought-provoking lyrics.
"Ten" fades in with a meditative tune led by samba percussion and Jeff Ament's bass. This gives way to a screeching guitar bringing in the first track, `Once'. A great hard-hitting rock song and a great opener.
`Even Flow' is a straight-forward rock anthem, led by a now-classic guitar riff. Labeled as the greatest anthem of "Generation X", `Alive' is a definite classic. It's a powerful, mid-paced song with a climactic finish due to McCready's amazing guitar solo(only one of his many great solos on the album). `Why Go' begins with a quick drum and bass intro that is joined by crunching guitar. A pretty guitar riff that sounds like it's being broadcasted over the airwaves starts off another classic, `Black'. There's great blues guitar throughout, and then the song is carried out by a wailing guitar. `Jeremy' opens with a haunting bass line, and has the most catching and beautiful melody on the album. Very powerful. While it is an awesome song, `Jeremy' is most known for its video, which is what broke Pearl Jam into mainstream success. Not wanting their songs interpreted and remembered as videos, Pearl Jam stopped making music videos after `Jeremy'(their next music video wouldn't be until 1998 for `Do The Evolution', which is fully animated) . Another contender for best melody is `Oceans'. Great bass line during the verses, great rhythm guitar during bridges, and pounding drums during the instrumental breakdowns. `Porch' is a standout, adrenaline-feuled tune that is angry and genuinely structured with a great climax. `Garden' slows things down with a great rock song that builds from brooding folk to arena rock with good bass during the verses and amazing walls of guitar during the chorus. About halfway through is a great instrumental breakdown with a cool, understated guitar solo. `Deep' is the most frantic and venomous song on "Ten", it is beautiful chaos!
The album closes with the slow-paced `Release', a beautiful afterthought that builds with power into a great 3-note guitar riff. Once the song fades out, that familiar meditative tune makes its way back into your ears to bookend an excellent album.
"Ten" is a sure classic, and one of the great triumphs of Grunge and Rock N Roll!
5 HUGE STARS!
PJ Fun Facts: Rumor has it that the name "Pearl Jam" originates from Eddie Vedder's claim that he had a grandmother named pearl married to a native American who used to make hallucinogenic jam. The band's original name was Mookie Blaylock(a basketball player), and they titled their album "Ten" in tribute to his jersey number.
Black is the greatest song ever recorded Oct 21, 2009
This album is amazing through and through. But I challenge any human being whose ever been in love to listen to Black without coming to tears. Black is the embodiment of what music should be. Music is supposed to move us and make us feel something. I've been listening to this album since its release and I still come to tears every time I listen to Black some 18 years later. The song is so powerful it almost overcomes the listener. There is no other song I've ever heard from any other artist that so clearly takes a thought or feeling and passes it on to the listener. This album, and Black in particular, is the pinnacle of what music can and should be.
0 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 The best Pearl Jam album. Aug 19, 2009
This was Pearl Jam's only good album and it's nothing stellar. Jermey is pretty good, Deep is a good song, Evenflow is good, Why Go is good the rest and every album after were just garbage, and Backspacer will prove that point perfectly if anyone has heard it yet, it's total puke. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains thats grunge, and even more so than grunge crap it's awesome music. Pearl Jam are posers.
0 of 7 found the following review helpful:
bad back then, worse now Aug 18, 2009
I remember well when this one came out. MTV "fanboys" immediately switched from hard rock to the grunge bandwagon hailing pearljam and the other grunge raggers as the new thing. The fact is, if you listened to ten or watched the videos you'd be asking yourself "what am I missing here?" - the musicianship is atrocious, the songs plodding, the singer's voice is monotonous yet this band behaved like they were the Doors..give us a break please
Luckily real rock music is now back and this kind of poserrock is now forgotten..same for soundgarden mudhoney stonetemple whatever...what a waste of air.....all those years..
 Current classic Aug 18, 2009
Rightfully one of the 90's loudest rock attacks. For a brief moment, as Pearl Jam entered the scene with this blistering debut, they helped to usher arena rock into more thoughtful areas without loosing any of the aggression they proceeded to shed over the next twenty years.
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