Riot Act

by

Pearl Jam

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Sigh.

Every post grunge-era Pearl Jam album resurfaces these kind of talks. Why isn't X better than Y? Why couldn't they have done X like Y? Why isn't Ed/Mike/Stone/Jeff/Current Drummer better than they were on Y?

Honestly, I'm surprised people want to talk in circles about something like this.

I can remember when Vitalogy came out, listening the hell out of it, while many of my friends/contemporaries/whatever said that it stuck. "What's with all the punk stuff? Why did they put crap on there like "Bugs" and "Foxymop"? It ruined the album." At the time I can remember thinking that these once flannel-clad individuals, who just a few years prior had gobbled up any shred of music made available by the band, were now turning a deaf ear because there is a two minute musical/vocal track where Eddie repeats P-R-I-V-A-C-Y, and a couple great little experimental tracks (one of which, was placed conveniently at the end of the album for easy skip-over). This astounded me, because nearly all my friends hated Vitalogy, and I thought it was their strongest work to date. If you went in and cut out all of the experimental stuff, you still have one of the best 45 minutes or so of rock produced in the '90s. But no matter. This was the beginning.

No Code followed up a few years later. Barely a blip on the pop culture radar. "Who You Are" came and went as a first single, and nobody was left around for the following two radio releases "Hail Hail" and "Off He Goes," which rank (to me) as two of their best. No matter, thought I, their my band now. "Not For You" indeed.

Yield came and went, no biggie. No videos, no promotion. Maybe the best rock album to come out in the late '90s, totally ignored, except for some hardcore PJ fans & some great reviews.

Then came the tour, which I had the opportunity to see a couple of shows. People said things to me like "They're still together?" and "I sure wish Eddie would write something more like Yellow Ledbetter." Meanwhile, I was more than satisfied w/ performances of "Evolution" and "Given To Fly".

Between "Yield" and the next album was the "good intention paving the path to hell" single that was "Last Kiss". Sure the proceeds went to the Kosovo refuges, and it was kept from the #1 spot on Billboard only by "Livin' La Vida Loca", but the die was cast, and the band was reluctantly thrown back into the spotlight. Still, no video, no promotion.

Binaural came out in 2000. Good songs. Overproduced? Under-produced? Maybe. Still, "Grievance" and "Insignificance" alone made the album better than good. "Eddie's voice doesn't sound as strong," and "Why doesn't he belt something out like he did on Vs," and "Where's my Limp Bizkit album" were heard at the record stores. The 2000 tour that followed was one of the best to date, maybe the best. Unfortunately the tragedy in Europe occurred, and briefly brought the band back into the spotlight. "Pearl Jam was playing a festival in Europe? Must be the only place they can sell tickets anymore," I heard.

Now comes "Riot Act". Once again, same old story, same old song and dance. 15 songs, some funky, some experimental, some traditional, and still the same comments. "Well, 10 years ago, they'd have never done an album like this," and "Why can't Ed sing like he did on X, Y, or Z?" Well, there's your answer. 1991, by my last check, was nearly 12 years ago. In 1991 you had some great bands, like Nirvana and Faith No More, and Soundgarden, and PJ. You also had a ton of crap and pop on the radio (hair metal, NKOTB, etc). The more things change the more they stay the same. 2002 we get a new Nirvana single (not their best-effort, but I'll sure as hell take it), a new album w/ vocals by Chris Cornell (backed by RAGE...what a concept!), as well as a brilliant single by Pearl Jam, and a new album that (what a frickin' surprise) doesn't bow down or bend over for anyone. What brilliance! Pearl Jam doing something their own way? Whodathunkit? And still we hear..."Eddie, why can't you sing like you did on X? I miss those days."

Well, I wish the Beatles would put out another "White Album", but it's not going to happen.

Pearl Jam is here. They're still putting out damn good music. They didn't kill themselves, they didn't succumb to drugs, they didn't marry super models and fancy cars and run them both off cliffs. They haven't done commercials for soda, or for car companies, and they've yet to release a over-hyped, over-marketed greatest hits collection in order to pacify all those who should have been buying their albums all along.

To Quote a track from Riot Act: "I've seen it all before... bring it on, cause i'm no victim ...."

Pearl Jam has a funny habit of misnaming its albums. The band's 1991 debut, the smash hit Ten, contained 11 tracks; 1993's confrontationally-titled Vs. was released at the peak of the band's popularity, amidst a crushing wave of media hype; the dense 1996 effort "No Code" required a decoder; and 1998's Yield, despite its we-can-go-no-further moniker, was a stirring return to accessible, rocking form that suggested a future of bright musical possibilities. It's doubtful that such misleading titles have been intentional, although given some of the band's almost willfully difficult output and its occasional contrarian stances (tilting at Ticketmaster's corporate windmill, shilling for Presidential spoiler Ralph Nader), it wouldn't come as a complete surprise.

Either way, the streak continues with Riot Act, a title suggestive of unbridled passion stuck on an album of middling, hook-free doorstops. Oh, there's a riot goin' on, all right, but it's a quiet one, of the internal variety. Riot Act is the sound of a popular band fighting hard not to be populist, continually trying to distance itself from the hits that afforded the financial security that in turn allows its latter-day experimentation. Don't get your humble reviewer wrong: it's always laudable to see a band of Pearl Jam's stature tinker with its sound, especially given the disturbing hegemony, the almost calculated accessibility, of some of the band's earlier and most revered hits. But while it's an easier listen than 2000's Binaural, Riot Act isn't exactly listener-friendly.

Not that it doesn't try. One can hear attempts to engage on songs like "Can't Keep," the reaching "Get Right" and, especially, the strident, individualist anthem "I Am Mine." But if the spirit seems willing, the flesh is all too weak. None of the songs ever truly achieve lift-off, hobbled by somber melodies and wrong-turn riffs that stumble more often than soar. And thoughtful lyrics (including tunes from bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron) often trip over their self-importance. On the spoken-sung "Bushleaguer," Vedder lambastes our current President in a non-moving monotone, using a clever baseball analogy ("Born on third/ thinks he got a triple") to obscure the fact that his own beloved Green Party candidate bears some of the blame for getting George W. elected.

The most egregious moment, however, comes during "Love Boat Captain," in which Vedder solemnly intones "It's been sung before/ but it can't be said enough/ all you need is love." Well, um, yes, wrong, and wrong again, Eddie; what is it with high-minded political rock stars like you and Bono, who can rattle off reasoned, intelligent opinions on political matters but end up falling back on over-worn rock tropes like this one? Take heart, all you bombed-out residents of Afghanistan, you withering AIDS sufferers, you starved and disease-scarred Third World denizens, all you political prisoners atrophying away in dank dungeons the world over, hoping against hope for Amnesty International to turn you into the next Nelson Mandela -- all you need is love!

It's hard to fault Vedder's idealism, dismayingly simplistic though it might be, and one is more than willing to cut the band some slack, especially given that "Love Boat Captain" touches briefly on the painful subject of the nine fans stampeded to death during the band's performance at the 2000 Roskilde Festival in Denmark. And Riot Act does boast a couple of moments that break out of the miasma; the bracing "Save You" recalls the vitality of Yield and 1994's Vitalogy, and "Cropduster" and "You Are," to name a couple, prove engaging if not fully engrossing.

But good intentions and a smattering of interesting arrangements aren't enough to fully absorb the listener. Riot Act is ultimately quelled by a near-palpable hesitation to go for the bright chord, the singalong hook, the Vs.-era anthem rock at which Pearl Jam is so skilled. Surely there's a happy medium between treading too-familiar musical ground and Riot Act's diffuse refusal to let go the restraints and unashamedly rock. If the members of Pearl Jam don't find that middle ground before long, they'll find themselves going all too gently into the dark night of irrelevance. What if Pearl Jam held a riot, and nobody listened?