01. Gonna See My Friend
02. Got Some
03. The Fixer
04. Johnny Guitar
05. Just Breathe
06. Amongst The Waves
07. Unthought Known
08. Supersonic
09. Speed Of Sound
10. Force Of Nature
11. The End

Bass – Jeff Ament
Drums, Percussion – Matt Cameron
Guitar – Mike McCready, Stone Gossard
Guitar, Vocals – Eddie Vedder
+
Cello – Danny LauferCopyist
Horn – Brice Andrus, Richard Deane, Susan Welty
Viola – Cathy Lynn
Violin – Christopher Pulgram, Justin Bruns

Though you shouldn’t feel too sorry for a bunch of multimillionaires who’ve enjoyed a long career characterised by their doing more or less whatever they want, it should still be noted, by-the-by, that Pearl Jam are an absurdly misunderstood band. It’s true that mega-selling debut Ten was pomp-rock anthems agogo, but the fact that they were still pegged as classicist bores over a decade later flies directly in the face of such aggressively challenging outings as Vs, Vitalogy and Riot Act.

There’s no one obvious explanation for why Pearl Jam have finally achieved a measure of hipness as they arrive at ninth album Backspacer. Distance from the baggage of grunge, a dearth of quality peers, Eddie Vedder’s well-received Into the Wild soundtrack, a generation of rock critics that grew up with their 90s releases: these may or may not be factors. Whatever the case, the irony is that Pearl Jam find themselves in vogue just as they release their most musically conservative record since Ten.

Fortunately it’s also their most fun one. A usually confrontational, angst-ridden band, you’d be seriously pushing it to say Pearl Jam have ever really written an honest-to-God pop song before. Backspacer comfortably contains at least four killer examples, with the one-two-three of Got Some, The Fixer and Johnny Guitar easily the most nakedly exhilarating passage on any of their records. Fast, lean, melodic and hooky, they tread a nice line between new wave tautness (Joe Jackson and Buzzcocks would be solid reference points), the more flippant moments of their old idols The Who, and points that come surprisingly close to reprising the old fashioned teen pop they mined ten years ago with cover Last Kiss.

Backspacer is neither the perfect pop record, nor the perfect Pearl Jam album; its biggest problem is that, shorn of the intensity of yore, the slow songs tend not to hit home that hard. But for the most part pedal is put firmly and thrillingly to metal, and it’s truly great to hear these troubled souls finally having such a blast. --- Andrzej Lukowski, BBC Review

To był pierwszy album Pearl Jam, jaki poznawałem na bieżąco. Uczestniczyłem nawet w jednym z promujących go koncertów. Dlatego te mam do "Backspacer" pewien sentyment. Nie jest to oczywiście żadne wielkie dzieło - zresztą nikt nie powinien tego oczekiwać od tego zespołu, a już na pewno nie na tym etapie kariery. To po prostu zbiór jedenastu krótkich (trwających od niespełna trzech do niewiele ponad czterech minut), prostych kawałków, które niosą sporą dawkę energii, bezpretensjonalności i zaskakującego w przypadku tej grupy optymizmu. To najbardziej pozytywny, przepełniony radością album Pearl Jam. Nic dziwnego, że słucha się go tak przyjemnie.

Na albumie dominują energetyczne i bez wyjątku bardzo chwytliwe kawałki, czego przykładem "Gonna See My Friends", "Got Some", "The Fixer", "Johny Guitar", "Force of Nature", czy nieco bardziej stonowany, ale tak samo chwytliwy "Amongst the Waves". Całość jest dość zróżnicowana. Znalazło się tu miejsce dla akustycznych ballad, nieco w klimacie Led Zeppelin ("Just Breathe", "The End"). Jest też punkrockowy "Supersonic" (za którym nigdy nie przepadałem i wolałbym żeby go tu jednak nie było), jak również dwa nieco bardziej popowe utwory, w których dużą rolę odgrywają brzmienia klawiszowe ("Unthought Known", "Speed of Sound"), jednak dobrze wpasowują się one w charakter całości.

Może i żaden z zawartych tutaj utworów słuchany osobno nie robi wrażenia, ale razem tworzą naprawdę zgrabną i przyjemną całość, która dodaje pozytywnej energii i wprowadza w dobry nastrój. ---Paweł Pałasz, pablosreviews.blogspot.com

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1. Arms Aloft
2. World Wide Suicide
3. Animal
4. Got Some
5. State of Love and Trust
6. I Am Mine
7. Unthought Known
8. Rearview Mirror
9. The Fixer                     play
10. Nothing As It Seems
11. In Hiding
12. Just Breathe
13. Jeremy
14. Public Image
15. Spin The Black Circle        play
16. Porch
17. Alive
18. Yellow Ledbetter

Personnel:
* Jeff Ament – bass guitar, layout, black and white portraits
* Matt Cameron – drums
* Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals
* Mike McCready – lead guitar, rhythm guitar
* Eddie Vedder – vocals, guitar

Given that alternative rock giants Pearl Jam have released hundreds of concert recordings in their official bootleg series, this live compilation seems a fairly unimaginative way to celebrate the band’s 20th anniversary. Hardcore fans can, of course, simply ignore it, but they’re exactly the people who might’ve hoped for something more. As an introduction to Pearl Jam’s on-stage prowess, however, this is a tidy effort.

The spiritual successor, and something of a companion piece, to 1998’s Live on Two Legs, Live on Ten Legs was recorded around the globe between 2003 and 2010, offering 18 freshly remixed and re-mastered tracks spanning the band’s entire career. Eschewing the greatest hits package formula, the emphasis and omission in the song selection tells its own story: five Ten-era tunes, four from their most recent outing Backspacer, nothing from the unpopular No Code and a track or two from the rest. All of which indicates that even if they tacitly – perhaps subconsciously – now acknowledge that their 1991 debut Ten remains their best album, this is a band moving forward in the firm belief that their greatest work may still lie ahead of them.

Kicking off with a rousing cover of Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros’ Arms Aloft, Live on Ten Legs achieves an odd coherence given its cut-and-paste nature. It’s easy to forget the fact that some of these recordings are separated by seven years, and by the time Jeremy rolls around three quarters of the way through, the atmosphere of a single, emotionally-charged event has just about been established. The crowds are uniformly huge – no intimate one-on-one exchanges here – and although the most rapturous responses are reserved for Ten’s heartfelt vignettes, the band injects every performance with a unique fervour. This is unlikely ever to be regarded as a great live album, but it’s about as slick a stitched-together affair as you’ll hear.

Pearl Jam took a lot of flak in the early days. Despite their enormous success – some would say because of it – sections of the media lambasted their lack of grunge credentials. Seattle scene contemporaries such as Nirvana, Mudhoney and Alice in Chains certainly exuded an air of danger, which Pearl Jam just didn’t share. But that’s probably why they survived where so many others did not, and in Live on Ten Legs we have another quiet celebration of what this band has always been about: music. --- Greg Moffitt, BBC Review

Nie jestem absolutnie wielkim fanem tejże grupy ("zawodowo" słucham Pink Floyd), ale musze powiedzieć, że chlopaki z Pearl Jam bardzo się postarali, by ten album sie podobał. Ja odkryłem tu zupełnie innego, nowego Pearl Jama, który podobał mi się swojego czasu tylko na koncertowych bootlegach. Album został wydany podobnie jak trzy ostatnie ich plyty: (przypomnijmy: "Vitalogy", "No Code", "Yield") w starannie zrobionym kartonowym, lekko matowym opakowaniu. Jakość dźwięku jest wspaniała, a CD dograny do końca (72 min.)

Zaczęli utworem "Corduroy" (w tej chwili moim ulubionym), potem "Given to Fly" z ostatniego albumu "Yield", także świetnie zagranym (niestety z malutkim solem gitarowym po drugiej zwrotce; to chyba najkrótszy kawałek na tej płytce), później "Hail, Hail" i wreszcie "Daughter" z "VS". Następnie akustycznie zagrany "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter In a Small Town" - brzmi prawie jak ten studyjny - jedyna różnica: "cała sala śpiewa (...)". Przez "Untitled" i "MFC" dochodzimy do "Go". Jest to chyba najmocniejszy kawałek na "VS" i właśnie na tej koncertówce. Następne nagranie "Red Mosquito" z "Yield" zupełnie nie pasuje do całego albumu; zabarwiony jakby czymś z country - człowiek czuje się, jak gdyby nie był na koncercie, lecz na teksańskiej pustyni, spokojnie zmierzając do swojej wioski na koniu... Na jego miejsce możnaby wstawić piękny "Who You Are"... Po "Red Mosquito" zaczyna się ta częśc koncertu, którą możnaby słuchać na okrągło. Zacznijmy od ostrego "Even Flow", przez "Off He Goes", do spokojnego "Nothingman". Potem, obdarzony teledyskiem "Do The Evolution" - brzmi sto razy lepiej niż w studiu. Nie ma porównania. No i na koniec trzy najlepsze: absolutnie przewspaniały "Better Man", następnie 7-minutowy "Black" no i czadowy "Fuckin' Up" autorstwa Neila Younga.

Podsumowując: płyta wspaniała, nawet dobrze jej zrobiło to, że nie znajdziemy tu hitów takich jak "Jeremy" czy "Alive", bo zepsułyby cały album. Gorąco polecam. ---GSB, rockmetal.pl

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A1 	Oceans 	
A2 	State Of Love & Trust 	
A3 	Alive 	
A4 	Black 	
A5 	Soundcheck / Improvisation 	
B1 	Jeremy 	
B2 	Porch 	
B3 	Even Flow 	
B4 	Rockin' In The Free World

Bass – Jeff Ament
Drums – David Abbruzzese
Lead Guitar – Mike McCready
Rhythm Guitar – Stone Gossard
Vocals – Eddie Vedder

In essence, Pearl Jam's MTV Unplugged is truly a classic. While grunge colleagues Nirvana's and Alice In Chains' Unplugged performances are memorable and special for the intimacy, stripped down nature of it and the tender sensibility of Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley respectively, Pearl Jam's combines just that and more, an infectious energy courtesy of frontman Eddie Vedder, and an inimitable, unmatched sense of union between the band and the audience, as if they were one during the entire concert. Pearl Jam's acoustic concert is just so special and unique for so many reasons, it's nearly impossible to be described, it's best when heard and seen. But rest assured, it's a magnificent display of a hugely talented band, capturing possibly one of the most outstanding concerts they've done on tape. ---sputnikmusic.com

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CD 1:
1. Release - Verona, Italy 9-16-06        
2. Alive - Moore Theatre, Seattle 12-22-90        
3. Garden - Zurich, Switzerland 2-19-92        
4. Why Go - Hamburg, Germany 3-10-92        
5. Black - MTV Unplugged, NYC 3-16-92        
6. Blood - Auckland, New Zealand 3-25-95 					play       
7. Last Exit - Taipei, Taiwan, 2-24-95        
8. Not For You - Manila, Philippines 2-26-95        
9. Do The Evolution - Monkeywrench Radio, Seattle 1-31-98        
10. Thumbing My Way - Chop Suey, Seattle 9-6-02        
11. Crown of Thorns - 10th Anniversary, Las Vegas, NV 10-22-00        
12. Let Me Sleep - Arena di Verona steps, Verona, Italy 9-16-06        
13. Walk With Me (with Neil Young) Bridge School Benefit, Mountain View, CA 10-23-10        
14. Just Breathe - SNL, Rockefeller Center, New York City 3-13-10        

CD 2:
1. Say Hello 2 Heaven (Demo 1990)        
2. Times Of Trouble (Demo 1990)        
3. Acoustic #1 (Demo 1991        
4. It Ain't Like That (Demo 1990)        
5. Need To Know (Demo 2007)        
6. Be Like Wind (Score 2010)        
7. Given To Fly (Inst. 2010) 					play       
8. Nothing As It Seems (Demo 1999)        
9. Nothing As It Seems (2001)        
10. Indifference (2006)        
11. Of The Girl (Inst. 2000)        
12. Faithfull (2006)        
13. Bu$Hleaguer (2003)        
14. Better Man (2010)        
15. Rearviewmirror (2009)

Band members:
    Jeff Ament - bass guitar 
    Stone Gossard - rhythm and lead guitar 
    Mike McCready - lead guitar 
    Eddie Vedder - lead vocals 
    Matt Cameron - drums, percussion, backing vocals 

Paired together like a plaid shirt and a crippling sense of self-doubt, Cameron Crowe and Pearl Jam have travelled a long road. The music hack turned film director and the grunge survivors first worked together on Crowe's 1992 film Singles, which fictionalised the rock scene of late 80s Seattle. Two decades on, the less puerile, markedly more press-shy band have allowed Crowe access to their recollections of 20 years together. The result is a homely, fans-only affair; there's energy, but little focus. Key events – the Roskilde tragedy, the Ticketmaster boycott – are given brief solos amid the long drone of concert footage. There's no outside voice to allow perspective (barring the odd chip-in from Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell) and Crowe seems reluctant to mix in much of his own story. Vedder is charming, his band rather bland. As trips down memory lane go, it's a bit of a trudge. ---Henry Barnes, guardian.co.uk

The Pearl Jam Twenty soundtrack is a career-spanning set of live recordings, demos and unreleased material that illuminates the band's creative process and showcases their awe-inspiring power as a live act. The set kicks off with a handful of live recordings of classic tunes from Ten, but goes on to include two Temple of the Dog demos, a gorgeous cover of Mother Love Bone's "Crown of Thorns," the previously unheard recording "Acoustic #1" and highlights from their appearances on MTV Unplugged and Saturday Night Live. ---totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com

Z ponad 1200 godzin niepublikowanych i trudno dostępnych materiałów Cameron Crowe - znany reżyser filmowy (Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky) przedstawił 20 letnią podróż muzyków do miejsca, w którym są obecnie - jednej z najważniejszych rockowych kapel świata. Dodatkową atrakcją filmu są nakręcone niedawno wywiady z poszczególnymi muzykami, w tym wokalistą Eddie Vedderem, który opowiada o najważniejszych, także tych najbardziej bolesnych momentach w karierze Pearl Jam. Jak w wywiadzie dla Rolling Stone'a powiedział sam basista Jeff Ament: 'Ten film to taki list miłosny Camerona do nas - równie bolesny, co schlebiający. Pokazuje trudy naszego dorastania i mimo, że jest bardzo dobry, muszę przyznać, że wcale nie łatwo nam się go ogląda....".

Niniejszy album to dwupłytowy zestaw mało znanych wersji koncertowych najważniejszych utworów z całej kariery Pearl Jam, jak i rarytasów, które nigdy wcześniej nie ujrzały światła dziennego. Całość promować będzie jeden z nich: cover utworu "Crown of Thorns" z repertuaru Mother Love Bone - poprzedniej formacji muzyków PJ - opublikowany po raz pierwszy z wokalem Eddiego Veddera. Album wydany został w wersji standardowej z 36-stronicową książeczką.

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A1 	Once 	3:51
A2 	Even Flow 	4:53
A3 	Alive 	5:41
A4 	Why Go 	3:19
A5 	Black 	5:44
A6 	Jeremy 	5:18
B1 	Oceans 	2:41
B2 	Porch 	3:30
B3 	Garden 	4:58
B4 	Deep 	4:18
B5 	Release 	9:03

Bass – Jeff
Drums – Dave
Guitar – Stone
Lead Guitar – Mike
Percussion, Piano, Organ – Rick Parashar
Vocals – Eddie

Nirvana's Nevermind may have been the album that broke grunge and alternative rock into the mainstream, but there's no underestimating the role that Pearl Jam's Ten played in keeping them there. Nirvana's appeal may have been huge, but it wasn't universal; rock radio still viewed them as too raw and punky, and some hard rock fans dismissed them as weird misfits. In retrospect, it's easy to see why Pearl Jam clicked with a mass audience -- they weren't as metallic as Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, and of Seattle's Big Four, their sound owed the greatest debt to classic rock. With its intricately arranged guitar textures and expansive harmonic vocabulary, Ten especially recalled Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. But those touchstones might not have been immediately apparent, since -- aside from Mike McCready's Clapton/Hendrix-style leads -- every trace of blues influence has been completely stripped from the band's sound. Though they rock hard, Pearl Jam is too anti-star to swagger, too self-aware to puncture the album's air of gravity. Pearl Jam tackles weighty topics -- abortion, homelessness, childhood traumas, gun violence, rigorous introspection -- with an earnest zeal unmatched since mid-'80s U2, whose anthemic sound they frequently strive for. Similarly, Eddie Vedder's impressionistic lyrics often make their greatest impact through the passionate commitment of his delivery rather than concrete meaning. His voice had a highly distinctive timbre that perfectly fit the album's warm, rich sound, and that's part of the key -- no matter how cathartic Ten's tersely titled songs got, they were never abrasive enough to affect the album's accessibility. Ten also benefited from a long gestation period, during which the band honed the material into this tightly focused form; the result is a flawlessly crafted hard rock masterpiece. ---Steve Huey, AllMusic Review

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1    "Brain of J." – 3:00
2    "Faithfull" – 4:18
3    "No Way" – 4:19
4    "Given to Fly" – 4:01
5    "Wishlist" – 3:26
6    "Pilate" – 3:00
7    "Do the Evolution" – 3:54
8    "Untitled [Red Dot]" – 1:06
9    "MFC' – 2:27
10    "Low Light" – 3:46
11    "In Hiding" – 5:00
12    "Push Me Pull Me" – 2:28
13    "All Those Yesterdays" – 7:46
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14	  "Pearl Jam - Leatherman" - 2:31

Jeff Ament – bass guitar, vocals, photography, layout
Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar, vocals, bass and lead guitar on 'Do the Evolution'
Jack Irons – drums, percussion, vocals on track 8
Mike McCready – lead guitar
Eddie Vedder – lead vocals, rhythm guitar

Perhaps shaken up by the chilly reception to the adventurous No Code, Pearl Jam returned to straight-ahead hard rock on their fifth album, Yield. There remain a few weird flourishes scattered throughout the album, from the spoken word "Push Me, Pull Me" to the untitled Eastern instrumental bonus track, but overall, Yield is the most direct record the group has made since Ten. That doesn't mean it's the best. Pearl Jam have trouble coming up with truly undeniable hard rock hooks, and Eddie Vedder remains at his most compelling on folk-tinged, meditative numbers like "Low Light," "In Hiding," and "All Those Yesterdays." They also fall prey to their habit of dividing the record into rock and ballad sides, which makes Yield a little exhausting, even at its concise length. It also emphasizes the relative lack of exceptional material. Yield is more consistent than Vitalogy and No Code, but it doesn't have songs that reach the highs of "Better Man," "Corduroy," or "Who You Are." Ironically, the album doesn't rock hard enough -- "Do the Evolution" and "Brain of J." have garage potential, but there's more bite and distortion on Vedder's voice than there is on the guitars. It's hard to view Yield as a disaster, since Pearl Jam's conviction still rings true, but it's frustrating that journeyman tendencies have replaced the desperate, searching confusion that was the most appealing element of the band's music. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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