Album A Day: Pearl Jam – Yield

Artist: Pearl Jam
Album: Yield
Release Date: February 3, 1998

Yield is, in my mind, the quintessential Pearl Jam album. I feel like it encapsulates the band’s sound, ferocity, and general kickassitude in one complete package. I don’t mean to suggest that it is the band’s best album; I think that honor will always belong to Ten (though Backspacer is making a strong case for taking its place). But what I mean is that if a friend of mine were to come to me with an interest in educating themselves on Pearl Jam’s music, but didn’t have time to sit and listen to the band’s whole catalog or the desire to chop it up into a greatest hits catalog, I would tell them that Yield would be a good place to get a first impression.

Yield is heavy on big rockers like “Brain of J.” or the brilliant career highlight “Given to Fly”, both of which show off the band’s strengths. Pearl Jam can be loud and full of ferocious energy, but doing so never sacrifices brains or good musical technique. And certainly Pearl Jam has all of the above by the bucketload. But at the same time, a pensive, introspective ballad like “Wishlist” gives Eddie Vedder a chance to show off what he can do as a lyricist, and gives the band a chance to show that not every great song needs to be complex and solo-ridden. Meanwhile “The Color Red” shows off the band’s fun side and willingness to improvise (something anybody who’s been to their live show can appreciate), thus completing the portrait of a band whose unpredictability, intensity and pure talent have kept them one of the most consistently captivating bands to watch for the last twenty years.

Pearl Jam – Given to Fly [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==