Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam, one of the most prominent USA rock bands of the nineties, came to this world out of the ashes of Mother Love Bone shortly after its vocalist Andrew Wood died out of heroin OD in 1990. The fresh band recorded their debut long player early in 1991, but, due to different reasons, it was officially released only in August. The album was called Ten and was not a good seller until Nirvana made alternative rock a new youth cult in America, which happened in 1992. Curt Cobain’s famed group easily overcame all competitors until Pearl Jam stood in their way. These guys were very good at playing hard rock riffs back from the seventies along with energy and anger of punk rock of the eighties. After the Nirvana soon collapse, there was a strong need for the new powerful formation to take over their place, and Pearl Jam appeared the perfect match. The hits Jeremy, Evenflow, and Alive, taken from the first long player, were played by all big national stations, while the band was enlarging their fan base with colorful live shows. One of their first big concerts was the performance at Lollapalooza in 1992.

Pearl Jam were quick to gain the status of new rock music superstars, yet the group refused to refer their music to any of the genres. Despite their decision not to back the sophomore studio effort Vs. (1993) with singles or videos, it sold almost a million copies in the first week. In 1994, Pearl Jam preferred to play on small club stages and in college campuses rather than to give big shows on massive arenas. The band also got involved into a nerve-wracking trial fighting the concert managers who revealed bad faith in demanding too high ticket prices. At the same time, the musicians managed to prepare the material for their third full length record, Vitalogy. It saw light of day late in 1994. Within the first two weeks, the album was offered in limited edition on vinyl only, which did not keep it from entering Top 60. As soon as the record became available on CDs and cassettes, Vitalogy flew to the tops of the charts and soon grew multi-platinum. In the first half of 1995, Pearl Jam took part in the making of an album along with Neil Young. The result was the long player Mirror Ball. Due to legal complications, it was only Neil Young’s name mentioned on the cover, while the musicians of the band got only credits concealed in the booklet.

In summer 1996, Pearl Jam issued the fourth studio album that received the No Code title. Although it gained high positions in numerous ratings, the fresh release disenchanted the group’s old fans who disliked the effort to find a new style to follow. Besides, Pearl Jam failed to arrange a full-scale tour to promote the new record. The outfit spent the largest part of 1997 in solitude and silence working on the subsequent album. Named Yield, it attached interest only based on the past achievements of the band, and turned out a commercial failure quickly pushed out of the charts. In 1999, Pearl Jam surprised their supporters with the cover for the pop song Last Kiss. With a huge amount of airplay, this composition became the group’s most successful song in the pop charts and received double gold status as a single. 2000 saw the musicians issue another album, Binaural. To outwit bootleggers, Pearl Jam recorded all of their concerts held to back this studio effort in the format of double CD. The follow-up album prepared by Pearl Jam was the experimental Riot Act (2002) to bear a vivid influence of art-rock. Both listeners and critics declared it one of the best works in the band’s collection. In the next two years, the group issued two anthologies and then, finally, released the self-titled album fully consistent of new material. It was obvious that Pearl Jam began running out of efforts and ideas. The majority of the group’s last releases are live records and compilations. In 2009, the Americans extended their discography with the new edition of their first record, Ten. A bit later, the band came up with a brand new studio record called Backspacer.