Pearl Jam's fourth full-length album marks the beginning of their second effort in two years at trying to launch a real concert tour without TicketMaster.
"No Code" (Epic, ***) notably displays a few of the band's recent influences. The first single, "Who You Are," belies Eddie Vedder's pairing with Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on the likewise spiritual "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack. And Neil Young's touch (from Pearl Jam's collaboration with his 1995 album "Mirror Ball") can be heard on "Smile," a hard grunge rock piece.
Some critics are saying "No Code" is simply a half-hearted effort to stay planted squarely in the middle of alternative-turned-mainstream music by pretending to experiment.
In one sense, they may be right: While the instrumentals are as strong as ever, if not too reminiscent of earlier work, Vedder's lyricism leaves a little to be desired - the first few times around anyway. It seems his ability grows more opaque, both audibly and philosophically. When you actually can hear what he's saying, it makes less sense than usual, even with the partial lyric sheets included in the ever-creative CD package.
This time, the CD container is another decorated cardboard book, but it folds out with hidden pockets, exposing photos and lyric sheets on the backs of little cards that look like Polaroid pictures. The tape is sold in a few differently painted styles - hopefully obsessive fans won't run out and buy each type. The credits even list band members and others as apparent photographers of the "144 Polaroids and black and white" photos on and inside the cover.
The range on the album is decent, from the wildly screeching, short "Lukin" to the story-telling, ponderous "Off He Goes." "Hail, Hail" musically reminds one of "Vitalogy's" political "The Whipping" while the ballad "Sometimes" recalls "Betterman."
However, one could argue that by aimlessly sampling a variety of sounds, Pearl Jam is doing anything but the safe, expected rehashes of the masterpiece "Ten." Their unreal popularity has become that of the masses (album and ticket sales); they're not as well-acclaimed by the industry as they used to be. If they have wanted to change that, it hasn't worked.
Vedder obviously favors expanding his emotional range rather than continually playing the role of Gen-X angst. But never fear, he doesn't abandon his intense social consciousness completely with "Present Tense" and "I'm Open." And again he addresses the fame forced on artists in the introspective "Off He Goes:" "I wonder 'bout his insides/It's like his thoughts are too big for his size."
One thing that hasn't changed remains the creative and strong abilities of metal guitarist Mike McReady and drummer Jack Irons - each pushes his instrument to the limit. Stone Gossard even gets into the singing act with the punk song "Mankind."
In the end, the album remains generally interesting and musically entertaining. While no band can be all things to all people, though critics seem to expect it, perhaps Pearl Jam simply isn't trying to. They've still got a lot of time to do better work, and they seem committed to getting there.
These little guys are Pearl Jam.