Breaking Records

Pearl Jam yields modern classic

It is true that grunge has crumbled to the floor. But Pearl Jam has emerged from the rubble firmly clutching its unadulterated integrity, with its passion unfurled. The band has weathered the media storm and sustained the kind of gargantuan attention that, for a time, had morphed a once chatty surfer named Edward Vedder into a monosyllabic recluse.

Now five albums into its career, Pearl Jam has finally eased into a comfortable niche - still shunning commercial monoliths like TicketMaster, but at the same time revealing just enough of its opinions and impressions to keep listeners watering at the mouth for new material, or (gasp!) the chance to see the band play live.

No clichés. No imitations. The curtains draw, and the shades go down.

Act Five, Scene One opens with a bright flash of fire, as the furious riff of "Brain of J" rocks harder than any of the esteemed material on debut album "Ten." Pearl Jam is back. Better than ever.

The song's sheer magnificence makes you wonder if you should continue listening to the rest of the album, since the danger of it overwhelming anything that follows is frighteningly obvious.

After all, this is an album that surpasses all of the band's previously recorded work. Its scope and depth outweighs the competition in virtually all aspects of the art itself, with 13 songs worth of peaks to scale and unlimited freedom to inhale the splendor.

What an intoxicating aroma it is. From the soaring "Faithful" and inspirational "Given To Fly," to the chilling "In Hiding," "Yield" showcases a Pearl Jam that has taken a much more challenging approach to songwriting, placing a greater emphasis on the textures of individual parts and the subtleties of unexpected chord progressions.

And its adventurous feel works on all of the album's multi-faceted layers, due in part to the consistent imagery Eddie Vedder lyrically weaves through the album's many strands. There is talk of the spiritual while "drawing angels in the dirt" on "Pilate," as well as on the epic single "Given to Fly," where Vedder spins the tale of a liberated youth, "arms wide open with the sea as his floor" poised to twist the key to "the lock on the chains he saw everywhere." The former furthers the religious tones, aligning the narrator to Pontius Pilate underneath a stomping base-laden chorus.

Pearl Jam
	"Yield" 4 stars Epic Records Reviewed by Brian Cohen, Daily Music Editor

Change is another of "Yield"'s recurrent lyrical themes, most evident on "No Way," where Eddie reveals his contradictory stance on his ability to influence the masses: "I'm not trying to make a difference/ I'll stop trying to make a difference, no way." Earlier, Vedder borders on apocalyptic in "Brain of J" as he promises, "The whole world will be different soon/ the whole world will be believing." Ed, Ed, Ed - we've been believing all along.

And unbridled proof is everywhere you listen. "MFC" rolls out of the box with traditional Pearl Jam gallop, amidst a jockeying Who-tinged lead-in and a pounding chorus of steady drumming. Jack Irons has stamped his creative contribution all over this record, not only through his rumbling drum patterns, but also via his insidious manipulations of rhythm and tempo, most notably on the Beck-meets-Neil Young "Push Me Pull Me" and the transitory musical puddle "The Color Red" (denoted only as a small red dot on the album liner notes). Irons doesn't let his gift clutter "Yield"'s fast paced material, but instead he heightens each song's intensity with well-timed fills and robust frameworks. Even the balmy balladry of the Springsteen-esque "Low light" benefits from a little extra percussive boost.

In fact, the musicianship on "Yield" maintains the original spark of "Ten" but adds the adventurous experimentation of 1996's "No Code," stretching the creativity of songs like "Do The Evolution," where the middle verse breaks down into a evangelical choir chant of "Hallelujah." Closing salvo "All Those Yesterdays" sounds like a warped hidden track from the "White Album," with harmonized bridges and expansive sequences of burgeoning guitar from Stone Gossard and Mike McCready.

Vedder compiles a strikingly honest string of hopes and dreams into "Wishlist" as he croons "I wish I was a neutron bomb/ for once I could go off" and "I wish I was the verb to trust and never let you down." This mid-paced gem gives the listener a rare chance to peak inside Vedder's swirling persona and is perhaps the singer's most candid lyrical offering to date.

"Faithful" spurts out an anthemic chorus and could easily be a future single thanks to more seminal greatness, marching from tame to tumultuous with uplifting glory.

But as extraordinary as all the material on "Yield" is, nothing is better than "In Hiding" - sacred brilliance that can and will give you goose bumps. With a rolling introduction and a seductive pre-chorus, this song showcases Vedder at his best. His tenor soars over his bandmate's synchronicity and you can hear his soul in every word.

Unlike the countless numbers of listless bands in today's musical world, Pearl Jam is one of the only groups to successfully continue to expand and experiment with its musical genius as it progresses with every new song.

There will be no better guitar record this year - no other current band is capable of evolving while at the same time staying true to itself and its purpose of creating the best music it possibly can, loving every single minute.

02-03-98