Eddie Vedder\u2019s third solo album sounds nothing like his first two\u2026 or like his previous 11 as the frontman for Pearl Jam. <\/p>\n
Make no mistake, the authoritative baritone, earnest lyrics and powerful delivery are still there. But instead of sounding dour, Vedder embraces joy, crafting a throwback to the classic rock of his youth\u2014complete with special guests\u2014and creates a compelling yet fun listen. Most of the songs are not ones he could have performed with Pearl Jam, but the band has always left room for its members to branch off the mothership and do their own thing from time to time. <\/p>\n
The highlights are many. The driving \u201cPower Of Right\u201d is all head rush energy, \u201cInvincible\u201d is a soaring, multi-tracked anthem of hope and \u201cLong Way\u201d is the best Tom Petty song in 30 years; apparently Benmont Tench thought so too, as he contributes keyboards here. \u201cBrother The Cloud\u201d sounds like the more positive flip side of the No Code <\/i>era of Vedder\u2019s songwriting, positive where that album was necessarily off-putting; it hits hard, though, due to its lyrics of loss (whether it\u2019s about Vedder\u2019s half-brother or Chris Cornell is open to debate, and Eddie won\u2019t say).<\/p>\n
Speaking of Tench, the superstars are out in force here, and one imagines Vedder having a blast playing with his childhood musical heroes instead of just covering their songs. Ringo Starr joins for the Wings-esque \u201cMrs. Mills,\u201d and it\u2019s every bit a pointless but impeccable-sounding slice of ex-Beatle whimsy. Elton John and Vedder duet on the sped-up country-fried \u201cPicture,\u201d and it\u2019s the most alive John has sounded in years. <\/p>\n
But the real treat\u2014in keeping with the line of superstars playing instruments quickly and joyfully\u2014is the under three-minute \u201cTry,\u201d in which Stevie Wonder turns in the fastest harmonica playing you\u2019ll hear outside of a bluegrass album in the last 20 years. He doesn\u2019t sing. He just plays as if being chased by a tiger, stopping only briefly for Eddie to squeeze in his vocals. It\u2019s nearly punk, and it\u2019s a hoot.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the earnest \u201cThe Dark\u201d and the power-pop-rock \u201cGood and Evil\u201d and \u201cRose Of Jericho\u201d (each around two and a half minutes) color the album. Only \u201cThe Haves\u201d fails to really chart. Then, after \u201cMrs. Mills,\u201d the album closes with an odd two-minute swath of atmospheric noise and a coda to \u201cLong Way,\u201d with Vedder duetting with another male singer whose voice sounds like it\u2019s coming from a ghostly manor. <\/p>\n
That singer? His late father, who was something of an amateur musician, and who Vedder did not know until after he died. Any Pearl Jam fan, of course, knows that the lyrics to the classic \u201cAlive\u201d were inspired by this story, so it\u2019s something of a full-circle moment to hear Eddie, in a way, be able to finally interact with the man he never knew.<\/p>\n
Credit for the disc also goes to Vedder\u2019s backup band, the Earthlings, made up of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, ex-Pepper Josh Klinghoffer (who now tours with PJ) and guitarist Andrew Watt, who also produces. Together, they create a 13-track joy of a disc that\u2019s irresistible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8129],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46308","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eddie-vedder","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46308"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}