Pearl Jam
Riot Act
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Many of their grunge contemporaries have long since bitten the dust or become rock and roll casualties. But Pearl Jam survives by doing pretty much what they’ve been doing for the last decade. The insistent hard rock guitars and Eddie Vedder’s enigmatic, yearning mumble are out in full force on Riot Act. The difference here is lyrical clarity and a sense of purpose. And death—and defiance in the face of it-- pervades the album, which is dedicated to John Entwistle, Dee Dee Ramone, and bebop jazz bassist Ray Brown.

The opener “Can’t Keep” has a pretty melody that sounds like Vedder’s recent experience in an all-star band with Neil Finn may have rubbed off on him. “I wanna race with the sundown / I want a last breath,” he sings. “I will live forever / You can’t keep me here.” And on the rocker “Save You” Vedder sings of his frustration in watching drug addicted friends succumb: “And I’m not living this life without you, I’m selfish and clear / And you’re not leaving here without me, I don’t wanna be without my best friend.”

The waltz time, sea chantey-like sway of “I Am Mine” works the same lyrical territory. “I know I was born and I know I’ll die / The in between is mine,” Vedder sings. “The ocean is full cause everyone’s crying / The full moon is looking for friends at hightide / The sorrow grows bigger when the sorrow’s denied.” Stone Gossard and Mike McCready’s guitars are particularly powerful here. Another rocker, “Ghost” allows them to shine again but despite an interesting chorus, it fails to really take off. “It doesn’t hurt when I bleed / But memories they eat me / I’ve seen it all before / Bring it on cause I’m no victim,” Vedder sings. That familiar mumble sounds almost Springsteen-like on the pretty, mostly acoustic “Thumbing My Way.” “No matter how cold the winter / There’s a springtime ahead,” he offers optimistically.

Vedder lazily speaks the verses of “Bush Leaguer,” a stinging indictment of our Commander in Chief: “A confidence man / But why so beleaguered / He’s not a leader, he’s a Texas leaguer / Swinging for the fence, got lucky with a strike / Drilling for fear, makes the job simple.”

The album’s biggest highlight may be the epic and terrific “Love Boat Captain” on which Vedder sings “It’s already been sung, but it can’t be said enough, ‘all you need is love.’” He also includes these lines “Lost nine friends we’ll never know / Two years ago today.” It refers to the 2000 Roskilde Festival in Denmark at which nine fans were killed in a crowd surge during Pearl Jam’s set.

But Riot Act has a few tracks that serve as little more than filler too. “You Are,” penned by drummer Matt Cameron and Vedder, has an interesting groove but too many musical ideas jammed together all at once and some lame lyrics. "Love is a tower of strength to me / I am the shoreline but you’re the sea,” Vedder sings. The Cameron-penned rocker “Wanted To Get Right” is a tad too generic as well despite a cool wah-wah guitar meltdown. And “1/2 Full” seems confused and in search of a melody amidst its wank-a-thon guitar solos.

Much more interesting are the Vedder rocker “Green Disease” and the spooky and disorienting “Help Help,” a contribution from bassist Jeff Ament. There’s also the intriguing “Arc,” an a capella number that sounds like Vedder has been listening to those recordings of monks chanting. The mostly acoustic-based “All or None” ends things on a nice note with producer Adam Kasper joining the band on piano.

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