Ah, Pearl Jam.  I’ve been watching their new Immagine in Cornice DVD, listening to the new Into the Wild soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, and recently stumbled across an unreleased track.  My two initial thoughts:

First: “Wow.”

Second: like most of Pearl Jam’s more recent efforts, the quality varies a bit.  I found myself wanting to skip some of the tracks on the DVD and soundtrack … and was captivated by others.  But don’t forget what I said first: those “wow” parts are mesmerizingly gorgeous.  Here’s a brief run-down of the three new PJ items…

Immagine in Cornice: This is DVD documenting Pearl Jam’s 2006 tour of Italy.  Much like their previous tour-DVD, Touring Band, the concert footage is nicely shot from on and just-off stage (plus a few neat angles), providing a viewpoint of the concert far better than any I’ve ever had actually attending a concert.  Anyway, the quick take:

• “Some fast and some quiet.”  That’s Eddie’s response to an unbeknowing ‘director of local music school’ in Pistoia who asks Eddie what Pearl Jam’s “repertoire” is.  My big criticism: the fast songs simply don’t play very well on a DVD. I found myself zoning out whenever PJ started jumping around and solo-ing.  Seeing the band up close and playing hard is neat … but it just doesn’t feel that rocking.
• The softer songs are the ones that actually ‘rock.’  And by rock, I mean ‘resonate’.  Hearing the Italian crowd sing along to Better Man was thrilling.  Come Back, a new song off Pearl Jam’s last 2006 self-titled album, was breathtaking.  And Eddie’s solo rendition of Tom Wait’s Picture in a Frame near the end was beautiful.  Thrilling, breathtaking, and beautiful … I’ve run out of adjectives … but I’ve also run out of slower songs to praise.
• The absolutely best part of the DVD are the homemovie style clips/interviews.  There’s an interview with Mike about his tattoos, a nice chat about how setlists and encores are decided, and some fun footage of Jeff skateboarding.  Oh, and for the Eddie stalkers there’s some cute footage of Eddie chatting with his daughter .. and, well I could go on.  These parts are priceless … or more specifically, the cost of the DVD.

further explanation: go check out Come Back on youtube.  And you can buy it here.

Into the Wild: Eddie Vedder wrote an entirely original album for the soundtrack to the movie Into the Wild.  The movie is about the true story of a 21-year-old American who graduates from college and then leaves ’society’ to take on nature, eventually dying in the Alaskan wild.

Jon Krakauer, the original writer of the Into the Wild book said that he identified with the protagonist from his own similar youthful experience:  ”I thought if I picked a challenge that was hard enough and succeeded, everything thereafter would be alright.  It makes no sense, but I was convinced of this. And it was not that I would get rich, it was just in some spiritual sense that you would feel so good after doing something this hard.” (go to 7:35 in this video to see the quote in context.)

If you know Eddie Vedder’s music, you can imagine how much he would relate to that sentiment.  In Eddie’s own words: ”As soon as I was let in … to the story and the book and the film … which all happend in a matter of days, I was just inside it.  I don’t even know … what I saw, because I was in it, looking out, I think.”  Eddie says he did the album in 2 or 3 weeks and doesn’t “really remember much of what took place” while he was making the album.  During that time he was just “waking up, and having done the work from someplace that I’m not really sure where it was, and just … [I was] getting out of the way.” (Go to 1:25 in this video to see Eddie.)

So given Eddie’s passionate, trancelike creation, how is the actual album?  Initially unlistenable, later brilliant.

Into the Wild is not just a bunch of Pearl Jam songs written by Eddie Vedder.  There are less backing arrangements than traditional Pearl Jam.  The songs are all written in the first-person (Eddie is supposed to be the “internal voice” according to director Sean Penn) and while the lyrics maintain some elusiveness, they are more direct than standard Pearl Jam fare.  Also, almost all of the songs are shorter than regular Pearl Jam songs, at just two and a half minutes or less.

So for fans that usually find they most-like the Pearl Jam songs written by Eddie with minimal instrumentation (like, cough, myself. See Come Back.), what could be wrong with this album?  Well, some songs simply seem to be intentionally discordant: sort of off-tempo, off-melody, off-key.  For example, the second track, No Ceiling, just plods along, the music unmatched to the lyrics, and the lyrics just tossed out without almost any feeling.  Completely forgettable.

Unfortunately, many of the songs have the bad quality of No Ceiling … but thankfully only briefly.  Setting Forth starts melodically, hits a verse that Eddie’s thrashes through,  then segues into the passionate chorus of ‘keep setting forth in the universe.’  Still, the song varies between terrible and beautiful several times in just 1:37.  That’s tough.

By far the best songs of the album are two of the quieter songs, Rise and Guaranteed.  Rise, which is just Eddie and his ukulele, infectiously rises (pun intended) to become what I can only paradoxically describe a ’sweeping little song.’ Guaranteed, meanwhile is a fun lyrical gem, starting with ”On bended knee is no way to be” and continuing with many more nicely rhyming turns of phrase.

[interesting sidenote: Hard Sun, one of the more promoted songs on the album, is actually a cover.  The original, by Gordon Peterson is pretty much the same … including the backup singers.  And speaking of backup singers: if Eddie is supposed to be the internal voice of the protagonist, who are the backup singers supposed to be in the film? I’ll let the discrepancy go since the chorus builds so nicely in Hard Sun.]

further exploration: Watch the Charlie Rose interview with Eddie Vedder and Sean Penn on youtube, or buy the whole thing on DVD. Check out videos for the original Gordon Peterson Hard Sun and Eddie’s cover.  Also, here’s an mp3 of Rise so you can hear what a ’sweeping little song’ sounds like.  If you like that, buy the whole album.

I’m Still Here: I recently stumbled on this still unreleased and untitled track.  Fans call it I’m Still Here. It was supposedly leaked when Lost Dogs came out in 2003, although the song wasn’t actually on the album.   There is very little background to the song … but some rumors put it as being an unreleased track from Pearl Jam’s 1992 debut album Ten.

The song floored me, and it’s done something to everyone I know who has listened to it.  I can’t implore you enough to listen to it, so I’ve embedded a fan-made video right here.  Put down what you’re doing and spend a couple minutes alone with this song.

Further exploration: Go watch the video again, get the lyrics here, or download an mp3 copy for personal listening.

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