POWER RANKINGS: Pearl Jam Albums

(Collage courtesy diffuser.fm)

When it comes to thinking about your favourite band, it can be a herculean task to put things in any kind of ranked order; it might be easy enough to make a list in order of preference on any given day, but these things are always kind of fluid by nature. There are so many factors that can disrupt the order you've created; mood changes, dug-up memories, or hearing a song under a different set of circumstances can all adjust your conceptions of where the chips fall in terms of preference.

For me, this is especially difficult for full-length albums; while I always try to separate the music from the time, it's impossible not to associate an album with the point in your life where you discovered it. In the case of Pearl Jam, this is even more pronounced because I can usually tell you not just what was going on my life when these albums were released, but where I bought them, who I was with and how I felt when listening start to finish for the first time. As my life changed, so did my habits, and a lot happened between riding shotgun in my best friend's parents' car while spinning Yield to sitting in my music room thumbing through the booklet while taking in Backspacer.

So, try as I might, it isn't possible to do a proper, unbiased ranking of Pearl Jam's albums; some just carry more of my baggage with them than others, and no amount of critical thinking can change the fact that Pearl Jam is my favourite band. Then again, I assume the only way to truly get an unbiased opinion is to find someone who's never heard Pearl Jam before and sit them down for the duration of the band's discography.

This is as close as I can get, then: on the eve of their eleventh album, which will take plenty of time and spins to pin down its placement, I've revisited the previous ten and (for the moment, at least) ranked them like this (also, rather than designating true album highlights, I've recommended three tracks from each album that I'd recommend you give another spin, songs that may be underappreciated in my opinion or just deserve to be heard again):

10. Lightning Bolt (2013)

Listen again: Getaway • Pendulum • Swallowed Whole

At the time of its release, I focused on the good things about Lightning Bolt; chiefly, I took the renewed sense of exploration in some of the album's songs as a good sign. Looking back, though, Lightning Bolt feels like a very awkward record, and its stylistic detours get them a little lost by times. The choogling blues of Let the Records Play comes off a bit ham fisted, while some of the album's slower moments end up a little on the schmaltzy side. The more standard, straightforward rock songs can sometimes suffer from becoming paler versions of better songs they'd already done, and the album as a whole sounds like it was made by a band trying to come to terms with the sad reality; their best days were long behind them, and their response was to try and simultaneously recapture the magic of their glory days and push themselves into bold new territory. Lightning Bolt comes up just short of both goals.

9. Pearl Jam (2006)

Listen again: Marker in the Sand • Parachutes • Come Back

Touted as somewhat of a rebirth for the band, and their first album following to that point a career-long stint with Epic Records, the album fans affectionately call Avocado could have set Pearl Jam up as the voice for an entirely new generation of fans. Instead, while for the most part successful in its execution, Pearl Jam more often than not evokes their past work rather than mark a shift toward the future. Of course, there are too many of us older fans to consider when making new music, and pivoting too far away from your core sonic beliefs is far too risky a proposition; that said, when you're recording songs that so closely call to mind your early work, the risk is that fans will choose to simply listen to the early work instead. While I make the past drudging sound worse than it actually is here, the point is that Avocado could have used a few more left turns and been a more interesting, enduring record.

8. Riot Act (2002)

Listen again: Can't Keep • Thumbing My Way • You Are

The ironically-titled Riot Act bears the dubious distinction of being Pearl Jam's most underwhelming album, for me at least; there's such a focus on darkness and dread (outside of a few shining moments of hope and redemption) that the album's a slog to get through in one sitting. Its fourteen tracks do run a fairly impressive sonic gamut, but most of it is painted grey; the band sounds tired here in a way they hadn't before and haven't since. It still stands as perhaps the band's last defiant swing against normalcy before settling in somewhat, and I certainly don't fault them for branching out thematically and musically. I'm just saying Riot Act could have benefited from allowing a little fat to be trimmed and a little more light to peek in through the shades.

7. Backspacer (2009)

Listen again: Gonna See My Friend • Johnny Guitar • Unthought Known

It's no one's pick for Pearl Jam's most important or interesting record, but Backspacer has something going for it that no other Pearl Jam record does; it's a tight, concise album, with its 11 tracks screeching by in just 36 minutes. The result is perhaps the band's easiest album to make time for, and its opening four tracks present is as a no-muss no-fuss rock and roll record. Where Backspacer starts to go off the rails a bit is on its B-side, as the songs start to lose steam and meander; by the time you get to Speed of Sound, the life has pretty much drained out of the album. It's kind of a shame, because it gives the impression that Pearl Jam wanted to provide a straightforward rock album, one that starts to live up to that promise but just can't carry its own momentum to the finish line.

6. No Code (1996)

Listen again: In My Tree • Red Mosquito • Present Tense

When they were famously trying to whittle down their massive fan base to the most devoted, Pearl Jam exhausted themselves on throwing curve balls, and even Vitalogy's most brazen oddities couldn't scare enough flannel-clad trendsters away, nor could they cover up the band's ability to craft transcendent crossover hits. Cue No Code, where Pearl Jam finally succeeded at shooing away fairweather fans; but, the tsunami they had to unleash to accomplish this makes their fourth album their most difficult by a country mile. It gleefully veers in several disparate directions and thoroughly throws listeners off the scent; using punk fury, quiet contemplation, and world music-inspired rhythms in addition to many other tricks, this is the sound of a band doing everything in their power to run and hide from success. The thing is, No Code might also be the band's most interesting record from a sonic standpoint, and is certainly one that proved that when it came to following their collective muse, they were truly willing to go anywhere.

5. Binaural (2000)

Listen again: Breakerfall • Thin Air • Rival

If No Code was the sound of Pearl Jam pushing themselves into uncomfortable territory as the means to an end, then Binaural is the sound of them reaping the rewards of the journey. The push and pull sonic adventures sound more natural here, and the band has perhaps never seemed so content to grow and explore as they are on Binaural. New drummer Matt Cameron helped add more punch, and his presence has an oddly calming effect despite so much of the album's subject matter being born in chaos; here is where Eddie Vedder's long held political beliefs start to truly manifest in his lyrics, and the discontent that was long focused internally is starting to find its way outward, toward more deserving targets for his vitriol. As commercially disappointing as it was, Binaural is nonetheless a triumph because of the sense of freedom that oozes from every groove in the record.

4. Ten (1991)

Listen again: Black • Porch • Release

Absolutely no one can deny Ten its status in Pearl Jam's discography; it will always be their most successful record, one that fueled the definitive sound of a generation along with Nevermind. Its importance to music is indisputable, and it's regarded by most as a top-to-bottom classic. If I could be so bold as to gripe, I'd say what keeps Ten out of the top three for me is its sound, its sameness and its status itself. In its original form, the coat of sheen on Ten's production ties it very firmly to its time. Also, to be fair, there are an awful lot of mid-tempo tracks to be heard. Finally, as the inescapable record that helped launched a rock movement, I've heard Ten so many times that its impact has inevitably been dulled. The songs, though? Have you ever heard a band bring so much thunder out of the gate? It really is a top-to-bottom classic, and the 2009 mix they commissioned Brendan O' Brien for really brings Ten more in line sonically with their other material; I highly recommend using the remixed version when revisiting their discography.

3. Vitalogy (1994)

Listen again: Last Exit • Tremor Christ • Nothingman

Things within Pearl Jam during Vitalogy's creation were on the brink of implosion; tensions ran high, and they were under immense pressure to be the massive rock stars that they simply didn't want to be. In an effort to right the ship and make stardom more manageable, Pearl Jam expanded on the approach they'd tried with Vs., taking steps to further distance themselves from the scene they helped create and pushing their sound into defiantly counter-commercial directions. However, if you strip away the album's four most blatantly difficult tracks, the ten songs that remain are arguably Pearl Jam's finest work; the scathing rock fury heard in Last Exit, Spin the Black Circle, Not For You and Whipping are balanced out by the soaring emotional heartbeat that connects through Nothingman, Corduroy and Better Man. Somewhere in between lie the Beatles nod Tremor Christ, the mournful slow burn Immortality and the playful discontent of Satan's Bed. Through all of their personal upheaval, Pearl Jam were finding new ways to communicate through song, and the end result set up a future for the band that was every bit as exciting as it was uncertain.

2. Yield (1998)

Listen again: Faithfull • Low Light • All Those Yesterdays

When Ten hit proverbial pay dirt, Pearl Jam spent the next five years or so navigating through uncertain times by releasing three records that were coldly calculated to lessen the band's commercial aspirations. After flogging the core sound out of their music over and over, No Code finally saw the fever of superstardom break, and Pearl Jam entered 1998 older, wiser and more comfortable with their place in music. They'd weathered the storm of grunge and, as their contemporaries continued to burn out or fade away, they were quickly earning their newfound status as survivors. With that mind, Yield is as close to a victory lap as Pearl Jam were willing to take; their fifth album is a more measured, conventional record than they were ready to make while all of the world's eyes were on them but, now that the hype had blown over, they sound comfortable on Yield, relieved even. A couple of odd interludes notwithstanding, it's often hard to believe that this is the same band that had just made the most difficult album of their career just two years prior; this is the sound of a band that had already achieved more than they ever dreamed of commercially, but were just now getting the career they'd always wanted. No massive hits, no wild rebellions against conventional wisdom, just a batch of stunningly executed, great sounding songs.

1. Vs. (1993)

Listen again: Dissident • Rearviewmirror • Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

As if there was any doubt; Vs. is my favourite record of all time, by anybody. As important as Ten was to establishing a rock and roll movement, Vs. is personally important in that it showed me the very power of a song. Is it a perfect album? No way; songs like Glorified G and Leash haven't aged particularly well, and the furious tantrums of Go and Blood would be done better later in their career. What Vs. represents is the bridge between what made Pearl Jam famous and what would provide them with the longevity they were always seeking. As a response to crushing demand and the foundation for what would come, Vs. is at bare minimum flawless in its execution; consider this album as the true starting point to their career, and it's easier to understand why Vs. is Pearl Jam's most important album even if it isn't exactly their best.

Where will Gigaton slot in on the list? I can't say because I haven't heard it yet, and even once I do it will undoubtedly take a while to figure out how it compares in quality to the ten albums above. All I know for sure is, as I'm writing this, we're about ten hours away from its official release and, even if I end up missing the mark in the long run, I'll be back with my initial impressions review tomorrow.