1994 In Review: Pearl Jam - "Vitalogy"

If you're looking for the perfect entry point in Pearl Jam's discography, it's hard not to gravitate toward Vitalogy since it's probably the most varied of the group's ten albums to date. If you're fond of their hard edged, punk-fed side, it doesn't get much more incendiary than Spin The Black Circle. As far as the band's anthems go, they don't hit much harder than Corduroy; there's a reason it's been played at over five hundred of their shows over the years. If you're only after the endorphin rush that comes from their most massive of songs, it's difficult to top Better Man in that regard. Throw in some emotional turmoil (Nothingman, Immortality), a standoffish tantrum or three (Not For You, Whipping, Satan's Bed), and the absolute strangest moments they've ever put to tape (Bugs, Stupid Mop), and Vitalogy is an album that pushes just about every button.

Vitalogy is, above all else, an album full of tension. Dealing with enormous outside pressures as well as internal struggles, Vitalogy finds the band practically in panic mode. They throw curveballs and distractions all over the record in the hopes of scaring some of the fairweather flock away, its weird interludes serving as intentional disruptions. They're designed to take the focus away from what amounts to the best core group of songs they ever mustered; if you take the four filler tracks away, Vitalogy is a stunningly consistent record.

Of course, to do so defeats the purpose entirely; Vitalogy's true intentions are found in its oddities. Pry, To carries the simple but effective mantra of a newly minted superstar facing threatening scrutiny at every turn ("P-R-I-V-A-C-Y, that's priceless to me"). Its sentiment is carried over into Bugs, which finds Eddie Vedder struggling with this life of constant nuisance ("They surround me, I see / See them deciding my fate / That which was once up to me / Now it's too late"). As for Stupid Mop, the single most unsettling and ugly thing in their repertoire, a gonzo pastiche of percussive noise laced with field recordings from a psychiatric hospital, an eight minute endurance trial of the senses... well, you get the idea; it's weird as fuck.

Then again, how else were they to pump the brakes on superstardom? They'd already tried toughening their core sound on Vs., only to sell a then-record million copies in the first week. Even with all the odd detours and continued lack of video support (not to mention releasing Spin The Black Circle as its lead single), Vitalogy almost matched the feat, selling over 900,000 copies between first week sales of its separate vinyl and CD/cassette releases. 

We now know that, eventually, Pearl Jam would cut their fan base down to a manageable size and achieve the prestige as career-minded artists that they wanted so badly; Vitalogy serves as vivid a reminder as any for those of us who were there when it happened that Pearl Jam were once, in their own estimation, too popular for their own good.

November 22, 1994 (Vinyl)/December 6, 1994 (CD) • Epic

Highlights Nothingman • Corduroy • Better Man