release date: Oct. 19, 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam
label: Epic Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 3. "Daughter" (4 / 5) - 4. "Glorified G" (3 / 5) - 5. "Dissident" (3,5 / 5) - 10. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (3,5 / 5)
2nd studio album by Pearl Jam is the first album produced with long-time preferred producer Brendan O'Brien, and it's the first with new drummer David Abbruzzese. Compared to the debut, the biggest change is the production sound.
Back at the time of the release, I felt it was just a huge disappointment, but the album has grown on me over the years, and today I understand how it became the band's most successful release. The compositions are in way more powerful, yet more scarcely orchestrated. The band was (and still is) rather dismayed by the way the debut had been mixed ending up with a sound they didn't like and never aimed for. Here, with O'Brien the sound is more vibrant and, in a way, more genuine - almost as live recordings. There's a fine span between powerful explosions and softer and acoustic compositions, and the voice of Vedder is even more expressive. I don't find that the album holds a lot great tunes, but overall it's better produced.
In its time the album was the fastest selling album for the first week, and it's still the band's best-selling album ending on top of the national charts as it did in a number of other countries around the world.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 4,5 / 5 stars ]
