Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

This album is an evolution in Pearl Jam’s sound in several ways. They move away from the combination of grunge/guitar anthem heroes towards something a big more droning, angry, and atmospheric at times than their first two albums. There are also more experiments, which makes sense as the band was going through a lot at the time; but at the same time this is the first PJ album that for me contains a significant number of filler tracks. But a little bit deeper listen is still rewarding - in my youth I wasn’t the biggest fan of Vitalogy-era Pearl Jam, but with adult ears the sound of this album is more like a band fighting against the need to become adults, unable to embrace grown-up life because they’re still punky garage kids at heart, but by definition that means they have no idea what to do with their lives.

With the benefit of 8 more studio albums after Vitalogy, it’s easy to look back and see that this album feels like a transition to the more modern sound of Pearl Jam. They may have transformed into an Eddie-Vedder led exploration of rock with Vitalogy, but they also never lost their stadium anthem ability. This album is mostly a banger, and if you go in knowing the shift that was happening in Pearl Jam’s sound, it’s only the more enjoyable.

From the roundup Jamwise #47 - Best Albums of 1994, pt. 2.