Ten - Pearl Jam (1991)

Ideated from: August Albums

I have a long history of re-listening to albums I liked when they came out and not finding as much in them as I had before. Tastes change, you mature as a listener, and things get distorted by availability bias–pop music is built on the notion that if you hear a song often enough, you’ll react positively to it no matter what its quality.

I was a big Pearl Jam fan from pretty early on (they got Alive on college radio, which I listened to a lot, before they really started getting top 40 airplay). I would have told you that I loved Ten, the first Pearl Jam record. But listening again with a little better ear, i’m kind of stunned at how same-y the whole thing is, and at how I must not have noticed as a young adult.

Most of it isn’t bad, really. Obviously there are multiple songs on this record that are rock anthems. But the entire record basically uses small variations on the same drum pattern, and the guitar solos on nearly every track are heavy on the wah pedal. There are a couple of change-of-pace songs, but even they tend to end up in the same plodding muddle.

Musically, the big standout is Jeff Ament’s bass, which runs deep and clear even when the guitars are a squelchy mess.

I don’t mean to be too harsh. It was still fun to listen to again. But it’s also instructive that this was one of my most frequently played albums in the early 90s, and I hadn’t gone back to it in years.