Make Space on the Shelf for 'Backspacer,' Pearl Jam's Appealing New CD by George Varga on Creators.com

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Make Space on the Shelf for 'Backspacer,' Pearl Jam's Appealing New CD

The members of Pearl Jam don't reinvent rock 'n' roll on their triumphant new album, "Backspacer." But they reinvigorate the music and themselves, with so much infectious joy and galvanizing force that they seem to have achieved a welcome new lease on life.

Not that this five-man band was gasping for breath or grasping for new ideas before making "Backspacer," the band's ninth studio album. But this is such a vital, uplifting work — even in its more introspective moments — that it signals a fresh new chapter in a 19-year career.

Moreover, for a group that helped write the template for angst-fueled songs that were embraced by a brooding young generation of grunge-rock fans in the 1990s, Pearl Jam's members now seem to be at a palpably happy place in life. Of course, if you'd spent so much of the past eight years (on stage and off) railing against the Bush administration, you'd also be feeling a lot less bleak.

Or, as Eddie Vedder exultantly sings on "The Fixer": If something's old I want to put a little bit of shine on it / When something's gone, I want to fight to get it back again.

One of the album's most infectious and upbeat selections, "The Fixer," was composed primarily by drum dynamo Matt Cameron. His charged, Keith Moon-ish fills add to the song's celebratory feel and Who-like flavor, which is enhanced by Vedder's Roger Daltrey-like yowl and the booming power chords by guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard.

"The Fixer" is preceded by two similarly glorious rockers, "Gonna See My Friend" and The Police-inspired "Got Some." Together, these three songs provide an opening salvo unmatched by any other Pearl Jam album.

The band soars just as high with such graceful, understated ballads as "Unthought Known," "The End" and the country-tinged "Speed of Sound," on which Vedder sings: I'm still holding tight to this dream.

That this veteran quintet sounds so optimistic and inspiring, without seeming remotely complacent, is one of "Backspacer's most appealing qualities.

Another is how crisp and lean the music is on this 11-song album, which clocks in at just 36 minutes — the most compact Pearl Jam album ever — and how the musicians makes every note count.

This focus and sense of purpose is matched by how finely honed and played each selection sounds. The band attributes this to the fact that, for the first time since its 1991 debut album, "Ten," Pearl Jam rehearsed all of the songs intently before recording. They are aided by producer and keyboardist Brendan O'Brien, who hadn't overseen a Pearl Jam album since 1998's "Yield."

"Backspacer" is the first album Pearl Jam has released on its own label, the first to be sold semi-exclusively at Target stores and through Rock Band and iTunes, as well as at indie stores and on the band's website. It's a new business model from a veteran band that is clearly having way too much fun making music to even consider resting on its laurels.

Pearl Jam. "Backspacer." Monkeywrench Records. Three and a half stars (out of four).

To find out more about George Varga and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.