After the success of Nirvana with “Nevermind”, grunge expanded and crowned the ears of Rock, Metal, and even Punk lovers, as it proposed a combination of these three genres that, unintentionally, would end up stealing the throne from many bands that were in the mainstream scene.
And precisely within this movement, a band called Pearl Jam emerged from Seattle, Washington, United States, who in 1991 released their debut album “Ten,” under the record label Epic Records. An epic and iconic album that at the time took four months to enter the popularity charts, and that after doing so, would last for five years as one of the most listened-to Rock albums.
Today we discuss this glorious album, which to this day is Pearl Jam’s most successful.
Grunge with a Hard Rock Edge
A grunge where Hard Rock plays as the main element of the genre and an instrumentation that could be defined as a style very much like “Jimmy Hendrix on steroids”, mainly in the guitars of Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, possibly two of the most underrated guitarists in the world of Rock.
Much of the power of this album comes from Dave Krusen’s drums, with a very natural sound in each piece of his kit, and with a high-pitched snare drum that gives a special and heavy touch to the whole album. Krunsen decorates all the songs under a free style that reflects both his creative freedom and good taste.
And to strengthen the base of all the previous instruments we have Jeff Ament on bass, who also served as artistic director on the album. His bass, in addition to supporting the rhythmic base, takes the liberty of also improvising a little on his high frets whenever possible, without affecting the melodic part of the songs, based on great bassists like Sting of The Police or Steve Harris of Iron Maiden.
@therockreview One of the most energetic #Rock albums you’ll ever hear: #Ten by #PearlJam. This is our #AlbumReview @PearlJam #rockmusic #musicalbum #90sgrunge #grunge ♬ original sound - Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder's Role in Ten
The culminating mark of this energetic combination of instruments is Eddie Vedder’s voice, with a timbre that is highly recognized and has even been tried to imitate on numerous occasions.
His melodic lines break with the conventional and as a consequence open up the possibility of experimenting with the structures of the songs. Very enjoyable his contrast full of energy in songs like “Even Flow” or “Why Go”, with more relaxed themes like “Black” or “Release”, a vocal dynamic that maintains the same style and that allows the band to create songs that fuse these two facets as we can hear in “Jeremy”, the latter with an outro exceptional full of improvisation.
In addition to the musical qualities that Eddie Vedder added to Pearl Jam, we must mention the importance of his lyrics in “Ten”, each and every one of them written by himself, addressing important issues such as emotions, depression, abuse, among other controversial and realistic topics, a trend that amplified Grunge.
One of the Most Energetic Albums of Recent Years
As a sample of this, you have to listen to songs like “Porch” or “Deep”, energy that the band made multiply by 1,000 live due to their dedication on stage that showed their deep love for Rock, running from one side to the other and really feeling each one of their songs, highlighting their concert at Pinkpop 1992.
Ten is a forceful, powerful and above all an album full of creative freedom, without ties, without rules and without pretensions, a work that took Grunge as a basis to pay homage to Hard Rock in the most Punk way possible.
Please, if you have not listened to this album in its entirety, this is your cue to do so. Let us know what you think!
