Album Review: Pearl Jam Ten~Deluxe Edition

March 30, 2009 SoItGoes 3 comments

Pearl Jam has started celebrating their 20th anniversary early and we get to reap the benefits of that celebration as evidenced by last week’s re-release of their landmark debut album Ten. I know their 20th anniversary is not until 2011, but this starts their campaign of re-releaseing all of their albums over the next two years leading up to the anniversary. That is right the album that sold 12 million copies world wide and was a part of every single person who contributes to Zombie Chatter’s youth was re-released last week. I’ll be honest I’m not one who usually gets excited when one of my favorite bands starts putting out greatest hits or deluxe editions of old releases. It seems like a retread to me that is generally not needed, but truth be told in the case of Ten that could not be farther from the truth.

The biggest issue was the sound on Ten. It was washed in reverb more then once (did you catch that reference to their stick man t-shirt tracklisting i just made… i bet you didn’t), and was begging to be remixed. Who better to come in and help then the long time producer Brendan O’Brien and allow him to get his hands on the only album from the 90’s he did not work with the band on. The result is he took a perfect album and made it even better.

The sound quality is now supurb and the difference is immediately noticeable. The album has a much warmer sound like their other subsequent releases (Vs, Vitalogy, No Code, Yield) that Brendan worked on. You hear the interplay between the band better and notice little details that were lost in the mix before. Perhaps no other song is assisted quite like the delicate yet powerful Black. The song looses any tinge of a power ballad that it may have had (albeit small on the original) and comes across remixed and an even more vibrant song.

The packaging itself is a joy as well for any long time fan. Not only is the hideous pink cover done away with (thank you Jeff Ament) you are also greeted with 40 page full color booklet that includes pictures from the time of the album’s release. It has magazine still shots, pictures of them on stage, shots of crowds, old tour posters, and notes taken from god knows where by the band. It really does a great job of capturing the feel of the time period for the band as well as the feel of how enormous and crazy things got for them during that period.

The Deluxe edition that i purchased includes three discs. The first disc is a remastered version of the original mix, the second disc is the remixed version with Brendan O’Brien’s work plus bonus tracks, and the third disc is a DVD of the band’s 1992 MTV unplugged show.

Many Pearl Jam fans have long known that a lot of good songs over the years have been left off of albums for various reason. That may not be more true for any album as much as it was for Ten. Here we have the following bonus tracks added:

Brother- Released for the first time with vocals (previously released on Lost Dogs as instrumental)
Just a Girl- Never Released
Breath & a Scream- This is the orginal recording before they re did it for the Singles Soundtrack
State of Love & Trust- Ditto as Breath
2,000 Mile Blues- Unreleased Demo
Evil Little Goat- Unreleased Demo

For those ambitious enough every song has been released in one version or another with the exception of 2,000 Mile Blues. That is one to my knowledge that had never seen the light of day. Brother and Just a Girl sound great and are very strong songs many fans have enjoyed for years now, but neither were easily available. If you were able to find a version the sound quality was no where near as good as it is here. It was interesting hearing the early demo’s of Breath and State of Love and Trust. I liked Breath on this one a lot, but this version of State of Love and Trust seemed slower and not as powerful as the version recorded for the Singles soundtrack. The final two are a little rough and you can tell they never got past the demo stage, but they both have their unique moments. I was impressed with the dirty blues sound on 2,000 Miles Blues. It is a very different sound that you don’t get from Pearl Jam, and it is always fun to hear Mike McCready make those strange animal like noises with his guitar he has become known for. Evil Little Goat to me has always been what I call a “joke” song for the band. It seems obvious that it was something they were just toying around with. It is by far the least interesting of the extras, but the others more then make up for it’s short comings.

What is not the least interesting of the group though is the included MTV Unplugged DVD. I have it on VHS somewhere and I watched it over and over and over again in my youth because it is one of the best moments in Unplugged’s short history. Included in this set is the opener Oceans that MTV cut from the set, but for some reason they did not include their final song the cover of Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World. It may be that the version of Porch they ended with was so phenomenal it might have been a let down to have another song after that, and if that was the case i can’t blame them because it is as much of a barn burner that any acoustic song can be.

Pearl Jam actually gives you four version of this release to choose from. I’ve focused on the “Deluxe Edition” that I purchased but you can choose from the following options:

Legacy Edition- 2 disc set: original set remixed & Brendan O’Brien’sremastered with bonus tracks
Deluxe Edition-3 disc set: Both of the above & MTV unplugged DVD
Vinyl Collection- Same as the Legacy edition but on Vinyl because we all know PJ loves to spin the black circle.
Super Deluxe Edition-This is the Deluxe Edition (2 cd’s 1 dvd) and Vinyl Collection, plus 2 more Vinyls of the band Drop in the Park live show from September 20th 1992, a cassette tape (yes they still make them) replica of the Momma-Son demo that was sent to Eddie Vedder with the music to Alive, Footsteps, & Once, additional packaging notes and art by Eddie Vedder & Jeff Ament.

I strongly suggest at least getting the Deluxe Edition because MTV unplugged is that impressive. If you don’t have Ten for some odd reason this is a must buy, for the remixes, unplugged DVD, and bonus tracks all make this a very enticing package. This actually exceeded my lofty expectations of the reissue. Like all that they have done over the years this is a very fan oriented and friendly release. It is great to hear an album that would undoubtedly be on my short list of best ever made come back to life in this new format. It is like it is 1991 all over again….

Here is a nice little montage about the Drop in the Park Concert: