21st Century Pearl Jam (1/7)

In the comments section for The Avocado Pearl Jam song tournament, there arose the not uncommon Avocado song tournament wish that more of the band’s later catalogue had made the cut past nominations. And, what the heck, I need header topics, so I’m going to do a header a week highlighting a song from each of the band’s seven 21st century albums.1 Yes, sure, the 21st century technically began in 2001 if you want; nevertheless I choose not to call this series “21st Century Pearl Jam And Also Binaural Which Came Out in 2000”

It’s fairly common among Pearl Jam historians to split the band’s output into (1) the five-album run from 1991’s Ten through 1998’s Yield and (2) everything that came after that. For one, the band achieved its final form during the Yield tour when Matt Cameron took over on drums. For two, casual fans/radio-listeners-who-were-alive-in-the-’90s tend to be more familiar with the ’90s albums than the 21st century ones. Hence the cutoff for “later catalogue.”

We’ll kick it off with the band’s sixth album, 2000’s Binaural. When Yield—with its radio-friendly singles “Given to Fly” and “Wishlist”—came out in 1998 after 1994’s flirting-with-weirdness Vitalogy and 1996’s fully-weird (but wonderful) No Code, rock pundits and casual fans alike thought “Oh thank goodness, Pearl Jam is going to be normal again.”

And then they put out Binaural, an experimental album featuring binaural recording (album name/recording technique synergy). And they released as the album’s first single ::checks notes:: “Nothing As It Seems,” a slow-burn psychedelic rock number written by bassist Jeff Ament about the dark undercurrents of growing up in rural Montana.

Anyhoo, it’s an amazing song. If I were to pick a word to describe it, I would maybe choose “smolders”? It smolders.

Bonus Track: What if Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska but instead of one guy just singing alone with his guitar the band is also there and that band is Pearl Jam and it’s eighteen years later and also Bruce Springsteen isn’t there either, except maybe in spirit? Probably this.

Happy Day Threading!