Friday, August 14th, 2009

Pearl Jam – The Fixer

So it turns out that quite a few of us have previous with this lot…



[Video][Website]
[4.23]

John Seroff: There was a time about fifteen years ago when Pearl Jam was my favorite band. Maturing tastes, ample distractions and a distrust of childhood loves unsurprisingly led me in different musical directions, and I somehow find myself now in the odd position of not having heard Eddie Vedder sing lead on a track since the Dead Man Walking soundtrack came out. That’s my context, and it’s probably integral to why I’m finding this song so difficult to criticize. The band’s list-making/storytelling songwriting style appears mostly unchanged since the ’90’s, and Vedder’s trademark growl has aged better than I have, but there’s a slightly sour homogenized flavor here that I can’t shake. The production is overly clean, the edges a bit too dull; it all seems a touch like modern era REM. What used to sound aggressive and rugged to me is now generic and tame; damned if I can tell if they’ve changed or I have. I’m giving both Eddie and young me the benefit of the doubt.
[6]

Briony Edwards: I heard this song on the radio a few times and assumed it was the new Razorlight single. When my workmate informed me it was Pearl Jam’s newest, the 12 year old inside me began to weep a little. People died for this band, and this is what they come up with? Bad form, Pearl Jam. Bad form.
[2]

Alfred Soto: Sometime around No Code, I stopped hating this band. They actually improved — even learned how to swing a little — once they stopped being the World’s Angriest Band. This continues the evolution to clarity and concision of their 2006 eponymous album. The lyrics bespeak renewed focus, healing, reconciliation, with the added bonus of Eddie Vedder stretching vowels and shouting with restraint as if he finally understood what a compelling front man is supposed to do. This is charming — not a word I use often. All Vedder needs is an acoustic duet with Taylor Swift.
[7]

Jonathan Bradley: Surprisingly carefree; Pearl Jam have had more supposed returns-to-form than I care to remember, but this is refreshingly uncomplicated. Where their past few albums have mistaken a lack of imagination for a back-to-basics simplicity, “The Fixer” is direct and punky in the same way as No Code‘s “Hail Hail.” This band is in a place where a merely good song is cause for celebration, but as “The Fixer” is a good song, I will duly celebrate.
[6]

Chuck Eddy: Starts out more rhythmic, and less cumbersome and dreary, than they generally hit me as back in the ’90s (give or take “Not For You.”) Maybe they’ve been studying old Stone Temple Pilots albums? Then they bog down in the second half.
[5]

Martin Skidmore: I don’t even know what the aim is – you don’t do tricks with time signatures if you want a party song, but there is nothing more substantial than that in the words. A mystifying, wearying mess.
[1]

Anthony Miccio:Jangly fills? “Yeah, yeah, yeah”? What is this shit, Eddie Vedder & The Heartbreakers? I hope he’s shaking a tambourine in the Target ad, just to further blow minds. The 80’s arena-pop gloss doesn’t seem to affect Vedder’s typically passionate delivery, which makes it even harder to take seriously. But who said you need to take something seriously to enjoy it?
[7]

Richard Swales: More Ten than Vs but still much worse than anything on the latter. For some reason it reminds me of The Corrs, and I’d really rather not have been reminded of them.
[3]

Al Shipley: I’ve kept caring about Pearl Jam longer than most have (or should), but even I found little to love in those last couple albums. This is promising, though, quickly reminding me of the last one I liked, Binaural, and providing my favorite single from the band in over a decade. It’s quick and simple, but those are rare virtues to come by with this band, and that melodic flourish when the drums drop out and they unexpectedly transition into the bridge is a neat little trick.
[7]

Spencer Ackerman: I made it 55 seconds before turning this off. It’s like the worst of Stained Glass-era Pete Townshend.
[2]

Mallory O’Donnell: Appallingly retrograde. Government spending should be allocated to put Green Day and these clowns in a rocket and shoot it into the Earth’s molten core.
[3]

Anthony Easton: My proof for the essential mysterious nature of G-d — That Cobain died and Vedder lived.
[1]

Ian Mathers: Sure, Pearl Jam’s political/social fixations continue to be wholly predictable and kind of tiresome (as well as basically having their heart in the right place, which sadly doesn’t count for much in pop music), but at least they’ve been doing this for long enough that they express them in fairly snappy, catchy form rather than still sounding like they did ten years ago.
[5]

One Response to “Pearl Jam – The Fixer”

  1. Gosh Mallory O’Donnell, if a [3] for you requires launching the artist responsible into Earth’s molten core, I’d hate to see what you do for a zero :)