By snoadmin
It’s been nearly 18 years since Pearl Jam released their debut album, “Ten,” and in March Sony Music released a remix edition of “Ten” with extras galore.
I’m amazed at how excellent this reissue is, with a book of awesome tour photos, an excellent remixed version of the album and a DVD of their 1992 MTV Unplugged performance.
The new CD box looks awesome. The neon pink colors of the original cover have been altered to black and brown colors—making it look more like an old vintage album. While some of the photos are a little blurry, fans will be pretty amazed at how young and juvenile Eddie Vedder and his bandmates looked back in the early 90s.
Brendan O’Brien’s new remix of the original album is a delicious treat — it’s a louder and rawer mix of the original album, “Ten.” Don’t worry — this is not like one of those cheesy Gorillaz club remixes. This is a version that takes out all the reverb of the original album, which made the band sound like a bad ’80s hair-metal band.
Now, thanks to O’Brien’s mixing, now listeners can hear all the instruments more clearly. Think of the remix CD, “Ten Redux,” as an uncut version of the original album. Dave Krusen’s cymbals smash louder than before, littering the album with metallic clashing. Mike McCready grinds and wails his solo brilliantly while Vedder yells into the microphone.
Listeners also get to hear singer Eddie Vedder mouth off his cool, improvisational ramblings in the background. In songs such as “Once,” we now hear Vedder mutter “You think I’ve got my eyes closed, but I’m looking at you the whole fucking time.” Other songs, such as “Even Flow,” feature Vedder saying quietly, “Could you spare some change sir?/God bless you, God bless you.” Simple quotations such as these immerse us even more into Vedder’s disturbing lyrics of homelessness and alienation.
“Ten Redux” also features six powerful bonus tracks. These songs include four jamming out-takes from the “Ten” recording session in 1991 and two demos from 1990, back when they were called Mookie Blaylock. Their best out-take is a noisy, dirty cut of “State of Love and Trust,” in which Stone Gossard blasts his guitar and Krusen’s drumsticks shatter his hi-hat.
Finally, the reissue features Pearl Jam’s performance at MTV Unplugged on March 16, 1992, back when the band was the hottest in the world. Guitarists Stone Gossard and McCready sound like a funky bluegrass band on steroids, playing their acoustic guitars. Vedder gives one of his best vocal performances in MTV Unplugged—singing his “Ooohs” in “Oceans,” with a deep, ethereal crescendos.
Admittedly, some songs could have been better. On “Porch,” the entire band goes nuts with their stage theatrics. Krusen kicks the speed up with a drum tempo that moves even faster than the original song. Vedder falls off the stool during McCready’s awesome acoustic guitar solo, and bassist Jeff Ament stands up on the bass drum, playing his solo. Then Vedder stands on his stool, takes out a black marker and writes “PRO-CHOICE” on his arm and sings “I know how I want to dress/I want to live, I want to choose.”
It’s quite a statement for a band on MTV Unplugged. But at this time, the band had so much energy that they literally took America by storm. And it’s an honor to include this epic performance by Pearl Jam in probably one of the best reissues of one of my favorite albums of all time.
