Next of kin: Your kid sister, that hot girl in your philosophy class Lucky for me this disc is pretty rockin’ and easily outclasses any of their previous efforts. Simply put, I’d buy a Barbra Streisand album if Robert Smith did guest vocals on it. A handful of songs would sound perfect on older Blink albums, but the tracks exploring unfamiliar territory are much more intriguing. This is something wholly unfamiliar on a Blink 182 record, as are ‘The Fallen Interlude,’ a dark and dancy instrumental, and ‘All of This,’ a song featuring the incomparable Robert Smith of The Cure on guest vocals. Providing the eerily beautiful intro to ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ (easily the best song they’ve written to date) is a piano-accompanied female voice reciting a letter written by bassist Mark Hoppus’ grandfather to his wife while fighting in World War II. Pooling influences from side-projects (Boxcar Racer, The Transplants) and everything from Refused to ’80s pop, their sound is as diverse as ever. They’re trading in four-chord songs about adult diapers and high school crushes for pianos, string arrangements, production creativity and some of the best lyrics they’ve put to paper. ‘4/20/02′ solemnly remembers the passing of Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley – Vedder eulogizes the vocalist as a ‘lonesome friend we all knew.’ An offended Vedder also berates copycat bands like Creed and Godsmack for stealing their vocal style from Staley.īlazing a trail matched by few others in the genre since 1995, America’s juvenile pop-punk poster boys are all grown up. The album’s most special moment comes on a hidden track at the end of the second disc. Here, Vedder’s brilliance as a vocalist complements the band’s powerful songwriting as it has throughout band’s career. Another Christmas single, 1998’s ‘Drifting,’ an acoustic number featuring just Vedder and Gossard, features different vocals from the original version. ‘Let Me Sleep,’ from the 1991 fan club Christmas single, demonstrates Eddie Vedder’s passionate vocals. Stone Gossard steps forward from his usual guitar-only role on the punk-laden ‘Don’t Gimme No Lip.’ With crunchy guitar and upbeat drums, the song sounds similar to ‘Mankind,’ his contribution on 1996’s No Code. Drummer Jack Irons’ major contribution, the subdued, latent rocker ‘Whale Song,’ is one of the album’s magic moments. Bassist Jeff Ament takes lead vocal on ‘Sweet Lew,’ a binaural B-side about his one-time idol and NBA superstar, who changed his name from Alcindor to Karim Abdul-Jabbar. Some of the songs have never been released, including the patient and warming ‘Fatal.’ For the fan that has heard a lot of these songs before, this compilation remains a must-have.Įvery band member makes significant contributions to Lost Dogs. They didn’t just put in rare tracks they included alternate versions of these songs. With this release, Pearl Jam continues to put their fans first. This superior songwriting ability comes through on Lost Dogs, a double CD full of B-sides and rarities that covers every era of the band’s history. Even with their later albums that failed to match the commercial success of their debut, Pearl Jam continued to prove that they could still make innovative, interesting music unmatched by any contemporary. I came to really appreciate the band in the mid-’90s once virtually the entire rock world unsuccessfully mimicked – and continues to mimic – their sound and the sound of other extremely gifted artists of that era, like Alice in Chains and Nirvana. What I couldn’t have known then was that Pearl Jam would become my favorite band for most of the next decade. I fell in love with Pearl Jam 11 years ago when I first heard ‘Alive’ at a Valentine’s Day dance in seventh grade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |