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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Riot Act Artist: Pearl Jam Label: Epic Length: 15 Tracks, 54:15 minutes For all the existential angst and social conscience that has infused the Pearl Jam catalogue since their eight-times-platinum album Ten helped make “grunge” and “Seattle” household words, Eddie Vedder and company have never really seemed to be looking for God. I’m pleased to say that Riot Act, the latest release from the only major Seattle-grunge band to survive the 90’s, is a different story. Where 2000’s Binaural was a strange, muddled, downer of an album (apart from a few glimmers of light) that seemed to despair of any meaning in the universe, Riot Act is a confident, ebullient, refreshing set of great rock songs that go down like hot black coffee on a crisp Monday morning. Vedder’s self-confessed writer’s block from 2000 has disappeared and the righteous anger is flowing again with clarity and renewed energy, along with a good shot of philosophical reflection. Maybe it’s because he was kicked awake to some realities about life by 9/11 (along with most of us) and the tragic death of nine fans at their concert at the 2000 Roskilde Festival in Denmark (eulogized briefly in “Love Boat Captain”), but for the first time in seven albums, Vedder seems to be reaching out with an intense desire to connect with something (or someone) eternal. Consider the bridge and chorus of track three: Hold me and make it the truth / That when all is lost there will be youGod is love; so God is surely the “Love Boat Captain” he is singing about. It’s not altogether clear, but it’s there. Still, Vedder is not going to submit to any supernatural being just yet, rather claiming self-hood with an existential boldness in the album’s folky first single “I am Mine,” while taking a swipe at those (Christians?) who do. The selfish, they’re all standing in line / faithing and hoping to buy themselves time…And all that is just from the first half of the album. The spiritual reflection goes on with “You Are” (Love is a tower / And you are the key), “Green Disease” (Can you feel this world / with your heart and not your brain?) and “Half Full” (Won’t someone save the world?) Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pearl Jam album without some good, heartfelt vitriol at the injustice in the world. “Save You” screams and rants at a beloved friend who is destroying their life by drugs. President George Dubya gets a deserved poetic tongue-lashing in “Bushleaguer,” one of the very few political- protest rock songs around today. Musically, this album continues the experimentation with rhythms and world music that emerged first on Vitalogy. (Vedder’s attempted qawwali singing in “Arc” brings to mind the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn.) There are some crowd-pleasing, ready rock classics in “Get Right,” “Ghost,” and “Half Full,” with guitarist Mike McCready letting loose with his wah-pedal and signature solos that characterized the band’s early work. There is nothing that quite matches the anthem status of “Alive,” “Jeremy,” or “Black” from Ten, but comparisons are not always helpful. It’s a new era and the songs retain the best of the old with fresh avenues of experimentation. On this subject, of interest is the influence of drummer Matt Cameron, former drummer for Soundgarden. Though he came on board with Binaural (interestingly, the only album in PJ’s career that has failed to crack the one-million sales mark) the band’s music is greatly enhanced by the addition of this longtime musical compatriot. His beats are solid throughout, but his composition “You Are” is a real standout with a pulsing, almost electronica distorted guitar and atmospherics, reminiscent of the more adventurous grunge of his former band, circa Superunknown. Martin Luther King once wrote, “The riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.” Considering the tragically low sales of their past three records, “unheard” is perhaps an apt description for Pearl Jam these days. It could be that’s why they’ve decided to read the riot act on this album. They are regularly quoted as having no desire to be spokespersons for a generation, but they clearly don’t want to be ignored either. Time (and SoundScan) will tell as to whether it is the greatest comeback of the new millennium. But in the meantime, if you are a fan from way back, pick up Riot Act and discover afresh that band you used to love, and relish the hints of heaven that shine through the grungy aural canvas. Brendan Boughen 11/18/2002
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