Song: Even Flow
Album: Ten (Remastered)
It's no secret to many that I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan. I started with them 12 years ago, and nary a month goes by where I don't listen at least a little. The years since I purchased Vs. - my first tape! - have been informative. I can now see how Pearl Jam might seem like a 'bro' band to some. That makes sense to me, especially when I listen to Ten after a serious session with, say, Pat Metheny or Prince. Nevertheless, my allegiance is resolute.
Recently PJ authorized rock super-producer Brendan O'Brien to remaster the band's notorious first album. It was no secret to fans that the band always felt that Ten's original mixing was a little stuffy. Still, I'm sure that many die-hards will come down on the remastered album as a bastardization of a 'flawless' product. I disagree with that view. Ten wasn't perfect. I think the band was correct in their assertion that the original had reverb where their subsequent albums didn't, and that its presence dated what should have been a timeless album. I couldn't be happier about the remaster. O'Brien pulled the band out from underneath all that congestion, and now the album has an urgency it didn't have before. In truth, it sounds like I always wished it did.
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