![]() ![]() Stevie Wonder plays fluttering harmonica throughout “Try,” an upbeat rockabilly number about forgiveness, and while it’s a scene-stealer, it never distracts from the song. Similarly, “The Dark” owes a debt to Bruce Springsteen with its hammering, Max Weinberg–like drumbeat, fuzzy synths, and the promise “I’ll find you in the dark … let me lift you out of the dark,” but Vedder sells it in a way that feel like it’s his own.Įarthling’s guests figure heavily into how Vedder reveals new sides of himself, since most of his reverence comes through in nods and winks rather than fealty. For any other artist, “Long Way” would sound like Tom Petty cosplay with its lush acoustic chords and gentle chorus, nasally dragging out the word “ freeeeeway” - the Heartbreakers’ Benmont Tench even plays organ on the song - but Vedder’s voice, with its rugged, lived-in weariness, makes it his own. Several tracks feel like Invisible Man exhibitions of his DNA, as he inhabits the sensibilities of some of his favorite musicians without fully giving himself over to plagiarism. ![]() If it weren’t for Watt’s Beach Boys–style harmonies, the song could have easily fit on Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy. On the next song, “Fallout Today,” he parses human fragility, musing on “second chances granted one more time,” before conceding, “We all need to share and shake the pain” - all over a gently melancholic acoustic-guitar ballad. On “Brother the Cloud,” he grapples with the loss of a loved one (possibly Chris Cornell) as he wrestles with the throes of grief - “Understand it was not easy for my friend,” he sings to anyone listening before later turning to inexplicable anger: “Put your arms around my brother, my friend/Say for me … fuck you … what are friends for?” But the whole thing is disarming since he sounds hopeful and even upbeat throughout the song. Vedder’s hallmark has always been the way he could sound both confident and vulnerable at the same time - has anyone sung about wanting to explode a neutron bomb more plaintively than Vedder did on Pearl Jam’s “Wishlist”? - and the moments where he hits that balance on Earthling make for the best songs on the record. Instead the group, which includes Watt, complements Vedder’s voice in ways that only Pearl Jam has previously done. As with Osbourne’s album, Watt assembled a core band for Earthling to help Vedder write the songs, and even though the ensemble features former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and perennial Chili drummer Chad Smith, the results sound nothing like those two musicians’ other band. It’s his most revealing solo release, since, musically, it feels more like the Vedder we’ve known for 30 years and not a purposeful departure from Pearl Jam.įor the project, he teamed with Andrew Watt, a jack-of-all-trades producer who has proven equally deft at fashioning pop (Miley Cyrus), rap (Post Malone), and rock (Ozzy Osbourne’s surprisingly fun 2020 comeback, Ordinary Man), all while maintaining each artist’s uniqueness. On his latest solo outing, Earthling, Vedder unapologetically backspaces onto Pearl Jam’s turf with 13 tracks that recall both the band’s punk energy and its mainstream-rock aspirations in a way that feels distinctively Vedderish. You could tell he was doing his best to tiptoe around the loud rock that defines his main gig. No matter how sparse a song sounded, Vedder’s voice resounded in ways that recalled Pearl Jam. Whenever he has ventured into the wilds of a solo career, he has done so in the least Pearl Jam-y ways possible, whether it was the folkie mandolin musings of “Rise” or the beach-fire serenades of Ukulele Songs. Since the beginnings of Pearl Jam, he has flexed his warm baritone with an intensity or a sensitivity that perfectly matched his fellow musicians’ loose fury and anxious jamming Vedder’s voice depends on Pearl Jam’s music, and their songs demand his voice. Eddie Vedder has always seemed like a singer inextricably bound to his band. ![]()
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