AWmusic

I’m a little intimidated to write this review, since I have to admit that I am not a die-hard fan of Pearl Jam. Certainly another writer who loves Pearl Jam more would’ve been suitable to review this on AWmusic, but here’s hoping my impartiality will help shed some light on the review.

I was a wee little one when Ten was first released in 1991, and never really got into them until my first year of university. I remember a friend introducing me to Ten when I was 14, and it scared the hell out of me. I think it was Eddie Vedder’s growling, angry, and too passionate of a voice, something I wasn’t used to, having grown up on all the pretty pop voices of Britney Spears and N’Sync. And then there came a time when I could relate to–or at least, understand–all the doubts and the fears of Ten, which made me ultimately like it a lot.

Ten was an intense album that was super successful, staying on the charts for years, even surpassing their would-be next release (Vs) in 1993. A lot of the “epitome Pearl Jam” songs, as perceived by the majority, came from Ten, including “Jeremy,” “Alive,” and “Even Flow.”

One of the biggest parts of this reissue is the Brendan O’Brien remix of the album. O’Brien has worked with Pearl Jam for the majority of their career, producing most of their albums following the original release of Ten. I was a bit wary about how the remix would sound, since lots of remixes tend to butcher the songs altogether, losing sight of the reasons why the songs were a success in the first place.

I was surprised (but grateful) that O’Brien’s remix does the exact opposite of butchering the tracks. It keeps each song’s composition at its core, but changes the dynamics between the guitar and Vedder’s vocals. There is a more apparent gain in Vedder’s vocals, putting it up in front, when previously his voice seemed quite drowned in the guitar instrumentation. The acoustics of the original album is cleaned out quite a bit by O’Brien, resulting in less reverb and fine-tuning of the guitar leads in relation to Vedder’s vocals. It is lighter and crisper than the original (produced by Rick Parashar), making it more consistent with the sounds of Pearl Jam’s subsequent albums (which were mostly produced by O’Brien, go figure).

I honestly wondered what the point was to having such a remix. While building consistency with the other albums could be a good reason, I feel it isn’t warranted in this case. Ten was hugely popular, despite its overpowering, “raw” instrumentation, received a lot of response (almost 10 million copies sold in North America alone). I think if it was really that bad, cleaning up the sounds wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but this album was and continues to be superbly appreciated, even eighteen years after its release. But it makes sense, I suppose, that over the years, the band just weren’t happy with the 1991 mixing, placing the major reason for their desire to remix as cutting out the reverb. Well, O’Brien managed to do just that. But in the end, I really do question whether or not it was necessary as a fan. I suppose I can understand, as a musician, the need to perfect the art, but as a fan who has loved Ten pre-O’Brien mix, would it have been really that necessary to dish out money to hear less reverb–something I personally never had a problem with before? I personally liked the way it was produced originally; it was loud, raw, earnest and passionate. That being said, does less reverb make it any less earnest and passionate? I suppose not. The core of the music is still present, it’s just cleaner and crisper.

Perhaps Pearl Jam knew the questions I’d ask, so as an added incentive, the remix disc does come with a few extra bonus tracks which were outtakes of Ten. In these outtakes, there includes the vocals version of “Brother” (the instrumental version was on the compilation album, Lost Dogs), and early recordings of “Breath and a Scream” and “State of Love and Trust.”

So all in all, I’m a bit iffy on the remix tracks. I can understand the band’s desire to “clean it up,” but as someone who has enjoyed Ten in its original (and even remastered) form, I didn’t really see the necessity. The 1991 production and mixing was, in part, a reason why I had enjoyed the album. Perhaps not being a die-hard fan made me a bit impartial to the remix. Die-hard fans would probably benefit from getting the reissue, especially editions higher than Legacy, which come with Collector’s items.

MP3s:
Pearl Jam – Alive
Pearl Jam – Jeremy
Pearl Jam – Release

Tags: album