Binaural Pleasures

Of the bands spawned during the fallow early '90s, Pearl Jam's career has perhaps been the most interesting. Though usually lumped with the "grunge" elite alongside Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam's aesthetic never really meshed with their Seattle counterparts. The band may have tried to cop some of punk's tempo or attitude, but it never proved to be their schtick. At their most rocking, Pearl Jam sounds like a cross between the Who and MC5; at their most rootsy, they sound like the Who and Neil Young.

Perhaps that's why, six years after grunge went down in flames, Pearl Jam are still packing arenas. While Kurt and co. were perfecting the art of the three-chord shred back in '92, Vedder and Pearl Jam bellowed stadium anthems even at Lollapalooza. Since then, the band has crusaded against Ticketmaster, vowed never to do another video and put out concept albums in weird packaging with songs like "Bugs" and "Pilate." They paid for their pretensions with a disastrous 1996 tour, falling album sales and increasing disinterest from fans.

The new release,Binaural, is the perfect swansong to the group's tumultuous decade. Not since Vs. has this band understood itself this well; Pearl Jam seem to finally embrace their status as a rock band first and a rock band last, bullshit aside. This album finds the band ready to make timeless American rock music, and whether they like it or not, it's what Pearl Jam has always succeeded at.

Binaural (the name of the headphone-friendly recording technique used on much of the album) isn't likely to be a standout in the Pearl Jam catalog for most. There aren't any obvious power anthems or poignant masterpieces-it is a record of more subtle textures, experimental more for its studio democracy than its sound. Binaural is the band's most collaborative work to date; two of its best songs were written by bassist Jeff Ament and three more come from guitarist Stone Gossard.

Ament's "Nothing Is As It Seems," the album's first single, borders on brilliant. Vedder delivers Ament's words softly over an acoustic riff steeped in fluttering wah-wah feedback. Gossard redeems himself for No Code's miserable "Mankind" with the touching, rootsy rock of "Thin Air," another potential single.

For his part, Eddie Vedder gives himself a vocal workout on the album's hardest-rocking track, "Breakerfall," which contrasts his punk affinities with his bandmates' classic-rock leanings. Vedder's lyrics on Binaural are comfortable and narrative, closer to the songs on Ten and Vs. than the screeds that bogged down Vitalogy and No Code. The album proves that Pearl Jam's sound is more suited to songs about alienation, redemption and loss than rocking against the man.

But despite their occasional missteps, Pearl Jam can't be faulted for their bouts with idealism. Binaural, ultimately, compromises without making a compromise at all. Like the band, this album is idealistic in its honest populism, in its directness and truth. As long as the band can pack arenas playing the hits, there's a place for songs like these in their repertoire. Binaural probably won't win any awards this year, but it's more than Pearl Jam treading water. A quieter album is by no means a bad one; for now, Pearl Jam wants you to put on your headphones. But the anthems will rise again.