This is nearly three minutes of circular guitar noodling and Vedder chant-scatting, “Awooh… aye davanita… awooh… awooha…” (or something like that). Yep.Ī totally aimless instrumental - just feedback, titter-tatter guitar picking, and off-the-path tribal drumming - overdubbed with indecipherable audio of the voices of patients from a mental health clinic. The tune is just Vedder playing an accordion, bought at a thrift shop, and mumbling about, “bugs in my room / bugs in my bed / bugs in my ears / their eggs in my head.” That last bit is convincing. And as much as Vedder wanted to douse their fame in gasoline and light a match, this is his worst attempt at distancing the group from their commercial success. But it’s an LP that would deliver a critical sea change for one of the era’s biggest bands and lay the foundation for their decades-long (and running) career. Admittedly, it’s easier than most landmark albums: it’s a polarizing mix of fan favorites and what-were-you-thinking? near-throwaways. Here, we attempt to rank the album’s tracks. Two weeks later, on Dec. 6, the CD arrived and sold 877,000 copies in a week, according to Nielsen Music. The band did little press, released no music videos and planned no new tour. In an attempt to further eschew traditional music marketing strategies, Vitalogy was initially a vinyl-only release, dropping Nov. 22, 1994. Long gone are the classic rock solos and the yarrrrrrrrrrr-ing of “Daughter”-era Pearl Jam. Vitalogy arrived just one year after its predecessor’s massive success, yet it couldn’t be more different.
The quintet had even performed 10 of the record’s 14 songs live on that tour. and would become their de-facto producer). On all fronts, Pearl Jam appeared to be crumbling under the weight of their own success.īut they miraculously held it together, and the document of this trying era is Vitalogy, recorded mostly during breaks on their tour behind Vs. in studios in Seattle, New Orleans and Atlanta with producer Brendan O’Brien (who also helmed Vs. Meanwhile, drummer Dave Abbruzzese, who opposed the Ticketmaster boycott, was kicked out (and replaced by Jack Irons, original drummer from Red Hot Chili Peppers).
With Vitalogy, the singer now took up playing guitar and writing songs - an entirely new dynamic, which initially caused internal problems Gossard, once the artistic captain alongside Ament, considered quitting, according to a 1996 Los Angeles Times piece. On previous albums, he added vocals to the band’s music (much of the music for PJ’s debut was written before Vedder even joined the group). Increasingly, Vedder sought freedom in his music, too. With his PJ bandmates, he challenged Ticketmaster, the behemoth ticketing company (bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard even testified before a congressional sub-committee). They were exhausted from newfound fame, years of non-stop touring, the over-commercialization of their sound and look, and encroaching substance abuse issues (guitarist Mike McCready had developed an alcohol and drug problem for which he would later seek treatment). Cobain was a victim of the Is-There-No-Bottom? exploitation of grunge music, and so was Pearl Jam. Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s “Voice of a Generation” frontman (and occasional critic of Pearl Jam), had died by suicide that spring. There are many reasons why: First off, 1994 was a tumultuous year.
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