Pearl Jam: Backspacer [REPUBLIC]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing comes in a die-cut gatefold with glow-in-the-dark lettering and a 24-page, full-size booklet of lyrics and cartoon drawings. Backspacer was Pearl Jam's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since No Code, and it topped the charts in Canada too.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Die-cut gatefold jacket
• 24-page booklet
• Glow-in-the-dark cover lettering

About the album

Pearl Jam spent the 2000s making serious, weighty records, so Backspacer arrived like a window flung open. Eddie Vedder and co. brought back producer Brendan O'Brien for the first time since Yield and cut it between February and April 2009 at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles and O'Brien's own Southern Tracks in Atlanta. The mood is bright, quick and optimistic.

"Gonna See My Friend" and "Got Some" come out swinging, "The Fixer" is a punchy, hooky single, and "Johnny Guitar" rattles along with a grin. Then Vedder drops in "Just Breathe," a gentle acoustic ballad that's grown into one of the band's most loved songs, and "The End" closes things on a note of real tenderness. Mike McCready and Stone Gossard keep the guitars lean and fizzy throughout.

At 36 minutes and 38 seconds it's the shortest studio album Pearl Jam have made, and it came out on the band's own Monkeywrench label. Brevity, as they say, is the soul of wit; it's also very handy if you've got a train to catch.

Also at Kops: more Pearl Jam on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Monkeywrench / Republic (cat# MWR9413), the 2009 album.