Ten

I would recommend this album to everyone who likes rock and has ever used their brain in respect to music.


PEARL JAM'S 'TEN' vs. NIRVANA'S 'NEVERMIND' - the truth   May 21, 2005
Velvet Underground Pixies
10 out of 16 found this review helpful

August 27th, 1991 - Pearl Jam released the revolutionary 'Ten'
September 24th, 1991 - Nirvana released the "revolutionary" 'Nevermind'

Another one for the ages in the classic example of one album vs. another - It's an argument to go along beside 'London Calling' vs. 'Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols' - 'Pet Sounds' vs. 'Sgt. Peppers' - 'Led Zeppelin 4' vs. 'Dark Side of the Moon' etc.. etc..

I have opinions regarding those albums that can be bent & changed depending on my mood - What cannot be changed is my opinion of 'Ten' vs. 'Nevermind' -

The Seattle revolution was praised for changing the music scene from hair metal, to honest rock n roll again - Nirvana getting most of this praise since they got big first, & afterwards with Pearl Jam getting big months later - In modern times, unfourtantely, the hype & legend of this scene has covered many points in reality that the music at the time was so praised for - Nirvana was thought of as revolutionary, nothing like 'Nevermind' was released before... right?

Wrong.

- The Pixies. A band that combined the spirit of punk rock with basslines & drum beats wrapped around the guitars in a style not heard before.. the Pixies, while critically acclaimed, were not a well known band - Kurt Cobain, however, was one of their devoted listeners.. aswell as their biggest thief - He claimed that if it wasnt for 'Doolittle', Nevermind wouldve never been made... can't argue with the man there, he's right... 'Nevermind' is a blatant rip-off of 'Doolittle', aswell as 'Surfa Rosa'

Nirvana basically took the exact same style of song writing & technique the Pixies invented, & made it mainstream... since the mainstream listening public is well known to be ignorant sheep, they hailed it as being "a revolutionary sound" - thereby annoying the christ out of all Pixies' lovers such as myself -

So why did music critics acclaim 'Nevermind' then? - Guess what? THEY DIDNT - Rolling Stone magazine gave 'Nevermind' an average 3 stars for their effort ('Ten' got 4 stars)... it was only after the ignorant mainstream public loved 'Nevermind' to death, that it started becoming trendy to critically acclaim the album - It wasnt acclaimed from the beginning such as 'OK Computer' (whats that? it wasnt acclaimed because it was such a new sound? Bad argument. So was 'OK Computer' & it was acclaimed before it was released)

Kurt was worshipped as being so "real"... guess what?

Not really.

the song 'Something in the Way' was reportedly written after Kurt was living under a bridge... Kurt NEVER lived under a bridge - He lied.. he was kicked out of his house when he was about to be intimate with a girl, & lived with friends for a while - Thats the true story, nothing dark, or sensitive.. just another case of the legend overshadowing the actual truth

Here's some truth...

the Pearl Jam song 'Release', written by Eddie Vedder, was a song he wrote about the death of his real father he never knew was his real father.. his mom never told him - This is a REAL song.. REAL emotion.. a TRUE story - not a legend, or a myth, just the truth.. also 'Alive' is based after the same story - Metaphorically believing his mom "raped" him

Whereas Kurt seemed to keep things more self-centered in songs such as the simple-minded repetitive 'Lithium' & .. oh hell, every other song off Nevermind except 'Polly'... Eddie was writing songs reflecting the state of the world, in songs such as 'Jeremy', 'Even Flow', & 'Why Go?'


Pearl Jam were original. No band sounded like Pearl Jam before Pearl Jam did - Sure.. Eddie had Jim Morrison type vocals, but thats as far of an influence you could hear through their music... anyone familiar with the Pixies, heard a blatant rip-off of the Pixies in Nirvana....

Nirvana were not original. They were rip-offs. As much of rip-offs as Puddle of Mudd is to Nirvana, only Pixies were way less known - To further prove this fact, the amazon editorial review writes, 'Thousands of albums have tried to copy 'Nevermind's style" - Hey.. maybe they WERENT, maybe the bands thought of as trying to copy Neverminds style, were just ALSO heavily influenced by the Pixies

Please listen to the song 'Gouge Away' off Doolittle (pixies) - & in that song, you'll hear every song Nirvana ever wrote summed up into one song.

Eddie Vedder wrote songs revolving around things that actually happened to him.. way more personal songs - & when he didnt, he wrote about songs for the state of the world -

Kurt Cobain hardly wrote about songs he actually lived - In fact, their biggest hit, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was a song Kurt wrote about having friends....

Awww... how sweet...

Party music.

Whereas Kurt insulted hair metal bands, he also cited hair metal leaders such as 'Van Halen' as huge influences...(anyone else notice that people who bought 'Nevermind' also bought 'Appetite for Destruction'?

- In the end...

Pearl Jam were always a more honest, & revolutionary sounding band than Nirvana... Kurts death overshadowed this, & he became a legend with fables told about him... theres no fables about Pearl Jam (except their name).. theyre just a true band.. & often times, non-fiction is much more amazing than fiction.. Pearl Jam vs. Nirvana is a case of this

***** BUY THESE 2 GREATEST HITS ALBUMS ******

1) Pearl Jam's 'Rearviewmirror'
2) The Pixies' 'Wave of Mutilation'

Kurt hated Pearl Jam's music? Well guess what Kurt - Black Francis of the Pixies, your biggest idol, hated YOUR music as I read in Blender magazine recently (& why not? it was just a watered down version of the music his band already made before)

FACT: Kurt called MTV behind the scenes, & told them to play more Nirvana music videos

FACT: Pearl Jam quit making MTV music videos

& people think Nirvana was so rebelious? ha..

In closing, I'd like to say anyone who connects with 'Nevermind' more than 'Ten' (even if is more popular) - & anyone who connects with "songs about friends" more than the epic Pearl Jam's 'Black' - Is about as rebelious & has as much emotional depth as a bottle cap.


Pearl Jam's 10 is a perfect 10!   December 7, 2005
Tylerevan (Florida)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

I was 25 when 10 came out. I wasn't a grunge fan but I knew great music and lyrics when I heard them. I'm 40 now and I still know great music and I still consider 10 to be one of the top 5 greatest, defining albums of all time! I hate to be repetative but "Black" is probably the greatest "somebody done somebody wron song" ever written...period! Anyone who has ever loved and lost and then searched vain to somehow articulate the torrential fallout of grief and pain that always comes from saying goodbye, need look no further than the lyrics from Black to speak for them. It reaches into your soul and gives the reasurrance that you are not alone, that everbody hurts and that knowledge helps you make it through.

And as for Eddy Vedder, not only does he have a voice that transcends age or gender (my 5 year old son loves evenflow and my 2 year old daugter falls into peacfull sleep whenever "Release" is playing) but he gives voice to emotion drawing creativity from his own painful past and spinning it into sonic "Nirvana".

Buy "10" pop it into your cd player and soon names like Cobain and Nirvana will be but distant memories lost in the anals of mediocre music.


The most emotion that could ever be captured on record...   April 28, 2000
7 out of 9 found this review helpful

Now, i just want to start off by saying that this isnt Pearl Jam's best album (Vitalogy is), but this one carries the most emotion. The pain and emotion expressed in Eddie Vedder's lyrics are unmatchable, and the music is no exception. This is really the only Pearl Jam album where you can actually hear the hurt in Eddie's voice...his voice has always sounded different on the other records. I suppose the reason for that is because Pearl Jam made this record when Eddie was still living out of his own pocket, and i guess that he was really angry. Although Pearl Jam made some better records later in their career(Vitalogy and No Code), they never really matched the pain and emotion that is expressed in this recording. "Alive", "Even Flow", "Why Go", and "Black" are some of the most emotional songs ever when it comes to expressing anger, and above all - pain. So buy this one and listen to the lyrics and Eddie's voice...it will send you soul searching, and might even make you cry. After you appreciate the music on this album, buy their other albums...they are all masterpieces

Im going to put Pearl Jam's albums in order of how good they are:

1)Vitalogy- My favorite Pearl Jam album. There isnt one bad song on this one (except for maybe those crazy experiments they did) "Nothingman", Better Man", and "Satan's Bed" are the greatest tracks on this record.

2)No Code- This is the most diverse Pearl Jam album, it stands alone from the others. No Code doesnt really have a musical style that can be classified, and it is almost as good as Vitalogy...It also contains my two favorite Pearl Jam songs: "Hail Hail" and "Off He Goes".

3)Ten- The bands rawest album, you can feel the anger and pain...

4)Yield- This is a great album no matter what anyone says. It has some great tracks, including some of Pearl Jam's best songs such as: "No Way", "Faithfull", and of course "Given to Fly". Great album.

5)Vs.- This is my least favorite Pearl Jam album because of the limited amount of good tracks. But this isnt one of those sophomore album "slumps". This is a really good record, but its just my least favorite from the PJ catalogue. It contains some of Pearl Jam's greatest songs though: "Go", "Animal", "Daughter", "Dissident", and the great "Rearviewmirror".