Music Review: Eddie Vedder - Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild
Published October 22, 2007
Written by El Conquistadorko
When it comes to writing music to accompany a dour film about an overprivileged kid who rejects materialism and wanders the vacant expanses of America only to die, starving and freezing, in the Alaska Wilderness, it's hard to think of a better match than Eddie Vedder. The Pearl Jam front man wrote and performed all the songs but two on the new Into the Wild soundtrack, a pensive mix of electrified ballads and solo acoustic instrumentals with earnest titles like “Setting Forth,” “Far Behind,” “Society,” and “End of the Road.”
If you haven't seen the movie or read the fantastic, similarly-titled Jon Krakauer book, the film concerns the misadventures of Chris McCandless, an east coast child of quarreling rich parents who like his hero Leo Tolstoy (one of McCandless' few possessions was a vintage copy of War and Peace) gives up all his worldly possessions and dedicates his life to a peripatetic search for isolation and harmony with nature. He even changes his name to Supertramp. Having read the book and reviews of the film—although not having seen the movie itself—it appears that Sean Penn has taken McCandless far more seriously than Krakauer (a veteran mountaineer) did.
In trailers for the film, Penn shows Supertramp kayaking alone down the Grand Canyon rapids of the Colorado River, a rip-roaring good time, except it never happened. In fact, McCandless never had a kayak, he had a canoe, and he didn't run the rapids, he put in south of the canyon and tried to paddle from the Colorado River to the Sea of Cortez, which turned out to be impossible and ended, as Krakauer noted, in a pointless disaster that didn't bode well for his future trip to Alaska.
Anyways, the music is solid stuff and if you're a fan of Vedder then it's a good buy. Just don't waste your time reading the pretentious lyrics, which are helpfully included in the CD, along with stills from the movie. If you have half a brain, or if you know anything about the real Chris McCandless, Vedder's attempt to turn a misguided kid's purposeless death in an abandoned school bus 30 miles from the nearest road — probably from eating poisonous berries because he intentionally didn't bring enough food with him — will only piss you off.
- Music Review: Eddie Vedder - Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild
- Published: October 22, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Acoustic, Music: Folk, Music: Soundtracks, Review
- Writer: El Bicho
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Comments on this articleComments
brutal review... Ed's lyrics were thoughtful and perfect for the movie....and he didn't write all the songs, hard sun and society are covers...do some research if your going to take the time to review the soundtrack...
Just for your information, Vedder didn't write the lyrics to Society - it was a cover. I think you should get your facts right before writing about him.
El B's dead-on about this one - the music's great, the album is great, but the lyrics are dreadful, and he's exactly right that it doesn't ruin the album as long as you don't pay much attention to them.
You then spend five paragraphs trying to talk your way out of it.
He doesn't "talk his way out of it," he gave great background about the story, since that was the impetus for the album in the first place - it's kind of nice to know what drove Vedder to do this outside of Pearl Jam, regardless of whether he wrote good lyrics or not. ALL reviews boil down to basically "it's good - buy it" or "it's not good - don't buy it." Don't be silly - you know this.
I guess this is pointless - it looks like some of the more sensitive Pearl Jam fans are going to be attacking this one. Sorry, El Bicho. I thought it was a good piece.
It seems to me the reviewer just has an axe to grind with Penn and Vedder. Seriously, an entire paragraph about the decision to change a canoe to a kayak? What's that have to do with the music Vedder created?
And I don't buy this "album is great, but the lyrics are dreadful" nonsense. You can't separate the two, the songs are the combination of the lyric and music. It's good as a whole or it's not.
TJ, I will pass on your comments to El Conquistadorko.
"What's that have to do with the music Vedder created?"
Do you really need it explained? Seems rather obvious. Have you read the book? The author is pointing out where the pretentiousness might have come from. The change of this scene makes Chris look more like a noble figure rather than the tragic fool he really was.
Just because you can't separate the music from lyrics doesn't mean others can't.
Greetings, Eddie Vedder fans!
Thank you for bringing to my attention the error in my review, which incorrectly (until corrected by El Bicho) claimed Vedder wrote all the lyrics in the soundrack. In fact, the CD booklet says "All songs written and performed by Eddie Vedder." Of course, the next sentence, which I didn't read, says "Except the following songs..." In any case, I stand by my review, namelly that all the lyrics on the soundtrack pretty much suck el gran culo, with the exception of the following song, Tuolumne, which has no lyrics. And I thank you.
Keep writing reviews for shitty blogs! But your lyrics are great man.. lol
Loser!
"the songs are the combination of the lyric and music. It's good as a whole or it's not."
So, you are basically reducing the hard work penned by the musicians down to what ever the song is about? For f*cks sake, there are plenty of killer Pearl Jam jams where the lyrics suck but the music f*cking rocks. Honestly, your statement is a line of shit.
Face it, Eddie Vedder can't sing for shit anymore and Pearl Jams music is no longer the electric drenched blues it used to be...Old F*ckin News, Move On!!
Lyric of the 'Hard Sun' is well written and the music is also good. This song definitely talks about the journey......
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/70076)
It seems your entire review boils down to this one line "Anyways, the music is solid stuff and if you're a fan of Vedder then it's a good buy."
You then spend five paragraphs trying to talk your way out of it.
Odd.