Lost Dogs: Is Pearl Jam’s bark worse than its bite?
While no one was looking, Pearl Jam became the band they always wanted to be. Their career trajectory has been fascinating to watch. The hype of the bullshit machine that helped their debut album conquer MTV and radio also did its best to swallow them.
Most artists spend a lifetime trying to reach the heights from which Pearl Jam ran. U2 hammered out a blueprint for being a big band with big ideas on a big stage. Pearl Jam modified this blueprint over the years and became a band with big ideas on a (mostly) smaller stage. They managed to survive a dizzying number of music industry earthquakes (and a Spinal Tap-esque revolving door of drummers) over a 12-year period. Their return to the underground may have been what saved them.
Eddie Vedder & Co. rode the spin cycle and lived to tell about it.
More than 10 years after their meteoric rise to the top of the charts, the rarities collection, Lost Dogs (31 songs spread over two discs) is a revelation.
Many of the band’s early songs were all passion, no heart (you know, the whole sound-fury-signifying-nothing bit). Pearl Jam was like a flannel-clad Linus, serious and conscience driven to the point of pretentiousness (but nowhere near as endearing as the blanketed one). Their own sincerity was their message. Screaming guitars and tortured wails were the tools used to pound the passion into each song and the listeners into dejected submission.
All of this added up to some fantastic songs on wearisome albums. Vitalogy and No Code have some magnificent moments, but I would not listen to either of those albums from beginning to end at gunpoint.
Lost Dogs is in many ways a breath of fresh air. Many of these songs are more than the dour bitchfests Pearl Jam has been churning out for so many years. Maturity and experience have added layers to the music.
Subtlety has given their work depth, and not a moment too soon.
The reasons these songs did not make it on the albums they were recorded for are what make the songs such great listening experiences. This is the album many have waited for Pearl Jam to make. Lost Dogs could be Pearl Jam’s Greatest Hits if they had hits. Instead it’s just great.
The opening trio of “All Night,” “Down” and “Sad” is one of the strongest sections of the set.
“All Night” has the familiar, driving sound Pearl Jam has perfected on songs like “Spin the Black Circle” and “Go.” “Sad” is a mid-tempo track with one of Mike McCready’s better guitar solos. It defies preconceived notions of what a Pearl Jam song named “Sad” might sound like.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Ah. Pearl Jam. I love reading about them, especially when h writer, as in this case, doesn't get all pretentious. I saw them three days straight in December of 1995 in Seattle Center with various supporting acts - Hater being one of them. Deep Six another and I can never remember the third.
They will always be one of my favorites. 12 years? wow.
2 - DJRadiohead
especially when h writer, as in this case, doesn't get all pretentious.
I try to avoid pretentiousness... sometimes I am more successful than others. =)
And Pearl Jam is a band that seems to draw out pretentious responses because they themselves can sometimes be pretty pretentious. And I say this as a fan of the band- I like them very much and this collection has some of my favorite songs by the band.
3 - Temple Stark
DJ R
I point you to the Alabama music review site of Advance.net.
Your review's up there, loud and proud. Please go and tell your contacts that hundreds of thousands more readers will now have access to your review.
4 - Ranko
i found lost dogs to be a bit of a waste of time. there were sum brillant songs on there like yellow ledbetter and alone but the others jst seemed wierd sorta like the song "bugs" from Vitalogy really those songs are jst kinda gay and it seems wierd that a great band like pearl jam would want to release songs that are never going to be released as singles
5 - DJRadiohead
Ranko, I wish you would choose different descriptive words than 'gay.'
Many of the songs released on the Lost Dogs collection were b-sides to singles or were included on different compilations and/or soundtracks. Lost Dogs served as a cheap way to collect all of those songs.
As to the wierdness... it is not uncommon for bands to relegate some of their more unusual songs to b-side status or to be parceled out to soundtracks, etc. Lost Dogs takes songs that were recorded at different times throughout the band's entire career (and with different lineups). Cohesiveness could not really be expected on a package like that.
You are certainly entitled not to like the album. It is one I still quite enjoy.