Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
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Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics What's this?

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Universal acclaim- based on 299 Ratings

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  • Summary: Adam Kasper again co-produced the band's belated follow-up to 2002's 'Riot Act.' It is Pearl Jam's eighth studio album overall.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 28
  2. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. Pearl Jam hasn't sounded as alive or engaging as they do here since at least Vitalogy, if not longer.
  2. Pearl Jam is another straight-up collection of raw, blistered rock and moody mid-tempo balladry. The difference here, and the reason for excitement, is that the self-titled record more consistently achieves the grandeur, rage, and beauty they’ve always pursued, throughout its entirety.
  3. Unfashionable as they probably are, Pearl Jam have gone some way to regaining both their fire and their relevance with this, a record that takes equally from classic Neil Young stylings as it does raging, polemic punk.
  4. Songs like "World Wide Suicide" and "Severed Head" even come close to recreating the hard rock thrills of the band's billion-selling debut, Ten.
  5. 70
    Pearl Jam sound reborn, vital. [Jul 2006, p.112]
  6. It's got all the elements of a great album, but it doesn't evoke the feeling of listening to the band's first three seminal albums.
  7. [It] is a lusher and less challenging listen than recent efforts, but it's also curiously featureless, the sound of a group drained of passion and fresh ideas. [Jun 2006, p.118]

See all 28 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 16 out of 192
  1. JohnnyL.
    May 28, 2007
    This album really shows how Pearl Jam has grown up and advanced musically as well as lyrically. At the same time they brought back some of the old all-out-rock attitude on a majority of the songs. Genius, simply genius!! Collapse
  2. DanL
    May 4, 2006
    The best thing to happen to rock in years, Pearl Jam turn the volume to 11 for the first time since 1994's Vitalogy. Every song on the album is addictive and genius, most notably "Unemployable," "Inside Job," and "Severed Hand." Wow, 2006 is a great year for music. Expand
  3. Nabill
    May 1, 2006
  4. nellyb
    May 15, 2006
    This album has it all!
  5. JAnderson
    May 1, 2006
    A return to form...Best album since No Code!
  6. AddlerS
    Dec 2, 2006
    I can't believe there are people out there who still compare every Pearl Jam release to Ten. That was 15 years ago! This album rocks, PJ is great, and this is not a comeback because they were never gone. Expand
  7. ducdonglong
    May 1, 2006
    Ten Club Took My Money for Nothing.

See all 192 User Reviews