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The lightness and dexterity of the playing throughout Backspacer, and of Vedder's hard-driving, often playful vocals, come from Pearl Jam's members taking this music seriously, honing in and nailing it.
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90Backspacer is the bands most mature album to date and clocking in at just over 36 minutes, it is also their most condensed work; It's as if Pearl Jam is channeling Ernest Hemingway, with not a wasted breath or note anywhere to be found.
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Prior to Backspacer, Pearl Jam wouldn't or couldn't have made music this unfettered, unapologetically assured, casual, and, yes, fun.
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90Backspacer, the band's ninth studio album [is] one of its most cohesive and satisfying in terms of brevity, crisp production, and a sharp focus.
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The whole album has a pleasurable mix of lean, mean rock'n'roll and pensive ballads that reflect both the state of the world and the band's place in it.
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80'Just Breathe,' 'Amongst The Waves' and 'The End' make this one of Pearl jam's most satisfying albums. [Oct 2009, p.96]
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80The commitment that Vedder brings to all this material, from the rowdiest thrashing to the schmaltziest ballad makes this feel like a unified and ultimately convincing project. [Oct 2009, p.90]
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80For the first time in their 19-year career, Pearl Jam actually sound--whisper it--fun. [Oct 2009, p.119]
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Backspacer, Pearl Jam's ninth album, backspaces to that boyish spirit, with the shortest, tightest, punkiest tunes they've ever banged out.
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80For the first time in years, Pearl Jam are seizing the moment rather than wallowing in it.
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80This is a record made by mature men with perspective: full of reflection and eclecticism, finding space for both U2 guitar motifs and Buzzcocks solos.
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It's a set of 11 concise songs in 37 minutes that are mostly fast, loud, sinewy and live sounding.
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The album grows same-y, but tracks like the surfing-as-life-metaphor anthem 'Amongst the Waves' do indeed make something old feel, if not new, good again.
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Though it doesn't hit with the same force as the early singles to which every future Pearl Jam anthem will be compared, it's an oxygen rush nonetheless--one worth hoping for and high-fiving to when they unleash it live.
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Backspacer is very much calculated to sound the way it sounds, and suggesting Pearl Jam have lost anything would be premature. Ultimately there's no point fretting about the future when contemplating a record that's so very much a celebration of the moment.
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70When Pearl Jam shocked the world with Ten and Vs, there would have been few that believed the band were capable of an album such as Backspacer--an ostensibly traditional rock album that, at times, feels contented and at others strays close to emotional equity. The shock this time is that they nearly pull it off.
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70Pearl Jam's ninth album sounds a lot more optimistic and positive than the band ever has. More importantly, Backspacer sees Pearl Jam finally escape the slump they fell into with "Binaural" nine years ago.
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70This is Pearl Jam's "fun" record, a disc that was likely just as exciting as [to] record as it is to listen to.
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A little more effort at the end would have been appreciated, but so long as you're content with paying full price for what's essentially twenty-eight minutes of listenable music, Backspacer works as a fun little rock n'roll record.
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60Ultimately at this point, the songs that I'm most attracted to are still the slower, more intuitive weepers showcasing Vedder's voice, and alas, such simplicity is scarce on Backspacer.
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Outside of a filmic context and stamped with the name Pearl Jam, several of the songs fall flat, dragging down an otherwise upbeat and enjoyable release.
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60There's a casual feel to this recording that generally works in its favour. Nothing sounds too laboured, and you get the feeling that they banged out the tunes quickly in an attempt to capture some live urgency. On the downside, the unpretentious approach often borders on unambitious.
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I still root for Pearl Jam, and listen to each of their albums with the hope that I'll get the same charge I did from Ten and Vs., and perhaps the greatest testament to Backspacer is that it's the most difficult album in a long time to immediately dismiss.
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46Virtually the whole record settles into the same formula the band's been dutifully churning out since the dawn of the millennium.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 71 out of 79
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Mixed: 7 out of 79
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Negative: 1 out of 79
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