Ten [Reissue]

Ten deserved better than Ten Redux and the paltry bonus tracks. Fortunately, the reissue also includes a DVD of Pearl Jam's 1992 performance on "MTV Unplugged".

There is much, meanwhile, to recommend the O’Brien remix, or “deconstruction” as he puts it. What O’Brien has mostly done is strip away the more ornate layers of the Palmer mix and cutting back on the album’s moments of more florid melodrama.

His new take scythes through the original, revealing growls and guitars long obscured—sometimes it’s distracting, but often it lends the songs a newfound jolt.

It's quite arguable that this lean, muscular remix is a marked improvement on the original mix, as it's easier to focus on both the songs and group's interplay.

All that said, this is an exercise for die-hards and audiophiles: To PJ's credit, the original didn't leave much room for improvement.

While megaproducer Brendan O'Brien sharpens the overall sound, especially the guitar interplay between Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, he does so by removing the grit that helped define Pearl Jam.

Producer Brendan O'Brien kicks up classics like 'Even Flow' and 'Black' by putting Vedder more upfront and toning down the reverb so listeners can better hear the interplay of guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard. Disc two tacks on six more tracks that represent the real gold for diehards who have traded sludgy bootlegs of the band's early jams for years.

Ten is a classic of the grunge era, its super-sized anthems and introspective pieces powered by Eddie Vedder, a Jim Morrision for the plaid shirt brigade. [Apr 2009, p.116]