The 25 most essential Pearl Jam songs
Pearl Jam is back with their twelfth album, Dark Matter, and we're celebrating by revisiting the tracks that got them to where they are today
Music Features Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam isn’t quite the last band standing from the glory days of grunge—their Seattle brothers Mudhoney still fight the good fight, delivering good new records every few years—but they are among an elite group of alt-rock bands who survived the 1990s unscathed. Although they’ve had the inevitable ups and downs that come from being rock & roll lifers, they’ve never succumbed to the allure of fast fashion, nor have they ever embarrassed themselves, partially because they’ve always kept their eyes on the horizon.
Dark Matter, their twelfth album, which arrived earlier this week, continues this unimpeachable track record yet it also offers something different: here, Pearl Jam takes a long look back at their 1990s. Encouraged by producer Andrew Watt, the group embraces the anthemic rock that made them superstars in the early 1990s, dodging nostalgia by keeping the sound bright, open, and lively. The nods to the group’s roots can’t help but send us on a journey through Pearl Jam’s past. Here, we offer 25 of the band’s prime songs—the songs that form the core of the group’s legacy and have grown over the years. If this list leans heavily on the 1990s, that’s merely a testament to their furious creativity during the height of alternative rock; there’s plenty to explore beyond these 25 tunes.
43 Comments
My favourite quote about “Yellow Ledbetter” was that someone told Eddie Vedder that they loved the lyrics, and Eddie just shot back “That song has lyrics?!”
My favorite Pearl Jam songs:“Butterman”“Don’t Call Me Daughturrr”
“Hit Me (With a Surprise Left)““Heart Shaped Box” (according to Napster)
Gen Z isn’t going to understand this joke at all.
Honestly? I don’t have a lot of quibbles with this list. Rearviewmirror is one of my favorite songs of all time, by any band, ever. But, I won’t deny Black’s absolute perfection. Shout out to Present Tense, Garden, and the live version of Man Of The Hour from Benaroya Hall 2003 …
I’m glad someone else opened up considering live performances. The live version of “Corduroy” from Let’s Play Two is probably my favorite Pearl Jam song.
Yeah Black has always been my PJ #1. I know Jeremy was a huge hit for them but it’s always been way down my list for some reason. My only other beef would be to hoot Corduroy up into the 2 spot – just a great rocker.
Man of the Hour makes me cry. I think of my father.
Benaroya Hall is amazing from start to finish! All or None is simply breath taking.
I realize my PJ taste doesn’t exactly line up with most, but Rearviewmirror is the best song they ever did, hands down. And where is Garden? Tremor Christ?
The article says “Eddie Vedder opens the song by declaring it’s ‘time to emancipate,’ spending some time recounting the reasons that led to his escape from a poisonous relationship,..” but I always thought of this song as being in from the perspective of presumably a woman in an physically and psychologically abusive relationship. I hope I’m not wrong about that, because I really appreciated back then that Vedder wrote the song as if the woman was speaking, rather than a man telling a story about woman.
For all the typos, you’re welcome.
Tremor Christ is possibly my favorite of all their songs.
Best Eddie vocal performance, ever, IMHO.
Tremor Christ is awesome. Got to hear it live just once and it was the highlight of that show.
I’m a big fan of their cover of the song ‘Crazy Mary’, which was a bonus track off of Vs.
It may be a cover song, but “Crazy Mary” deserves to be on this list.
What is this, 1995?
I remember feeling like “Ten” was just about a perfect album back when it was released, but then never really cared for anything they did after that. Every time I listen to something from a new Pearl Jam album I think “yeah, I guess that’s still the same Pearl Jam whatnot” but it holds nothing for me anymore. I’ll still listen to other bands from that time/area, but PJ just became kind of meh quickly and stayed there.
Being a huge rock star clearly got old for Vedder, at least for a while, and it shows in some of the middle albums. Most would have a couple of solid songs and a lot that almost seemed designed to turn off fans of their early arena rock style.
I’m ecstatic “State of Love and Trust” is on here! I’ve never been a big ‘Jam fan, but I’ve always loved that song (best Pearl Jam song, easily!). Along with “It aint like that” from AIC, it encapsulated that ‘grunge’ feel the movie was going for. Almost metal, with the same aggression, but with some seriously catchy pop-style choruses. Just typing that sentence made me think of Nirvana. Why weren’t they in the movie, again?
Nirvana were from Olympia. All the bands in Singles were Seattle-based and mostly friends with each other, which is why some of the movie feels like a hang-out film instead of a dramedy.
I was big into Pearl Jam back in the day, and this is a pretty solid list. I’d say ‘Animal’ is a glaring omission though.I have a lot of songs on my list that I love but would probably have to admit aren’t “essential”; tracks like ‘Dissident’, ‘Insignificance’, ‘Nothing As it Seems’, ‘Red Mosquito’, ‘Immortality’.
I suddenly remembered back to when AVClub used to actually review new albums. Now their music section is mostly listicles.
If you’re interested, STE (the author) has his review up at allmusic.https://www.allmusic.com/album/dark-matter-mw0004218181
Wow I saw you writing this list at Duda’s Tavern yesterday. Had I only known, I would have introduced myself.
Is odd that today, at 46, it just occurred to me that the name Pearl Jam may be a semen joke
Yeah, it’s spooge.I heard an interview years ago where they were asked how they named the band and one of them said it was named for one of the bandmember’s aunts, who made jam that was everyone’s favorite thing ever. So they called the band that as a placeholder, then stuck with it. It was the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard and I’m surprised they made it through without laughing.
I knew that in the 90’s, and I don’t even like Pearl Jam.
As a fanatic in every sense of the world, and seeing them for the 72nd, 73rd, 74th, and 75th times next month, not a bad list at all. Appreciate your analysis although as a fanatic, I would quibble endlessly and pointlessly, so I won’t.
Taking this opportunity to plug “Unemployable,” a 2000’s-era track off the self-titled album that has both one of the best PJ melodies and examples of their guitar-drum interplay.
I can’t begin to understand what makes a song by an artist “essential,” but as far as liking their songs, I’d add Porch to the list. Really anything from their phenomenal Unplugged episode. I think all the others are here already.I remember when Ten came out and I had never heard anything like it. I was never one to share music but that CD I made people borrow it.
small sliver where mainstream and underground rock interested
Should that be “intersected”?
How do you miss Given to Fly?
Hey, I had that Jeremy CD single with Yellow Ledbetter on it! Was the only way to get it at that point. They took a lot of shit at the time for that cover.Pretty solid list, though I’d probably replace Light Years or Who You Are with Leash. But holy shit are they right about the Singles soundtrack. Talk about right place / right time. PJ, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains right at the moment they were blowing up. Hell, Pearl Jam played Matt Dillon’s backing band (Citizen Dick) in the movie.
Thanks for this list. As an older GenXer, I really did not hit my musical tastes until my 20s. I was what would become grunge in the synthpop 80s in high school so I hated 80s pop. Pearl Jam is in my top 2 bands (the other is pink floyd). I feel strange as a fan in that I never became a pearl jam junkie/groupie and go see them in concert all over the place. I just look fondly back at my 20s and their music. I did not like the Sirius/XM Pearl Jam channel as it was so much of “Hey remember being at concert X back in year Y so here is the 3 hr concert recording. Just not for me.
I’m glad you put in the context to State of Love and Trust regarding Singles.As strange as it is to think about nowadays, even with the hits off of the prior year’s Ten, the Singles soundtrack was the first exposure for a quite a number of people to Pearl Jam. In general, it is also one of the all time great soundtracks for a movie as well as being the background for so much of what goes on in it. Incidentally, I’d give Pearl Jam another half credit for a song on it, as Vedder, Ament, and Gossard performed Dillon’s Citizen Dick’s Touch Me I’m Dick.It’s a movie that I was a bit too young at the time to fully appreciate the late 20s dating scene in it, but it’s one that I’ve really enjoyed showing various millennials over the years. It’s got the bonus of being the perfect weird little dated peak of grunge, but the absurdity of trying to find someone while still very much figuring yourself out is something that is timeless (along with their reaction to Bridget Fonda.)
I barely listen to them anymore, but this list reminded me how many great songs they have. I particularly like Deep and Oceans from Ten, Dissident from VS, Tremor Christ and Immortality from Vitalogy. Damn, I could keep going for a while . . .And I’m pleasantly surprised by the new album. Liking it a bit more than I expected.
No “Bugs?”
What a song that one is.
Kind of surprised that “Animal” didn’t make the list, but otherwise, as a casual fan, I like it.
came here to confirm #1 song…good list