This is one of those posts where I don’t mean for it to be bait whatsoever, I am being totally genuine here, but with the reaction I’ve gotten for stating this opinion throughout my life, I figured I’d start with thatI do not like Pearl Jam at all, save for a song or two I think are good, I like the song Black quite a bit and I heard another song I can’t remember the name of once that I thought was alright. But every single time I try to listen to this band’s discography, I hate it. At one point, I wanted to like Pearl Jam and listened to Ten a ton to try to acclimate myself to the album like I’ve done with many others I had an initial sour taste to. I thought it was annoying. If every band from the 90s is Red Hot Chili Peppers but more or less annoying on a spectrum, Pearl Jam is on the lower end of that spectrum. However, I still find Pearl Jam to be annoying and uninspiring.
Am I just too young to understand them? There are a lot of vocalists I don’t understand that I like because of how they use their voice as an instrument, but I find how Vedder using his vocals absolutely indecipherable. Someone will hear some lyrics from him and be like “damn I felt that” when I didn’t understand a goddamn word Vedder had said. I’ve listened to a lot of grunge, really love The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. the most because I’m also a lover of dream pop and shoegaze. I should be okay with Veddar having indecipherable vocals, it just seems like they way he does it is stupid.
If you guys have any suggestions for Pearl Jam songs you think I’ll like, feel free to comment them, I’m not going to just be a shithead. I’d also appreciate hearing what you guys specifically appreciate about the group or the song you comment. I feel like I’m missing so much context with how many people I like also being Pearl Jam fans, but maybe I’m not missing anything and other people also agree with how annoying they are?
help hexbear
I agree with you and I’ll take it one step further - I don’t like most grunge.
I think the problem for me is grunge takes a lot of influence from hard rock and heavy metal, two genres I’ve never been big on. A lot of grunge bands are just too close to hard rock for me. I absolutely hear it in Eddie Vedder’s vocals. Maybe it’s something similar for you. You might try listening to some Pearl Jam precursors - Green River is a grunge band I really like. Temple of the Dog I never really listened to but they have that one cool song Hunger Strike. There’s also Mother Love Bone but I’ve never really listened to them.
You may also be reacting to the slew of derivative Pearl Jam copycats that popped up in the wake of the grunge explosion. Post-grunge is a genre that’s generally looked down upon, and I think a lot of those guys copied a lot from Eddie Vedder’s vocal style. It might be a case of you being more familiar with the derivative knock-off bands that Pearl Jam spawned, and only being able to hear those bands when you listen to Pearl Jam.
This is my case, I can only ever hear Creed when I hear Pearl Jam
Hunger Strike is fun song to sing to while at work or something. But Say Hello to Heaven was the best thing they made