(Single from album, “Lightning Bolt”)
The Seattle sound. It gave the world grunge, and for that, we are eternally grateful. The only issue with grunge however, was Nirvana’s spearhead manoeuvre, leading the way almost exclusively; everyone’s heard “Lithium” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, but bands like Pearl Jam tended (and still do) to fall by the wayside – for example, the 20th anniversary reissue of Cobain’s lot’s final album, “In Utero”, has had more promotion than Jam’s “Lightning Bolt”, composed of brand new material. Even at the time, some perfectly good grunge went unnoticed in the main charts – “Even Flow” people? Pearl Jam never had massive success in the UK, and even in the US, 1994’s “Spin The Black Circle and 1999’s “Last Kiss” remain the band’s only top 20 hits in the Billboard 200. Now, almost 30 years after an explosion of noise in Washington State that rocked the foundations of the world, their latest efforts now received criticism for being unexciting and ‘dull’ – so what’s going on here? Have McCready and co. mellowed?
Well, “Sirens” is the second single from the album, and opens, no-nonsense, with a dramatic sweep over the drums, joined in the following seconds by the chasmic shimmer of a 12-string acoustic guitar, and later at the chorus, bass and some electric guitar – it’s your typical American rock setup, executed neatly and with the performing skill of musicians with a serious, accomplished technical tenure. Even the grizzly vocal, complete with subject choice of forlorn romantic longing, conforms to the rock song blueprint. There’s even a solo at around 3:45, and it’s not bad, not excellent, and, much like the remainder of the song’s elements, just ‘good’ in brutal honesty. I’d say there’s very little to grab you here, other than perhaps, the production, which sparkles; rich depth and equalisation that make at least some sense of guitarist Mike McCready’s desire to replicate Roger Water’s massive, live Pink Floyd sound. There’s a huge lack in inventive components, or musical concepts to differentiate the sound from anything you’ve heard before – you want something fuzzy, something revolutionary, and you just end up sitting there, vaguely enjoying the pre-chorus progression and looking largely for the 12-string, simply because it adds some jangle, which even then, becomes contrived and uninteresting.
You can quite easily understand having listened once then, why 2013 Pearl Jam hasn’t gone down so well with some critics and, worse than anything aforementioned is the issue with the genre; the grunge element has kind of fizzled out. There’s no real; distortion or heavy discordance, just some titillating chord changes just before the chorus, which then goes on to disappoint with mediocrity. It’s hardly rubbish, but it’s not screaming out greatness either to be fair, and I think I can safely say, I expect better.
★★
Versions of “Sirens”
Album/Single Version - 5:41