Pearl Jam is the eighth studio album by Pearl Jam, released on May 2, 2006 on J Records. It was Pearl Jam’s first and only release for J Records, their last album issued by Sony Music. It was the band’s first full length studio release in almost four years, since Riot Act (2002). The band commenced work on Pearl Jam in November 2004 at Studio X in Seattle, Washington and finished in February 2006.
The music on the record was proclaimed as a return to the band’s roots, with an emphasis on up-tempo songs with an aggressive sound. The song lyrics are mostly told from the point of view of characters and deal with the socio political issues in the United States at the period, such as the War on Terror.
Pearl Jam was critically well received and a commercial success, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually outselling the band’s previous release, Riot Act. The album also produced three singles World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted and Gone which were moderately successful. The band supported the album with a full-scale world tour in 2006.
Tracklist:
- Life Wasted
- World Wide Suicide
- Comatose
- Severed Hand
- Marker in the Sand
- Parachutes
- Unemployable
- Big Wave
- Gone
- Wasted Reprise
- Army Reserve
- Come Back
- Inside Job
Pearl Jam
Jeff Ament: bass guitar
Matt Cameron: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Stone Gossard: guitar
Mike McCready: guitar
Eddie Vedder: lead vocals, guitar, layout and design; credited as “Jerome Turner” for album concept
Additional musicians and production
Fernando Apodaca: art and sculpture, disc design
John Burton, Sam Hofstedt: engineering
Boom Gaspar: Hammond B3, piano, pump organ
Adam Kasper: production, recording, mixing
Gregg Keplinger, Aaron Mlasko, Steve Rinkov: drum technicians
Brad Klausen: cover photographs, layout and design
Jason Mueller: artistic facilitater, disc design
Pearl Jam: production
George Webb: guitar technician
Gary Westlake: optigan
