Top 25 Albums #23

Well, it's been exactly 2 months since I posted #24, so at this rate, I'll reveal my #1 album in April, 2010. Hmmm. That may not be the best strategy. I guess the delay comes out of pure laziness, the same reason BillyBlog uses a Blogger template and doesn't have the bells and whistles of other, more handsome blogs.

It's like this: if I'm going to talk about a record, I'd like to accompany it with some tunage, so you can hear and sample the music I'm talking about.

So here is my #23 album on my top 25 list. And like all lists, the rankings change, moreso with music rankings, based on moods. There will be albums in the top 20 that may not meet your expectations of such an honor, but I am also basing this on emotional wallop and developmental significance. So, it's a purely personal list.

#23 is:

Before you bombard me with comments, let me explain. Is the eponymous 2006 release better than their albums Ten and Vs. ? Perhaps not. However, the Avocado Album (as it has come to be known) is inevitably compared to those first two discs. So, there's an X factor here that pushes it on to this list (remember, a band can only have one record on the list).

On July 9, 2003, I liked Pearl Jam. Liked them enough to buy a ticket from a friend of a friend to join them in seeing the band for the first time, at Madison Square Garden. It was a cheap, affordable ticket ($50), and I had always wanted to see them. Any regular reader of BillyBlog will recall that I talked the band to death in May-June 2006 of this year, after this album came out, so I don't want to be redundant. July 9, 2003, I saw Pearl Jam and became an instant fan. Not an appreciator, but a fan. I downloaded the concert the following day, further cementing my fandom.

Pearl Jam, released officially on May 2, 2006, was the band's first release after I became a true fan, so I was instantly amazed. But, the fact that the album was received well by critics validated my appreciation of the record. Then, seeing them in the Ed Sullivan Theater, blew me away.

From start to finish, the album is strong. From its opening chords, to its coda, the record kicks ass. In a period of a month, between the Letterman experience and the two shows in East Rutherford (June 1 and 3), I saw every song on the album (with the exception of Big "Let's-Save-it-for-San Diego" Wave) performed live. It is an amazing record. Maybe not as good as their first two, but because of my emotional attachment, my favorite.

For your listening pleasure, the following tracks are live performances of a few of the tracks on Pearl Jam:

Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide (Live) - East Rutherford, NJ, June 1, 2006.mp3

Pearl Jam - Life Wasted (Live) - The Late Show with David Letterman, May 4, 2006.mp3

Pearl Jam - Marker in the Sand (Live) - Ed Sullivan Theater, Webcast Performance, May 4, 2006.mp3

Pearl Jam - Severed Hand (Live) - Saturday Night Live, April 15, 2006.mp3

Buy the CD here.

All MP3s provided on this site are hosted via official sites or with the artist/label's permission. On the extremely rare occasion when this isn't the case, the track will only be available for a very limited time. If you are the owner of a sound file and would like it removed, please email me directly. If you like what you hear, PLEASE follow the links provided to buy the records and support the music.