Pearl Jam - Ten (Deluxe Edition) (2CD/1 DVD)
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Free Music Notes for Ten (Deluxe Edition) (2CD/1 DVD)
Free Music Review: As powerful as the day it was released.
Hit: 5 Stars
When I was a freshman in high school, I remember a friend of mine cranking the volume on "Even Flow" and not knowing what hit me. A quick trip my beloved Brass City Records in Waterbury, CT later, and I would begin spinning Ten over and over again. 18 years later, my perception on the record has evened out a little bit-- it's not quite the masterpiece I would have credited it with being at 14, but it is an awfully good record, and receiving a great presentation in this package.
Housed in a slipcase, the album is presented in two mixes-- the original as released in 1991 and a remix by the band's longtime producer Brenden O'Brien. To the remixed version, the band's appended half a dozen unreleased tracks. In addition to a booklet containing photos of the band, this reissue includes a DVD of the band's performance on "MTV Unplugged".
So Ten, Seattle grunge stirred up with a healthy dose of arena rock bombast, is a singular achievement, straddling remarkably comfortably the fence of commercial appeal and artistic merit. Effectively standout cut after standout cut, Ten moves from hard driving grunge rockers ("Porch") to rock anthems ("Alive") to songs of wilted love ("Black") and pained self-reflection ("Release"). Along the way, it never feels forced, it never feels overdone, and it certainly never feels insincere. And if that wasn't enough, the band just turns in great performances over and over again.
For this reissue, the two mixes present an interesting contrast. The original mix has a charm to itself, but it tends to emphasize the band's arena rock sounds and can make them feel a bit overblown. And on occasion, odd choices of effects can get in the way of the pieces (the treatment of the vocal on "Oceans"). I found myself really happy with the mix by Brendan O'Brien, who seems to have brought a bit more bite to the music, taken away some of the brightness and leaving the impression that the band is in the room and Vedder is singing right in your ear-- opener "Once" hits like an explosion, "Oceans" is a revelation, "Porch" is startling and "Release", a piece that over the years has come more and more to have immense weight in my life, takes on even more depth and color.
The bonus tracks are kind of a mixed bag-- they're nice to have, by and large, but none of them are fantastic. The oddly downtempo performance of "State of Love and Trust" is interesting to hear, if nothing else for just how much the right tempo can take a weak song and make it fantastic and "2000 Mile Blues", an on-the-spot blues improv, is a whole lot of fun, but none of it is something I could say I needed to have.
The MTV Unplugged disc is a different story altogether-- I remember seeing this when it first aired and being floored by it, staring in awe at the screen while Vedder laid his heart in front of us on "Black" and feeling the manic energy of "State of Love and Trust" role through me as I kept trying to find ways to get my little 13" tube to play a little louder. That the performance was as great as I remember from when I was 14 is a nice surprise, things often seem better in the past. I was a little disappointed that it's a 4x3 video presentation ("full screen" as opposed to "wide screen"), but I'm guessing that's the source material. Having said that, the picture quality was sharp and it sounded great.
The bottom line for me, Ten (Deluxe Edition) (2CD/1 DVD) is a fine reissue, I'm really happy to have gotten it. They've also released Ten (Legacy Edition) (2CDs) without the DVD for a few bucks less, but really the Unplugged show is well worth the investment and I'd suggest this edition over the other. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Eleven
Hit: 5 Stars
Oldtimers know that Pearl Jam would never rip off their fans with unnecessary reissues, so rest assured that this package offers special goodies to its intended audience - hardcore fans with a collector's mindset. If you have a few hundred of the official bootlegs then you're in the market for the upcoming wave of reissues of the original albums. Here the immortal TEN definitely gets the deluxe treatment.
The item that excited me the most here is the DVD of PJ's memorable 1992 appearance on MTV Unplugged, in which the longer-haired, better-dressed, and much moodier young PJ brought down the house. Last I saw this it was on a grainy and distorted old VHS tape a whole mess of years ago. Recall that TEN didn't become truly huge until nearly a year after it was released, and was still on the upswing at the time of the broadcast. The MTV Unplugged show is a unique historical memento showing a soon-to-be-enormous band at a crucial moment, and their talent and passion were already roaring out of the gate.
The other item of interest here is the new remixed version of TEN by later PJ producer Brendan O'Brien. The reason TEN has always sounded different than all the later albums is the reverb-heavy original mix from producer Rick Parashar, which sounded a bit murky but gave the album the huge anthemic sound that appealed to the masses. I agree with many fans that you shouldn't mess with history, and if it ain't broke don't fix it. It would help if everyone viewed the TEN remix not as a replacement for the original, but as a variation. O'Brien's remix removes a lot of unnecessary sludge, which brings the contributions of Mike McCready and Jeff Ament into sharper relief and makes Eddie Vedder sound more human. The sound is crisper overall and the remix is mostly pretty subtle. The only truly substantive changes I can detect are in "Once," "Why Go," and "Porch" which sound less metallic and more garage-y. I'm not sure if those songs actually sound better in the new remix, but they are cleaner.
As for the six leftovers added to the remix CD, there is some historical interest to be found. "Brother" (with vocals - an instrumental version appeared on the Lost Dogs compilation) and "Just a Girl" are intriguing for historically-minded PJ fans. There's a little less interest in early demo versions of the great soundtrack items "Breath and a Scream" (later re-titled "Breath") and "State of Love and Trust." The final versions of those songs are better. And you can avoid the cheeky studio jams "2,000 Mile Blues" and "Evil Little Goat" - serious fanatics already know about PJ's improv habits from all of those collectible bootlegs.
But in the end, the true greatness of this reissue is the love that PJ have for their fans. This may or may not be better than the original, but it's surely more of an awesome thing. [~doomsdayer520~]
Free Music Review: FINALLY!! The remix we never expected!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I never expected that a remixed version of "Ten" would ever be undertaken. After all, I was never aware of audible outcry from fans over the past 18 years demanding a re-mix of Pearl Jam's debut album. After reading an interview with Jeff Ament in which he expressed the same slight "annoyance" with the original mix that I have had all of these years, I was a surprised. I wasn't sure if anyone else had the same small gripe that I have had, and to find out one of the band members was thinking the same thing all these years was pretty neat.
My gripe is best is best exemplified during track #3 "Alive" at min sec.
At this point it is clear just how much reverb is on the mix. Reverb helps smooth and blend instruments and vocals together. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, but the overuse of reverb smoothed out the grit and edge of these songs in my opinion.
Now que up track # 3 "Alive" on the remixed version of the album at min sec. WOW!! I was blown away!! I never looked forward to this point of the song knowing that the revealing of this reverb was taking serious edge off of all of the songs on the CD. This was terribly apparent with the release of "VS" which has much more grit and edge to the sound. I had always wished "Ten" had the same grit and edge because the playing on the album clearly demonstrated that everyone was playing with intensity, but the edge was subdued. NO LONGER!! Now you can enjoy "Ten" the way I wish it had initially been released.
Now, I cannot fault Brendan O'Brian or anyone else for the original 1991 mix, after all we were coming out of the 80's which produced some serious overuse of effects, EQing, etc in order to make recordings sound "contemporary" at the time. Nowadays, many of these recordings sound very dated. Listen to Sinatra from the 40s, 50s or 60s and while the music may be cemented in a specific genre which 50 years later may sound "dated" to some (not so to me though because I love Sinatra), the recordings sound natural, no artificial flavors added!! I am so pleased to have this unexpected version of "Ten" which reveals the edge, grit and guts that the guys played with and which launched them to international stardom.
I send a hearty "Thank You" to Brendan O'Brian and the members of Pearl Jam for revisiting "Ten"!! Crank the volume up the "Ten" and ROCK HARD!!
PS: Yes, the compression for loudness-sake is unfortunate but to be expected in this day and age. I look forward to getting the LP version as well.
PPS: The DVD of the MTV Unplugged session is great to have!!
Free Music Review: Ten Revisited, awesome as always
Hit: 5 Stars
Don't listen to the magazine review that tells you the 'Ten Deluxe Edition' is only for die-hard fans. Don't listen to that one friend of yours who threw away his iPod because he suddenly discovered the "integrity" of LPs and who told you that the Deluxe Ed. is Pearl Jam selling-out on the same day he ordered the 'Drop In The Park' LP with same day shipping.
Truth is, the Deluxe Edition is as important to the Pearl Jam listening experience as the 'With the Lights Out' box set is to the Nirvana listening experience: like behind-the-scene cuts in a much-loved movie, it gives you liner notes in sound bytes, sonic history for songs you grew up with in the 90's and now know so well you vocally reproduce McCready's "Evenflow" solo from the original album every time it plays on the radio.
The remastered Ten is smoother, the transitions less spacey. You can actually hear the guitar solos clearly this time around, without needing to turn up the volume at important parts. "Why Go" is finally, FINALLY, as loud as it was meant to be. You can delete the older version off your portable music device now.
The Ten Remixes blew my mind away and half an ear-drum. Not going to get into the loudness issue; fact is, Eddie's lyrics for all 11 songs are heard clearer than ever before. Apart from certain concert outtakes, this is the one time your ears will have multiple orgasms over McCready and Gossard's guitar work. "Breathe & Scream" and "Just a Girl" are nostalgia trips, because its pure early 90's sound. "2,000 mile Blues" is a track that makes me wish that Pearl Jam puts out a blues EP at some point, if only to mess with all our heads. McCready has tonnes of fun with that track, and it's definitely worth the listen. "Evil Little Goat" sounds like Elvis meets Mark Arm over too much grain alcohol. Seriously. I still do prefer the original version of "Black": it's darker, more sober, and a little more subtle than the robust sound of O'Brien's remix.
Favorites on this cd?
1. "Brother"
2. "Garden"
3. "Porch"
4. "State of Love and Trust" (when it's slower, it's better.)
And we finally get a bonafide DVD copy of the unplugged show! Without them pesky time/date stamp numbers and fuzzy lines that appeared in every Youtube clip of that show! Never again. And we should all be thankful. Sure, this deluxe edition could be just a marketing maneuver. But when the sound quality is this good, frankly, I don't give a [...].
Free Music Review: a small picture in a frame for a great moment in time for music
Hit: 5 Stars
If there was an album you should consider a part of the grunge golden years era, certainly you would come up with Nirvana's nevermind, Alice in Chains' Dirt, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and....Pearl Jam's TEN.
Long ago as I diehard fan I had imagined a new restored deluxe edition for this firestarter album, but I guess the band was worried about touring, editing DVDs, new albums and son on...
If music is your drug of choice, then this is the edition you should be getting. It has the original Ten mastered edition, the new Brendan O'brien mixed version, now known as "Ten Redux" and the outstanding complete Unplugged show they performed for MTV (Meaningless Television) back in 1992, only missing the "Rocking in the free world" track plus a small improvisation on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that I guess were skipped due to copyright and stuff like that.
Musically speaking you get some awesome demos from the "Ten" era, tracks like "Brother" yes!! the sang version!!! "A Breath and a Scream" (early version, not the singles soundtrack well known edit) "State of Love and Trust" (another early demo with slowed down tempo) "Just a Girl" (the same you've already heard on many bootlegs but this time, truly remastered) "Evil Little Goat" (a rehearsal demo already available in a few bootlegs, weird they decided to put it since it's an incomplete recording) and the "2.000 Mile Blues" (the only track I would consider as a rare track)
Now for what's to come of the blockbuster album, you get the original album mix (for diehard fans I guess) and as I said earlier the "Redux" edition which is awesome, 'cause it turns the 90's sounding album into a more modern rocking album of course with a lot of respect for the classic quality of each track ,so you won't find some sort of techno trance crappy version of "Even Flow" haha!
For the collectors it comes with a booklet full of drawings, paintings, old pictures and some original writting for several lyrics.
Sooooo, if you don't want to spend extra money on cool items (tape, vynils, book, pictures, stickers, polaroids, etc) this is the deal for you, because you're getting the most important part of this re-release which is in fact the music and Pearl Jam's music stands for its own damn right!