Those of you familar with my musical tastes won’t be too thrown off by this list, those of you that don’t might not care one way or another. For the uninitiated, Pearl Jam is one of my favorite bands (and the one I think I have the most songs from in my music collection), so I’ve listened to a few songs in my day. So here’s ten of my favorite songs, if you can even drill it down to ten, in no particular order. Also note that it’s REALLY hard to do this without making most of the songs come from the “Ten” album. Just sayin’.
- “Angel” – One of the band’s “Christmas singles” that are sent to the fan club. The first time I heard it was when this guy Jeff I worked with in college let me borrow the record it was on, which is still the only place I’ve ever seen it. It’s an amazingly dramatic song that isn’t necessarily in line with the rest of the band’s songs, and maybe that’s what makes it so good.
- “Porch” – My favorite memory of this song is the guy who sang it in a talent show in high school, whom we were all told would edit the first line of the song when it came down to the live session. He didn’t. And if you don’t know it, it’s “What the fuck is this world…”
- “Rearviewmirror” – Listening to it, it seems like one of the more “simply built” songs, but when you get into it, it’s much more complicated than that.
- “Black” – This is either my #1 or #2 favorite song of the bunch, I really think. It’s so well thought out, the lyrics are amazing, it just sounds awesome all around.
- “Dirty Frank” – He’s a gourmet cook, you know.
- “Yellow Ledbetter” – Just wow. How many encores do you think this has closed out? This is the other song I (and probably a lot of other PJ fans) would have a hard time saying it wasn’t a favorite.
- “Even Flow” – Again, hard to not just pick “Ten” and be done with it. I chose this over “Jeremy,” which is equally awesome.
- “Habit” – It’s all about the cadence and the raspy voice on this one.
- “State Of Love And Trust” – “A compliment for us is a compliment for you.”
- “Dissident” – Along with being an excellent box set that I was never able to complete as it was sold in a couple of different packages until digital music became the norm, this is a crazy good song.
Honorable mentions: “Supersonic” – It’s new, it’s fast, it’s loud, and it’s fun. Suck it up, I like it. “Leash” – Loud, loud, loud.