Perhaps shaken up by the chilly reception to the adventurous
No Code,
Pearl Jam returned to straight-ahead
hard rock on their fifth album,
Yield. There remain a few weird flourishes scattered throughout the album, from the
spoken word "Push Me, Pull Me" to the untitled Eastern instrumental bonus track, but overall,
Yield is the most direct record the group has made since
Ten. That doesn't mean it's the best.
Pearl Jam have trouble coming up with truly undeniable
hard rock hooks, and
Eddie Vedder remains at his most compelling on
folk-tinged, meditative numbers like
"Low Light," "In Hiding," and
"All Those Yesterdays." They also fall prey to their habit of dividing the record into
rock and
ballad sides, which makes
Yield a little exhausting, even at its concise length. It also emphasizes the relative lack of exceptional material.
Yield is more consistent than
Vitalogy and
No Code, but it doesn't have songs that reach the highs of
"Better Man," "Corduroy," or
"Who You Are." Ironically, the album doesn't rock hard enough --
"Do the Evolution" and
"Brain of J." have garage potential, but there's more bite and distortion on
Vedder's voice than there is on the guitars. It's hard to view
Yield as a disaster, since
Pearl Jam's conviction still rings true, but it's frustrating that journeyman tendencies have replaced the desperate, searching confusion that was the most appealing element of the band's music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
