Pearl Jam
Riot Act

THE REVIEW

Prophetic is a word that fits this post 9/11 album perfectly.
A prophecy of a not-so-distant death for a society with a blindly rampant pace, as demonstrated by the two skeletons, or rather two rulers now dead, free to rule their desert: it seems like the result of a nuclear holocaust, and perhaps it is.
This says a lot: it is the voice of America against a historical moment of unease for a nation certain of its strength and values, against Bush, against the captain who deliberately sinks his ship, against society.
All this when talking about the flaws of the Bush administration was not yet a trend on the lips of all the small pop-punkers.
Leaving these considerations aside, I am about to talk to you about the album.

With the initial Can't keep, they mix a sublime text (what a hateful word!) describing fleeting emotions that cross us at times, signaled by our bodies with simple short shivers. The music and singing is the exact opposite, soft yet decisive like a chain that chokes the heart of the person perceiving such feelings.
It is followed by the angry Save you dominated by Ament’s bass and soaked with a positive anger, not a self-destructive one for its own sake, but an outburst from someone who helplessly watches a friend descend forever into the abyss.

A clarification is now needed for those who hate/despise PJ and on my interpretation of this album.
Here, they don't play the part of the angry ones like other grunge leftovers (making us blush shamefully for albums released despite a glorious career behind them), they don't play the ever-young in tank tops hiding behind effects or course changes or nods to new trends.
All this roundabout talk to describe songs of simple beauty, further colored by the organ of Hawaiian "Boom" Gasper, painting a picture of the truth of the facts in front of which they do not waste easy and sterile sloganeering but the certainty that youthful anger hasn't changed anything, the problems remain the same in increasingly gray times.
So what to do then? Surrender and convey this negativity? Or continue to fight with maturity and a new soft sadness (as suggested by the dominant colors of the cover)?
Fortunately, the second choice in the hands of PJ, as in few others, results in an album that is not surrendered but inspired, fresh, and varied.

So we go from the crescendo of Love boat captain to the edgy Get right by drummer Matt Cameron.
In between, there's a lot of poetry, and we discover that "soap makes you taller," ironies "as refined as sugar" on Bush while "the acceptability of existence is as fragile as an onion skin," and we have the Pirandellian certainty that "as each breath fades away, I possess only my mind."

To all those who do not appreciate this CD, it should be remembered that we are facing a turning point, so it is useless to make comparisons with the various Versus because here they are no longer twenty years old (nor do they pretend to be, as any Anthony Kiedys might).
An album deliberately not easy to listen to, but of high caliber.
The Pearl Jam are and prove to remain something to believe in, something different, skilled artisans in telling all that cannot be measured with money.
Goodbye