![]() It’s noticeably rawer, which benefits ‘Black’ tremendously (its slow build is much rougher and rockier, pulling it firmly out of power ballad territory), the rest of the record less so. So instead of being echoey and epic, the guitar line that ushers in the opening ‘Once’ is now compact and stinging, a lit fuse that burns for a few seconds before ushering in a storm of hard, precise drums and Eddie Vedder’s pained rumble. The guitars have been reduced somewhat, but that’s kind of like saying logging has reduced the Amazon somewhat – there’s still the odd moment when you struggle to remember a time before the commencement of the current solo. In fact, with the self-consciously ‘big’ production of the original (also included here in remastered form) now a little antiquated, O’Brian’s arguably done nothing more iconoclastic than tighten Ten up for 2009 radio. He has not turned it into eleven tracks of bleeding raw punk frenzy. So, here it finally is, with Brendan O’Brian taking desk duties to get his mitts into the only one of Pearl Jam’s Nineties records he didn’t co-produce originally. Though clearly there’s moolah up for grabs with this lavish reissue (it comes in four editions, the priciest of which will knock you back about £100 and apparently includes "a vellum envelope with replicated era-specific ephemera"), the band have said a remix of Ten was on their minds as early as the release of 1993’s raging Vs. You can bet Pearl Jam are a little uncomfortable with it too. It's a ponderous avalanche of big emotions and big guitars that probably includes the least grunge moment ever, namely the point on ‘Even Flow’ where Eddie Vedder growls “let me introduce you to Michael”, provoking a bout of axe wibbling from the duly invoked Mike McCready. The fact is Ten was big with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers crowd, and certainly much about it is about as underground as a corporate jet. ![]() That Pearl Jam have pretty much repudiated that rock dude image with every single subsequent action and note of music is not really important. After years wondering what the pyramidal thing at the bottom was, I finally bought the record and discovered the sleeve folded out and that the strange shape was the band, locked in a hairy hi-five. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only person who felt a slight sinking feeling upon first seeing the full cover art to Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten.
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