Sonic Boom

Pearl Jam, sons of Seattle, raised from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, give us their ninth studio album
BACKSPACER | Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam, sons of Seattle, raised from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, give us their ninth studio album. They didn't need to prove anything, yet PJ spring at this unfettered moment in their career with a zealous effort worthy of a young act working on a mighty debut.Eddie's voice soars and trembles, free to the core. Ecstatic guitarwork by Jeff, Mike and Stone echoes in a line on Unthought Known - "Dream the dreams of other men, you'll be no one's rival" ... Matt drums relentlessly in pursuit of the perfect beat. And is mostly there. The first two tracks are awash with glorious grunge and new wave strokes, then it's time for the "yeah yeah yeah" of The Fixer, one helluva pop anthem with all the respectable directness of rock. Sweet Child Of Mine d����j����-riff-vu awaits you at 2:38 in Got Some. Let's forgive Eddie's country twang in Just Breathe, otherwise a magnificent track; minor flaws do make things more real and endearing. Rock 'n' rolla, melodies, moments aplenty... But then, the album jolts you with the end: "You see, my dear, the end, comes near, I'm here, but not much longer." You will hit repeat right after, not prompted by these last words but because the 37 minutes that went by were some of the best of your life.
(Rock, Universal, Rs 395)
PLAYLIST PICKS:
The Fixer (catchy, easy hit; Eddie hits your gut every time he pauses), Amongst The Waves (all you ever wanted from PJ... Celebrate!) , Unthought Known (affirmative, cascading rock song); The End (quavering vocal melody laid on hushed instrumentation)
T V N SRIDHAR
Why Backspacer?
It was the name of a typewriter key, phased out in the fifties. Says Vedder, who typed his lyrics and letters, "Backspacer meant you kinda had to go back and look at your mistake." Adds Gossard, "There are retrospective moods on this record; Ed's looking at both his past and his future"
THE BEATLES MONO BOX SET LIMITED EDITION
Time to take that 'yellow submarine' down the aural passage created by Liverpool's mop heads, The Beatles. The band, or what's left of them, released this 13-disc set of mono recordings, remastered by EMI's senior engineers Allan Rouse and Guy Massey, on the same day as their 3D versions in The Beatles: Rock Band video game and The Beatles Stereo box set hit the stands. You won't find albums like Abbey Road, Let It Be and Yellow Submarine on this highly anticipated set. You can still think back to your younger, greener days and shake a leg to the Mono Masters compilation, where The Beatles have released some of their B-side music and mono-mixes that didn't make it to their UK albums. The mono masters are considered the pinnacle of audio reproduction of The Beatles - this is how they were meant to sound in their heyday, given the importance of the single channel medium. The bonus five tracks here, never previously released in mono, are Only A Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog and It's All Too Much, originally scheduled for release in 1969. The booklet within explains the history of these recordings and highlights just why these versions are so eagerly anticipated. (Rock & Roll, EMI, Rs 7,995 for a box set of 13 CDs)