If we forget about those weird interludes, it is quite a good album.

Nowhere near as good as Ten or Vs., but still good.

From dholl 12/04/2018 17:28

Interestingly, I have the opposite opinion to Strangel while still scoring the album the same rating, in that I really enjoy the unusual sections (especially Bugs & Aye Davanita) and skip the sappy ballads with "man" in the title. Immortality is great, tho'. Best song: Tremor Christ. Overall Vitalogy is easily Pearl Jam's best: raw organic production, worthwhile experimentations and take away the man-songs and you've got a piece of work which never gets old (unlike Ten). Even the CD booklet is memorable.

From Strangel 11/14/2018 00:03

This is an interesting album to try and assess. The best songs are some of PJ’s very best. Corduroy, and Immortality still pull me in like the day I first bought the album. Nothingman and Better Man are grunge’s version of Paul McCartneyesque ballads of the unseen life of the everyday person and done with far more cutting grit. Not For You, Last Exit, Spin the Black Circle etc. are PJ at their grunge-rocking best before dad-rockism seemed to take away much of their rocking cred. But then there’s the strange interlude tracks and nonsensical closer that goes on and on and on. In a way it actually adds to the character of the album but even the biggest PJ fans would admit to hitting the skip button too many times to avoid another listen to those oddities.

A hungry and energetic album with a few quirky moments to boot. A very good record.

From luigybetis 07/05/2018 12:21

It is quite irregular, but the good songs are awesome. 7/10.

Let's be honest - reason this album sold so much was because of "Better Man's omnipresence on radio, but as an album, really good songs found on here. "Bugs" is a weird song, but it's a nice change.

From LedZep 07/02/2017 11:09

Of their first 5 maybe my least favourite, but still a brilliant album with lots of experimental stuff. They did Radiohead before Radiohead, and although OK Computer is imo better album, all these grunge and alt rock albums (especially the experimental ones like this) led to the 1997 art rock revival. Love the 90s

Pearl Jam at their most creative and experimental. If it trimmed down some truly awful songs like Hey Foxy, Ave Devinta, and Bugs, this is a classic 5 star album. But all this strangeness brings it down a bit.

Some of their best stuff is here.

Nothingman And Betternman are great ballads.

Whipping is a hard hitting rocker

Not for You and Corduroy are singles and classic Pearl Jam

Other songs not mentioned are good, creative, and different than what they had done before.

Pearl Jam didn't want to be loved mainstream but they did want to be considered a great band in their own way. Vitalogy was an attempt to get that across. To be seen as altogether different from their peers they were compared to.

They kind of succeeded in this but ties to 90's grunge and classic rock still drip off these songs.

Vitalogy and VS are Pearl Jam at their best

From Eastwood 12/08/2014 11:00

Good grunge/alternative rock album. Best 10 songs average is 83,5/100 and the album can get good 85/100. Unfortunately this album is just as far away from their great 91er album "Ten" as their previous album "Vs.". However best songs are "Nothingman" and "Better man" 90/100, followed by "Corduroy" 85/100. I find that "Pry, to", "Bugs" and "Hey foxy..." are absolutely unnecessary, followed by "Aye davanita" that isn't much better. Auto-skip please.