Vitalogy
by Pearl Jam

From lightmyway TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/26/2012 23:57 | #40987 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is my personal favorite Pearl Jam album. A lot of people can't get past the couple fillery interludes, but the actual songs here are definitely their best work. Every time you listen to it it just gets better. At this point in my life I think Pearl Jam was my favorite band, unfortunately though this was their last truly FANTASTIC album. (Edited)

I actually like "Bugs" a lot. Not because of the music, but because of why it was in the album in the first place. This came out at a time when the alt/indie explosion of the 1990s (aka "Grunge") was reaching such a height, that a lot of the Seattle musicians started getting sick of all the press and stupid crap associated with mainstream popularity. Bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana decided to make more abstract songs vs. traditional hook/chorus driven songs as a way to drive their mainstream popularity down, as well as scare off their more casual fans and press.

Pretty creative and out-of-the-box way to intentionally kill your popularity if you ask me! :)

From GuitarDan 11/22/2010 13:04 | #16400 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

CONTEXT: Pearl Jam's "golden age" wrapped up with Vitalogy--the band's most conceptually clear yet inconsistent album. MUSIC: Powerful, direct, and energized. The riffs of Ten are gone, but the band substitutes the musical acumen for an almost punk-like drive. LYRICS: Outside of the ode to vinyl, most of the songs touch on death and intrusion. HIGHLIGHTS: Corderoy, Better Man, Immortality

From swhaze TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/08/2014 14:02 | #119029 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

If Vitalogy is one of the most unfocused and inconsistent music albums, it also contains a lot of the band's best work.

An inconsistent album. Two excellent songs (Better Man and Nothingman), a few good/great songs (Corduroy, Not for You, Last Exit, Immortality) and some songs that make you wonder what were they thinking when they composed them and put them in the album (Hey Foxywhatever isn't even a song, Bugs is incredibly annoying, Aye Davanita is stupid, etc)

Overall it's worth a listen, because some songs are really really good, but maybe it's better to pick up the good songs, add them to a playlist and just forget the other ones exist. As an album, it doesn't reach Vs status (let alone Ten)