Released: 1993
Tracks: Go; Animal; Daughter; Glorified G; Dissident; W.M.A.; Blood; Rearviewmirror; Rats; Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town; Leash; Indifference
Best track: Indifference
Tracks to skip: Dissident, Blood, Leash
This album came out when I was in high school and I remember that it arrived on the same day as Rush’s Counterparts. Heading to the record store after school that day, I was the only one who bought the Rush album while everyone else I knew bought the new Pearl Jam. I think I ended up getting Vs. about a week or so later. I was conflicted, that’s for sure, since I loved both bands. Rush won out, though. I loved this album since the first listen and I think it still holds up (mostly) pretty well. At the time I was the only one I knew who thought this was a better album than Ten. I couldn’t really say why it was better; I just knew that Vs. connected with me in a stronger way.
I love that there’s a lot of growth from their first album to this follow-up. The band sounds a LOT more confident on this album. I also dig the rawness, the outright “F-YOU” attitude in some of these tracks and I especially appreciate the depth of a handful of these songs. Indifference stands out among the rest of their catalog and right from the beginning I was blown away at how great of a song it is. It’s still great and I LOVE listening to it. Indifference is one of those songs that I can put on repeat and just enjoy it over and over again. The spaciousness, the vibe, the prominent organ, the bass harmonics…how absolutely different it sounds from the rest of their stuff…it’s one of my favorites.
The rest of the album is mostly very enjoyable with the three exceptions in Dissident, Blood and Leash. For Dissident, the intro riff seems too obvious. It’s a catchy song, but that lead riff is repeated way too much and overall the song sounds like a copy of songs from the first album. In an album full of Pearl Jam expanding their sound, Dissident sounds like a retread. For Blood, I’ve never liked it and it’s just kind of stupidly heavy without having much substance. Leash is a decent song, but it sounds like it’s trying too hard to be anthemic, esp. with the “drop the leash, we are young!” refrain. For W.M.A., if you take out Eddie Vedder’s dumb lyrics (he’s definitely projecting his white guilt onto the cop in the song) it’s a cool song. There are a lot of interesting bits musically and the repeating bass line anticipates what became a cornerstone of many Radiohead songs later in the decade and after.
I love both of the acoustic songs, Daughter and Elderly Woman, and they show some nice depth to the band’s sound. Of course, then you have Rearviewmirror which rocks and is a great driving song, not to mention the near chaos in opener Go. Vs. isn’t a perfect album, but it’s still my favorite of Pearl Jam’s albums that I’ve actually heard. They’ve got the hunger and fire here, and their confidence and attitude on this album really propels it.
Rating: 91
February 21, 2012, 
8:25 am
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