Pearl Jam's Second Greatest Album (Vs.)

I didn't rank them.  I'm just passing the word on from Charles Peelle's Examiner posts.  Go check 'em out.  Harrass him.  It's good fun.

When I listen to Pearl Jam's sophomore effort, 1993's Vs., I hear the sound of a band, in particular that band's lead singer, coming to terms with the force of something unexpected and somewhat terrifying, an album of pure, unfiltered reaction. Vs. was Pearl Jam's statement to the world following the massive success of Tenand the entire rise of the Seattle "grunge" movement in the early 1990's. Fans, the media, other artists, etc. have slapped labels on Pearl Jam repeatedly over the years, from the aforementioned "grunge" to "classicist/classic rock" to "arena rock" to "post-punk" to "hard rock." The band owned up to all these labels and more on their second album, a combustible attack of energy more worthy of its title than any other LP in the PJ catalogue. Pearl Jam has rocked hard on at least parts of all of its records, but Vs. easily stacks up as the hardest rocking and most aggressive release of the band's career.

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