It is weird to find ourselves putting the first original Pearl Jam song in five years so low on our list, but Can't Deny Me turned out to be an underwhelming effort by a band who doesn't feel the same anti-establishment passion of the band who recorded Binaural and Riot Act. It's a slower-than-it-should-be slog complaining about Trump coming more than a year later than it was needed. If this is the cornerstone of another political album by the band, they're losing the race to get the album out before the end of the Donald Trump Presidency.
It also turned out to be a late submission for the 2017 fan club single, which still hasn't found it's way to vinyl (did we just complain about that for the second post in a row?). Fan club members felt a little jilted that their annual gift was only exclusive for a day. The song serves as a painful reminder that Pearl Jam's output has slowed considerable over the last half decade.
Still ... Pearl Jam wrote a song and recorded it. Hope lives on for 2019!
