Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament recently spoke with Rolling Stone about progress toward Pearl Jam's next album and why we've been waiting longer for this than any other Pearl Jam album.
It seems as though there is little reason that Pearl Jam hasn't released an eleventh studio album. Jeff points noncommittally to the death of Chris Cornell ...
“It’d be fun to record or even just write a song together,” bassist Jeff Ament says. “I think when Chris [Cornell] passed, that’s really been a tough one to wrap our heads around, and then there’s just life stuff.”... but ultimately, has no explanation as to why the band hasn't worked together to record an album.
“We’ve gone in, probably, four or five times in the last couple of years, so we have a whole ton of unfinished stuff,” Ament says. “We’re just sort of in a little bit of limbo. I’m sure everybody’s got a bunch more riffs, and I’m sure Ed’s got a handful of journal lyrics. It’s just going to take us all getting into a room together for six weeks and just knocking something out.”Stone is reassuring that they are still working on an album ...
“We’re going to make a record, and we’re in the middle of it,” the guitarist says. “We’re just going to keep plugging away until we get one done.”Unfortunately, those are not the words of a band with a passionate message to get out. Although Stone admits that he enjoyed being able to release "Can't Deny Me," there is little else in the article to tell us that the band is excited about working on this album. We're either going to be waiting a long time, or we're going to get an album from a bored band, writing and performing out of a sense of obligation.
Neither of those options sound good for the near future of Pearl Jam.
