Vs. by Pearl Jam (CD, Oct-1993, Epic USA)

After the success and the pure quality of 10....like a lot of Pearl Jam fans, I was curious to see what they would come up with next, and with VS they did not dissapointed!
This album released in 1993, contains 12 superb tracks that rock and once again serve to highlight both the musical talent of the band and vocal ability of Eddie Vedder! It is a powerful, raging rock album that opens with the fast paced 'Go'....this song is frantic, with a heavy guitar element over which Vedder roars the vocals to great effect! Animal, which never seems to stop playing on our local rock station, follows with deep, heartfelt lyrics in the true style of Pearl Jam who are not afraid to confront sometimes controversial and indeed profound subjects within their music!
They then slow it down a tad, with the wonderful 'Daughter' which employs a more acoustic sound, as Vedder sings his way through this tough song which deals with abuse - a thread that follows Pearl Jam throughout their work!
Glorified has an almost funk element to it but my favorite track on this album has to be "Rearviewmirror"....this simply rocks from the onset with catchy guitar rifts and a building fury which almost gets to frenzied level!! This is a superb coming together of music and vocals to produce a track that you simply cannot ignore! It is interesting how Pearl Jam can get you so into the music to the point where you love a track so much yet it may be dealing with a difficult subject that you would typically chose to ignore or look away...this being no exception! Only Pearl Jam could follow this track with something so different in Rats where Vedder almost spits his way through in a drastic 180 from its predecessor!
This album has a plethora of different styles, all of which employ the trademark rock / grunge edge, but each as different as the next with profound lyrics that prod one to stop and think, combined with killer rifts that draw you into ech adn every track!! A true 5....what an excellent album!!

Better than the album ten for sure. VS. is good from start to finish. The twelve tracks keep you listening and wanting to hear more. This is a must have for the Pearl Jam fan. Comes in a three part case with booklet.