Pearl Jam Greatest Hits due Nov.16-tracklisting

[Nate Dogg]

from www.billboard.com

Pearl Jam Caps Epic Tenure With Hits Set




Pearl Jam will cap its tenure on Epic next month with its first hits collection. Due Nov. 16 via Epic, the double-disc, 33-track "rearviewmirror (greatest hits 1991-2003)" sports 16 top 10 hits on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, including the No. 1s "Daughter," "Betterman" and "Given To Fly," as well as 12 top 10 entries on the Modern Rock Tracks survey.

In lieu of new songs, "rearviewmirror" (the discs for which are split into an "Upside" and "Downside") boasts remixes of three songs from the Seattle rock act's seminal 1991 debut, "Ten." Longtime producer Brendan O'Brien was behind the boards for new mixes of "Once," "Alive" and "Black."

Beyond such staples as "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town," "Dissident," "Wishlist" and "Even Flow," the album includes the live favorite "Yellow Ledbetter" (which reached seven Billboard charts in the mid-'90s despite never being promoted to radio) and "Man of the Hour," penned for the 2003 Tim Burton film "Big Fish."

Also featured is "Last Kiss," a 1950s cover released on a 1999 charity single that improbably became the band's biggest hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The lone Pearl Jam track that appeared on the Hot 100 but is missing from the album is "Tremor Christ," which peaked at No. 18 in the fall of 1995.

Pearl Jam recently wrapped its run on the Vote for Change tour and is expected to hit the studio next month to begin work on its eighth album.

Here is the track listing for "rearviewmirror":

Upside:
"Once"
"Alive"
"Even Flow"
"Jeremy"
"State of Love and Trust"
"Animal"
"Go"
"Dissident"
"Rearviewmirror"
"Spin the Black Circle"
"Corduroy"
"Not for You"
"I Got ID"
"Hail Hail"
"Do the Evolution"
"Save You"

Downside:
"Black"
"Breath"
"Daughter"
"Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"
"Immortality"
"Betterman"
"Nothingman"
"Who You Are"
"Off He Goes"
"Given to Fly"
"Wishlist"
"Last Kiss"
"Nothing As It Seems"
"Light Years"
"I Am Mine"
"Man of the Hour"
"Yellow Ledbetter"


-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.



There's a handful of songs I would replace on here, but what do you expect, a perfect greatest hits?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I Got Shit

 

[djerdap]

Fuck that. This is not PJ-approved. This is just Sony trying to make money. Although playlist is tolerable, where are one of PJ's finest master-pieces - In My Tree, Present Tense, Love Boat Captain, Parting Ways, All Or None?
I bet Eddie Vedder is really pissed right now, or he just doesn't care.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

There was talk of this before Lost Dogs came out, and at the time it was with PJ's consent. This, likely, is not. I will be buying it however, and at least the record company made it two discs as it well should have been. Also, did they release Man of the Hour on Epic? I thought it was their first independent release?

 

[bsp77]

I think they actually did a fairly comprehensive job, considering how hard of a band they are to anthologize. Similar to trying to anthologize Zeppelin, which is borderline impossible. It will be interesting to hear it split into an uptempo disk and an acoustic/ballad disk (similar to Lost Dogs).

I am kind of dreading the remixes of Once, Animal and Black though, but at least it is something different for people that already own all the songs.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

where do you get the information that the band didn't approve this? pearl jam is not under contract to any record company... if a record company was going to release a pearl jam cd of any kind, they would need pearl jam's permission to do so.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Hey guys...it doesn't end there, the following week, Creed's Greatest Hits will be out!! I'm not going to waste my time looking for that info.....


No "In My Tree"=horrible!!!!!

 

[Basstrap]

meh

 

[Popmartijn]

where do you get the information that the band didn't approve this? pearl jam is not under contract to any record company... if a record company was going to release a pearl jam cd of any kind, they would need pearl jam's permission to do so.

Actually, that depends on who owns the master recordings. If Pearl Jam doesn't have those but Sony does, then Sony can release the songs in any way they like to release them, with or without band approval.
This is the same situation as Prince is in with his pre-1996 output. Warners owns all his master recordings up to that point. Thus, every few years Warners will probably release a new Prince Best Of (repackaged and with a few song changes) or some more of his 'vault' recordings that are in their possession.

If Pearl Jam does own their master recordings, then you'll probably see them re-released on whatever label they'll release their future records. They're then in the same boat as U2 or Rolling Stones (post 1971) who have total control over their output.

C ya!

Marty

 

[typhoon]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I really thought Pearl Jam would be the last fucking band on Earth to go for the cash-in compilation. I guess there's always Radiohead.

To be fair, their contemporaries Soundgarden, the Screaming Trees, the Estate of Kurt Cobain, the Stone Temple Pilots, and I think even fucking Mudhoney did the same. And Pearl Jam has had an impressive line of singles for a band that gets constantly trashed for dropping out of the spotlight. They have a right to be proud of it.

But it still sucks.

Things I like about it

• It's a two-disc set.
• It gives equal time to all phases of their career. Thus, it might introduce people to Pearl Jam's later (better) work.
• It has "State of Love and Trust" and "Breath" on it (so the Singles soundtrack isn't an essential part of their catalogue anymore).
• It has new mixes of some Ten tracks. The production on that album is terrible.
• There are actually very few major omissions. Even "I Got Shit" made the cut. I know you could bitch all day about fan favorites that are absent, but they really did get all the major ones, which is what a hits compilation should do.

Things I dislike about it:

• It's a fucking completely superfluous compilation. Lost Dogs was awesome because it was worth the money even if you had all the albums (hell, even if you had all the singles). If you want to introduce someone to Pearl Jam, tell them to grab a bootleg. They play a lot of hits, plus introduce you to some rarities.
• It's a compilation of a band that's still recording, which means, as soon as the band releases a new album, it's out of date. I know bands sometimes split their careers into phases for compilations (like U2), but 1991-2003 is way too arbitrary.
• No "Long Road," so the Merkinball EP is still essential.

Overall, though, I really can't believe Pearl Jam is releasing a greatest hits compilation (of course, I was pissed when U2 did it too). It's what bands like Creed and the Rolling Stones do after they're washed up.

Can't kids just grab the albums?

 

[-macphisto-]

theres nothing wrong with releasing a greatest hits, who cares if they do or dont. ( Radiohead will do it also)
This tracklist of PJ's greatest does suck.

 

[Basstrap]

[*]It's a compilation of a band that's still recording.

they really should remedy that problem

 

[typhoon]

they really should remedy that problem

u suk

 

[Hewson]

I believe this package is the final piece of PJ's previous contract with Sony/Epic...there was much discussion on Pj's board (before it crashed) that the band was not involved in the release, however the inclusion of "Man of the Hour" tells me PJ and Sony came to a happy medium regarding the release, because as Unforgettable Lemon stated, MOTH wasn't a Sony/Epic release, the band distributed it itself through the Ten Club.
My guess is Sony informed the band it was gonna release a GH package as it was contractually allowed to do, and the band decided to work with Sony on the package rather than just have some record exec decide what tracks would be included.