I finally picked up the new Pearl Jam album and here are my first thoughts. I was not blown away by it. As you all probably know I have been a huge PJ fan all along, but this recent album didn't leave any big impressions on me. It seems to me that they were definately trying to revert back to some of their original sound to try and recapture some of the magic. A few of the songs almost had a Vitalogy sound to them. Eddie's vocals are intense and the guitars seem heavier. And don't get me wrong there is nothing better than old PJ but I actually like how they have evolved over the years. I was actually a huge fan of Riot Act. I liked the more subdued vocals and thought the instrumentation was fabulous; I would go so far as to say Riot Act might be my number one or two favorite PJ album. That said I was very excited about this new album and maybe that was the problem, maybe I was too excited and I got my hopes up too much. It might also be that PJ has almost become a strictly "live" band for me. It seems lately that I like just about evey one of their songs better live than I do the studio version. In fact the couple of live performance I have seen from the new album I have liked pretty well, whereas the studio version seemed to fall a little flat.

We will have to see if my feelings change. It seems that typically the more time I spend with PJ albums the more they grow on me. I may actually end up liking this album quite a bit once I give it some more time. For now however, it has not jumped out of the jewel case and into my heart.

Anyone else have any thoughts.