A Little Trick I Play On My Mind

Pearl Jam “Never Destination”

When Pearl Jam transitioned into a band that was more invested in live performance than anything else around the early 2000s their records lost a lot of the spark and vitality of their first wave of albums in the ‘90s. Whereas those albums – particularly the first three – have a high stakes do-or-die energy to them, the band settled into familiar patterns and the more stable emotions of grown men with great lives. There’s value in that for sure, but I think anyone who grew up with Pearl Jam in their prime could notice that high drama missing in their music even when they delivered some very strong songs here and there over the past two decades. But now, somehow when the cathartic energy of Pearl Jam feels most necessary, they’ve reconnected with their muse on Gigaton, their most consistently vibrant, tuneful, and emotionally resonant work in years. It’s not much like the robust psychodrama of Ten, but it’s in the spirit of the socially engaged and musically restless energy of Vs. and Vitalogy.

A lot of this comes down to Eddie Vedder feeling freaked out by everything any reasonable person is scared of today – the sense that everything is breaking or broken, that every sort of doom is coming at us at once. He doesn’t get bogged down in topicality – these songs have been gestating for years and are definitely meant to played live for years to come – but they’re rooted in a time and place, and the perspective of someone who’s old enough to have accrued some wisdom but still baffled, confused, and angry.

“Never Destination,” an up-tempo number that feels light and breezy despite the tension at the core of the arrangement, is sung from the point of view of someone struggling with the value of distraction and denial in the face of a crisis. Vedder recognizes the need for it, but he’s skeptical too, spitting out the phrase “more denial!” at the end of the chorus. He’s frustrated but knows he’s just as guilty as anyone in playing “a little trick” on his own mind. I love that he allows for this tangle of sanctimonious anger, guilt, and delusional bliss. It feels very true, especially at this particular moment in time.

Buy it from Bandcamp.