Anyone who reads Computer Audiophile likely knows I'm a humongous Pearl Jam fan. I've been known to mention the band or its music in my writings on occasion. It also goes without saying that I'm an equally fanatic audiophile. I care dearly about sound quality. Therein lies the conundrum if you believe that the quality of music is inversely proportional to the quality of the recording. For example, there are countless audiophile recordings of bells, cellos, drums, vocals, violins, etc… that sound spectacular, but you couldn't pay me to listen to them because they don't contain music. Too often great recordings contain sounds without "real" music or emotion. On the other hand, like most Rock bands, Pearl Jam isn't well known for releasing audiophile standards. Much of PJ's music is best heard live with thousands of people singing along and watching the band put on a spectacular show. PJ's albums certainly aren't low-fi, but you'll rarely hear them at a HiFi show or read a product review where the writer used a PJ track for evaluating a component's sonic performance. OK call me a weirdo, but I've often dreamt of ways to connect Grammy winning recording engineer Bill Schnee with the guys from Pearl Jam. I would pay $1,000 for a PJ album recorded live to two-track at 24 bit / 192 kHz like Bill's Bravura Records recordings. I've thought of starting a petition, tweeting, emailing, etc… in an effort to persuade Pearl Jam to create such an audio gem, but I always stop short of clicking the send button. Where am I going with this? To paraphrase the infamously quotable Donald Rumsfeld, you listen to the music you have, not the music you might want or wish to have at a later time. With this in mind, I've created my PJ4CA playlist containing thirty of my favorite sounding Pearl Jam tracks with five honorable mentions. These tracks aren't the most popular, but I believe they have the best balance of music and sound quality. I love being exposed to new music, especially music that sounds good. I hope you enjoy the following tracks and maybe, just maybe get on the Pearl Jam bandwagon (if you aren't already) :~)[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Top 30
Sometimes -
Present tense -
Indifference -
Crazy Mary -
Brain of J. -
Nothing As It Seems (Recorded binaurally using a dummy head) -
Thumbing My Way -
All Or None -
Yellow Ledbetter -
Footsteps -
Dead Man Walking -
Strangest Tribe -
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town (Acoustic) -
Gone -
Inside Job -
Black -
Just Breathe -
The End -
4/20/02 (Hidden Track) (4:20 after the song Bee Girl, the track 4/20/02 begins. It's a song honoring Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, who was found dead on that date.) -
Pendulum -
Man Of The Hour -
Love Boat captain (The Molo Sessions featuring The Walmer High School Choir) -
Broken Heart -
Longing To Belong -
Long Nights -
Society -
Guaranteed -
You've Got To Hide Your love Away -
The Long Road - Eddie vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -
Release -
Honorable Mention
Last Exit -
Nothingman -
Corduroy -
Better Man -
Daughter -
TIDAL Playlist
Here is a TIDAL playlist with most of these tracks and a few different versions for tracks unavailable through the streaming service.
Recommended Comments