Backspacer
Encyclopedia
Backspacer is the ninth studio album
by the American alternative rock
band Pearl Jam
, released on September 20, 2009. Pearl Jam began work for the follow-up to its previous album—2006's Pearl Jam
—in early 2008. In 2009, the band began to build on instrumental and demo
tracks written during 2008. The music on the album—the shortest of the band's career—features a sound influenced by pop
and New Wave
. The band released the album through their own label Monkeywrench Records with worldwide distribution by Universal Music Group
via a licensing agreement with Island Records
. Thus, it is their first studio album not to be released by a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment
—they have previously recorded for Sony's Epic
and J
labels in the past.
; this was the group's first album produced by O'Brien since 1998's Yield
. The band allowed O'Brien greater latitude in determining the sound of Backspacer. "At this point, I think we're willing to let somebody cut the songs up a little bit," says lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
. "In the past, Brendan would say, 'It's a great song, but I think you should do it in a different key', and we'd say no. But now that we've heard Bruce[Springsteen]
has listened to his suggestions, I think we will too." Bassist Jeff Ament
said, "He brings a brutally honest approach to what he thinks is working and what isn't, and it really moves things along... We don't get weighted down with ideas that maybe aren't even that good. He's one of the few people outside of the band that we trust with our music, and we're really, really looking forward to making this record."
In 2007, after Pearl Jam's 2006 tour
had ended, the band members began recording demo material on their own while staying in occasional contact via e-mail. Guitarist Mike McCready
revealed at the time that he had tested out some ideas with guitarist Stone Gossard
and drummer Matt Cameron
in separate sessions as well. Rolling Stone
reported in May 2008 that Pearl Jam was in the early stages of working on its ninth studio album and had already had one session with O'Brien. McCready stated in 2008 that the album is "really in its infant stages right now" and that the band had "about five ideas that have been worked on." After laying down some instrumental beds in 2008, additional demos were put to tape in December, and Ament, Cameron, Gossard, and McCready came up with another array of material during a trip to Ament's home in Montana
. Ament said, "It's the first time since the first record
that we've really rehearsed... instead of just going to the studio with a handful of ideas."
Vedder proceeded to put rough vocals on about half of the material formulated in the December session, and also brought in his own material for the band members to work on. In February 2009, Pearl Jam went for a two-week session at Henson Recording Studios
in Los Angeles
, California
with O'Brien. It was the first time the band spent a considerable amount of time recording outside of Seattle, Washington since the band's 1996 album, No Code
. McCready said, "[When] we got together with Ed and it really started getting more cohesive, we took that momentum down to Los Angeles with Brendan... It was a great idea to get us out of Seattle. You've gotta get out [of] your comfort zone, and we've talked about doing that for the past ten years and kind of haven't, so we trusted Brendan's judgment." In April 2009, the band went for a two-week session to finish the album with O'Brien at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia
.
record with kind of pop
or maybe new wave
elements to it... It's a really quick record, but I like that element to it. I like the sparseness of the songs and the way that Brendan pulled us together and made us play as good as we could." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of Allmusic said that "prior to Backspacer, Pearl Jam wouldn't or couldn't have made music this unfettered, unapologetically assured, casual, and, yes, fun." Vedder stated, "The new record feels good so far—really strong and uptempo, stuff we can sink our teeth into." Gossard said, "There's plenty of ballads, too... And there's some shifts in how Jeff and Matt and I are all relating—I think this record's got a chance to sound significantly different." Ament said, "There's a couple of great things that Ed brought in that could be real departures for us. Whatever wave Ed caught with [his soundtrack for] Into the Wild
has taken him to different places."
Lyrically, Backspacer displays a more positive outlook than the band's last few albums. Vedder credited the election of President Barack Obama
as inspiration for the optimistic lyrics. Regarding the lyrics, Vedder said, "I've tried, over the years, to be hopeful in the lyrics, and I think that's going to be easier now." Gossard stated, "We've made a couple of political and pointed records, the last two in particular, and just to move away from that is great, because it allows you to go back to that when you need to and it refreshes everybody, and it comes down to a beat and a melody and your friends and a lyric and a poem and something that's important to you." Backspacer is the first Pearl Jam album to feature lyrics exclusively written by Vedder since the band's 1994 album, Vitalogy
.
Vedder called "Gonna See My Friend" a "drug song," but elaborated that the song is about going to see a friend to stay off drugs, and he stated that "Got Some" is about a "drug dealer," but added what the drug the dealer is selling is actually a great rock song. Vedder was inspired to write the lyrics for "Johnny Guitar" after viewing a collage of album covers that is pasted on the bathroom wall of the band's rehearsal space. He noticed the album cover for Johnny "Guitar" Watson's 1979 album, What the Hell Is This?, and imagined a man who becomes attracted to one of the various women on the cover and then wonders why this woman would rather be one of Watson's many girlfriends instead of his only one. Vedder described "Just Breathe
" as "as close to a love song as we've ever gotten," and said that the subject of the song is the happiest times of people's lives when they should just take in the moment and "breathe for a minute." He also said that "Unthought Known" concerns the human psyche
, and "Supersonic" is about the love for music. According to Vedder, "Speed of Sound" is a song taken from the perspective of a man who is still sitting in a bar after everyone else has left, but he added that even though the song is sad it became more "confident" when played with the whole band. He said "Force of Nature" is "about the strength of one person in the relationship, when they can withstand some of the faults in another." "The End" has been described as an "aching love song."
, and the band released the album through its own label Monkeywrench Records in conjunction with Universal Music Group
in the United States and through Universal's Island Records
internationally. Pearl Jam reached a deal with Target
to be the exclusive big-box store
retailer for the album in the United States. The album also saw release through the band's official website, independent record stores, online retailers, and iTunes
. Those who purchase the Compact Disc
or iTunes version of the album can access a "virtual 'vault'" which features eleven concerts that span from 2005–2008, of which up to two can be chosen to download for free; the iTunes edition was also released as an iTunes LP
. Tying in with the release of the album, the entire album has been made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
series of video games.
, where it holds an 79 after 24 reviews or "generally positive" reviews. Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four and a half out of five stars, saying that "it sounds as if they enjoy being in a band, intoxicated by the noise they make." Alec Rieger of Blender
gave the album four and a half out of five stars. He said, "Backspacer bristles with the energy and creativity of a band that still has something to prove, much to say, and the expertise to do both." Rolling Stone
staff writer Rob Sheffield
gave Backspacer four out of five stars, saying that it contains "the shortest, tightest, punkiest
tunes they've ever banged out," and that "Eddie Vedder's heart-on-fire vocals are the main attraction, as always." He added, "After toughing out the Bush years, Pearl Jam aren't in the mood for brooding; at long last, surf's up." Dave Simpson of The Guardian
also gave the album four out of five stars. In the review he stated that "the Seattle quartet have rarely sounded this energised." Simpson observed that "this is a record made by mature men with perspective: full of reflection and eclecticism, finding space for both U2
guitar motifs and Buzzcocks
solos." He added that "the ninth Pearl Jam album may even be the best of the lot." Los Angeles Times
writer Ann Powers gave Backspacer four out of four stars and called its music "Accessible without sacrificing sophistication, aggressive without flailing". Evan Sawdey of PopMatters
gave the album a rating of 7/10 and wrote that Pearl Jam "have finally re-discovered who they are, and sound stronger than ever because of it".
Paul Brannigan of Q
gave the album four out of five stars. He said that the album is "largely characterised by joyous new wave-influenced rock'n'roll, and for the first time in their 19-year career, Pearl Jam actually sound—whisper it—fun. No, honestly." Josh Modell of Spin
gave the album four out of five stars. He said, "For the first time in years, Pearl Jam are seizing the moment rather than wallowing in it." Time reviewer Josh Tyrangiel
said, "The songs here are built on hooks, covered with guitar fuzz, and then trimmed back a bit so the melody abides." Tyrangiel added, "Nothing revolutionary, but Backspacer provides an adrenaline jolt that shouldn't be underestimated either." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
gave the album a B, saying that Backspacer is "the sort of sweaty rock & roll that belongs in a bar with cracked-leather booths and $2 beers," and that it "grows same-y, but tracks like the surfing-as-life-metaphor anthem 'Amongst the Waves
' do indeed make something old feel, if not new, good again." The New York Times
said that "Pearl Jam... [refuses]—mostly—to equate maturity with slowing down," but added, "Pearl Jam's quandary is that with fewer outside targets or frustrations to rail against, it risks turning sanctimonious... Pearl Jam's music doesn't align well with satisfaction." Joshua Love of Pitchfork Media
said that the album "seems to suggest in its tossed-off 37 minutes that Pearl Jam have no greater concern and regard for what they do than the rest of the world can muster," and he added that "with the spotlights long since extinguished, Pearl Jam seem content to do things by the book."
Several year-end lists included the album amongst the best releases of 2009:
with 189,000 copies sold in its first week of release, the only independent release to top the Billboard 200 that year. It is the first Pearl Jam album to reach number one in the United States
since No Code
debuted at number one in 1996. On the Billboard 200
dated May 22, 2010, Backspacer logged its 32nd week on the chart, making the album Pearl Jam's longest-charting album since 1998's Yield. Backspacer was certified Gold
by the RIAA
on January 28, 2010.
Album sales chart positions
Singles sales chart positions
Dan Perkins, who goes by the pen name
Tom Tomorrow
. Perkins spent six months working on the artwork. In 2009, Village Voice Media
, publishers of 16 alternative weeklies, suspended all syndicated cartoons across their entire chain. Perkins lost twelve client papers in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City
and Seattle, prompting his friend Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist. Perkins referred to the artwork as "dreams and memories," while Gossard referred to the artwork as a "bizarro otherworldy dreamscape." The album's cover art features nine images created by Perkins, and was revealed through a contest on the band's official website. The nine images were hidden on various websites, and the contest asked Internet users to search for the websites containing the images, whereby the images would be placed on a grid on the Pearl Jam website after clicking on them. After finding all of the images, users were rewarded with a demo version of the song "Speed of Sound".
On the cover and spine of the limited edition gatefold sleeve version, the "Backspacer" keys glow in the dark.
The album title was chosen in part because of nostalgia for the historical name of the backspace
key on typewriters that went out of use in the 1950s and also as a reference to looking back on one's life. Vedder is known to use typewriters when writing lyrics and letters. Vedder said, "Backspacer [means] actually you kind of have to go back and look at your mistake." Gossard said, "There's some retrospective moods on this record, where Ed is looking at both his past and his future." The album title Backspacer was also used for the name of a leatherback turtle that was sponsored by Pearl Jam for Conservation International
and National Geographic
's Great Turtle Race.
Pearl Jam promoted the album with tours in North America
and Oceania
in 2009. On October 4, 2009, the band headlined the Austin City Limits Music Festival
. The appearance took place amidst a fourteen-date North American leg of the tour. Afterward, the band continued to tour in Oceania
. In November, 2009, they appeared in Australia, with their first performance in Perth, and after, gigs in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Their next concert performances followed in New Zealand. After their last date there, Pearl Jam returned to the United States for a final American leg in May, 2010, and a European leg in June 2010.
" (backed with B-side
"Supersonic", also from the album), was made available through the band's official website. "The Fixer" entered the Billboard Hot 100
at number 56 and has reached number three on the Alternative Rock Tracks charts. A music video
was made for "The Fixer". Footage from the video, directed by Cameron Crowe
, was used for a commercial for Target
advertising Backspacer which features "The Fixer". The song was also nominated for Best Rock Song at the 52nd Grammy Awards.
The band also released the double a-side single "Got Some"/"Just Breathe
" a month after Backspacer and "Amongst the Waves
" the following summer.
Amazon.co.uk bonus track
The iTunes LP
edition also features a video of a live performance of "The Fixer" as well as a short documentary on the making of the album.
Additional musicians
Production
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the American alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, released on September 20, 2009. Pearl Jam began work for the follow-up to its previous album—2006's Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam (album)
Pearl Jam is the eighth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam and its debut and only release for J Records...
—in early 2008. In 2009, the band began to build on instrumental and demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
tracks written during 2008. The music on the album—the shortest of the band's career—features a sound influenced by pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
. The band released the album through their own label Monkeywrench Records with worldwide distribution by Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
via a licensing agreement with Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
. Thus, it is their first studio album not to be released by a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
—they have previously recorded for Sony's Epic
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
and J
J Records
J Records was an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and was distributed through the RCA Music Group.-Company history:...
labels in the past.
Recording
For their ninth album, Pearl Jam chose to return to producer Brendan O'BrienBrendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
; this was the group's first album produced by O'Brien since 1998's Yield
Yield (album)
Yield is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code , Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up...
. The band allowed O'Brien greater latitude in determining the sound of Backspacer. "At this point, I think we're willing to let somebody cut the songs up a little bit," says lead vocalist Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
. "In the past, Brendan would say, 'It's a great song, but I think you should do it in a different key', and we'd say no. But now that we've heard Bruce
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
has listened to his suggestions, I think we will too." Bassist Jeff Ament
Jeff Ament
Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
said, "He brings a brutally honest approach to what he thinks is working and what isn't, and it really moves things along... We don't get weighted down with ideas that maybe aren't even that good. He's one of the few people outside of the band that we trust with our music, and we're really, really looking forward to making this record."
In 2007, after Pearl Jam's 2006 tour
Pearl Jam 2006 World Tour
The Pearl Jam 2006 World Tour was a concert tour by the American rock band Pearl Jam to support its eighth album, Pearl Jam.-History:Pearl Jam promoted its self-titled album with tours in North America, Europe, and Australia in 2006...
had ended, the band members began recording demo material on their own while staying in occasional contact via e-mail. Guitarist Mike McCready
Mike McCready
Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
revealed at the time that he had tested out some ideas with guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
and drummer Matt Cameron
Matt Cameron
Matthew David "Matt" Cameron is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the American rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...
in separate sessions as well. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
reported in May 2008 that Pearl Jam was in the early stages of working on its ninth studio album and had already had one session with O'Brien. McCready stated in 2008 that the album is "really in its infant stages right now" and that the band had "about five ideas that have been worked on." After laying down some instrumental beds in 2008, additional demos were put to tape in December, and Ament, Cameron, Gossard, and McCready came up with another array of material during a trip to Ament's home in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. Ament said, "It's the first time since the first record
Ten (Pearl Jam album)
Ten is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and...
that we've really rehearsed... instead of just going to the studio with a handful of ideas."
Vedder proceeded to put rough vocals on about half of the material formulated in the December session, and also brought in his own material for the band members to work on. In February 2009, Pearl Jam went for a two-week session at Henson Recording Studios
Henson Recording Studios
Henson Recording Studios was established in 2000 at the former A&M Studios. The remake of We Are the World was recorded at Henson Recording Studios in February 2010 to benefit the Haiti earthquake victims....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
with O'Brien. It was the first time the band spent a considerable amount of time recording outside of Seattle, Washington since the band's 1996 album, No Code
No Code
No Code is the fourth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1996 through Epic Records. Following a troubled tour for its previous album, Vitalogy , in which Pearl Jam engaged in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster, the band went into the studio...
. McCready said, "[When] we got together with Ed and it really started getting more cohesive, we took that momentum down to Los Angeles with Brendan... It was a great idea to get us out of Seattle. You've gotta get out [of] your comfort zone, and we've talked about doing that for the past ten years and kind of haven't, so we trusted Brendan's judgment." In April 2009, the band went for a two-week session to finish the album with O'Brien at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
Music and lyrics
McCready said, "I'd sum it up as kind of a tight, concise, rock 'n' rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
record with kind of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
or maybe new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
elements to it... It's a really quick record, but I like that element to it. I like the sparseness of the songs and the way that Brendan pulled us together and made us play as good as we could." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of Allmusic said that "prior to Backspacer, Pearl Jam wouldn't or couldn't have made music this unfettered, unapologetically assured, casual, and, yes, fun." Vedder stated, "The new record feels good so far—really strong and uptempo, stuff we can sink our teeth into." Gossard said, "There's plenty of ballads, too... And there's some shifts in how Jeff and Matt and I are all relating—I think this record's got a chance to sound significantly different." Ament said, "There's a couple of great things that Ed brought in that could be real departures for us. Whatever wave Ed caught with [his soundtrack for] Into the Wild
Into the Wild (soundtrack)
Into the Wild is the first solo studio album by Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder, and is based on his contributions to the soundtrack for the film Into the Wild . It was released on September 18, 2007 through J Records.-Background:...
has taken him to different places."
Lyrically, Backspacer displays a more positive outlook than the band's last few albums. Vedder credited the election of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
as inspiration for the optimistic lyrics. Regarding the lyrics, Vedder said, "I've tried, over the years, to be hopeful in the lyrics, and I think that's going to be easier now." Gossard stated, "We've made a couple of political and pointed records, the last two in particular, and just to move away from that is great, because it allows you to go back to that when you need to and it refreshes everybody, and it comes down to a beat and a melody and your friends and a lyric and a poem and something that's important to you." Backspacer is the first Pearl Jam album to feature lyrics exclusively written by Vedder since the band's 1994 album, Vitalogy
Vitalogy
Vitalogy is the third studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 22, 1994 through Epic Records. Pearl Jam wrote and recorded Vitalogy while touring behind its previous album Vs....
.
Vedder called "Gonna See My Friend" a "drug song," but elaborated that the song is about going to see a friend to stay off drugs, and he stated that "Got Some" is about a "drug dealer," but added what the drug the dealer is selling is actually a great rock song. Vedder was inspired to write the lyrics for "Johnny Guitar" after viewing a collage of album covers that is pasted on the bathroom wall of the band's rehearsal space. He noticed the album cover for Johnny "Guitar" Watson's 1979 album, What the Hell Is This?, and imagined a man who becomes attracted to one of the various women on the cover and then wonders why this woman would rather be one of Watson's many girlfriends instead of his only one. Vedder described "Just Breathe
Just Breathe (song)
"Just Breathe" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. "Just Breathe" was released on October 31, 2009 as the second single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . The single was released as a double A-side along with the song "Got Some"...
" as "as close to a love song as we've ever gotten," and said that the subject of the song is the happiest times of people's lives when they should just take in the moment and "breathe for a minute." He also said that "Unthought Known" concerns the human psyche
Psyche (psychology)
The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
, and "Supersonic" is about the love for music. According to Vedder, "Speed of Sound" is a song taken from the perspective of a man who is still sitting in a bar after everyone else has left, but he added that even though the song is sad it became more "confident" when played with the whole band. He said "Force of Nature" is "about the strength of one person in the relationship, when they can withstand some of the faults in another." "The End" has been described as an "aching love song."
Release and reception
Pearl Jam did not re-sign its record deal with J RecordsJ Records
J Records was an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and was distributed through the RCA Music Group.-Company history:...
, and the band released the album through its own label Monkeywrench Records in conjunction with Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
in the United States and through Universal's Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
internationally. Pearl Jam reached a deal with Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
to be the exclusive big-box store
Big-box store
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...
retailer for the album in the United States. The album also saw release through the band's official website, independent record stores, online retailers, and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. Those who purchase the Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
or iTunes version of the album can access a "virtual 'vault'" which features eleven concerts that span from 2005–2008, of which up to two can be chosen to download for free; the iTunes edition was also released as an iTunes LP
ITunes LP
iTunes LP is a format for interactive album artwork introduced by Apple Inc. on the 9 September 2009. It is similar to the CMX format being developed by the 4 major record labels, and operates within the iTunes 9 software, allowing the user to view multimedia elements alongside the music...
. Tying in with the release of the album, the entire album has been made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
series of video games.
Critical reception
Backspacer received mainly positive reviews from music critics, and is the band's best reviewed studio album of the 2000s according to MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, where it holds an 79 after 24 reviews or "generally positive" reviews. Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four and a half out of five stars, saying that "it sounds as if they enjoy being in a band, intoxicated by the noise they make." Alec Rieger of Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
gave the album four and a half out of five stars. He said, "Backspacer bristles with the energy and creativity of a band that still has something to prove, much to say, and the expertise to do both." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
staff writer Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield is an American music journalist and author. He is currently a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, writing music reviews and essays on pop culture. Prior to that, he was a contributing editor at Blender before the print version of the magazine folded in 2009, and at Spin...
gave Backspacer four out of five stars, saying that it contains "the shortest, tightest, punkiest
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
tunes they've ever banged out," and that "Eddie Vedder's heart-on-fire vocals are the main attraction, as always." He added, "After toughing out the Bush years, Pearl Jam aren't in the mood for brooding; at long last, surf's up." Dave Simpson of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also gave the album four out of five stars. In the review he stated that "the Seattle quartet have rarely sounded this energised." Simpson observed that "this is a record made by mature men with perspective: full of reflection and eclecticism, finding space for both U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
guitar motifs and Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton in 1976, led by singer–songwriter–guitarist Pete Shelley.They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, pop punk and indie rock. They achieved commercial...
solos." He added that "the ninth Pearl Jam album may even be the best of the lot." Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Ann Powers gave Backspacer four out of four stars and called its music "Accessible without sacrificing sophistication, aggressive without flailing". Evan Sawdey of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
gave the album a rating of 7/10 and wrote that Pearl Jam "have finally re-discovered who they are, and sound stronger than ever because of it".
Paul Brannigan of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album four out of five stars. He said that the album is "largely characterised by joyous new wave-influenced rock'n'roll, and for the first time in their 19-year career, Pearl Jam actually sound—whisper it—fun. No, honestly." Josh Modell of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
gave the album four out of five stars. He said, "For the first time in years, Pearl Jam are seizing the moment rather than wallowing in it." Time reviewer Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel is a journalist, and editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. He joined the magazine following its acquisition by Bloomberg L.P. in December 2009. Prior to joining Bloomberg Businessweek, Tyrangiel was deputy managing editor of TIME magazine and managing editor of TIME.com...
said, "The songs here are built on hooks, covered with guitar fuzz, and then trimmed back a bit so the melody abides." Tyrangiel added, "Nothing revolutionary, but Backspacer provides an adrenaline jolt that shouldn't be underestimated either." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the album a B, saying that Backspacer is "the sort of sweaty rock & roll that belongs in a bar with cracked-leather booths and $2 beers," and that it "grows same-y, but tracks like the surfing-as-life-metaphor anthem 'Amongst the Waves
Amongst the Waves
"Amongst the Waves" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring music written by guitarist Stone Gossard and lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Amongst the Waves" was released on June 21, 2010 as the third single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . It was released...
' do indeed make something old feel, if not new, good again." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that "Pearl Jam... [refuses]—mostly—to equate maturity with slowing down," but added, "Pearl Jam's quandary is that with fewer outside targets or frustrations to rail against, it risks turning sanctimonious... Pearl Jam's music doesn't align well with satisfaction." Joshua Love of Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
said that the album "seems to suggest in its tossed-off 37 minutes that Pearl Jam have no greater concern and regard for what they do than the rest of the world can muster," and he added that "with the spotlights long since extinguished, Pearl Jam seem content to do things by the book."
Several year-end lists included the album amongst the best releases of 2009:
| Publisher | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allmusic | AllMusic's Favorite Rock Albums of 2009 | 2009 | Unranked, out of 25 |
| Billboard | Top 10 Albums of 2009 | 2009 | #8 |
| Q | 50 Best Albums of 2009 | 2009 | #35 |
| Rolling Stone | Top 25 Albums of 2009 | 2009 | #11 |
Sales
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
with 189,000 copies sold in its first week of release, the only independent release to top the Billboard 200 that year. It is the first Pearl Jam album to reach number one in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since No Code
No Code
No Code is the fourth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1996 through Epic Records. Following a troubled tour for its previous album, Vitalogy , in which Pearl Jam engaged in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster, the band went into the studio...
debuted at number one in 1996. On the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
dated May 22, 2010, Backspacer logged its 32nd week on the chart, making the album Pearl Jam's longest-charting album since 1998's Yield. Backspacer was certified Gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
on January 28, 2010.
Album sales chart positions
| Chart (2009) | Peak position | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
Platinum | |
| Austrian Albums Chart | Gold | |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... ) |
Platinum | |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Wallonia) |
||
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
Platinum | |
| Croatian Albums Chart | Platinum | |
| Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
||
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
||
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
||
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
||
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
||
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
Gold | |
| Mexican Albums Chart | Gold | |
| Netherlands Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
Gold | |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
Platinum | |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
||
| Portuguese Albums Chart | Platinum | |
| Spanish Albums Chart | Gold | |
| Swiss Albums Chart | Gold | |
| Gold |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
172 |
Singles sales chart positions
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Alt. |
US Main. |
US Rock Rock Songs Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
CAN Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
GER Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
JPN Japan Hot 100 The Japan Hot 100 is a music singles chart in Japan. It is compiled by Billboard and Hanshin Contents Link ever since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at billboard-japan.com and every Thursday at billboard.com .... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||
| 2009 | "The Fixer The Fixer (song) "The Fixer" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by drummer Matt Cameron and guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, "The Fixer" was released on August 24, 2009 as the first single from the band's ninth studio... " |
56 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 22 | 14 | 97 | 78 | 11 | 93 |
| "Got Some"/"Just Breathe Just Breathe (song) "Just Breathe" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. "Just Breathe" was released on October 31, 2009 as the second single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . The single was released as a double A-side along with the song "Got Some"... " |
78 | 6 | 36 | 5 | – | 30 | – | – | – | – | |
| 2010 | "Amongst the Waves Amongst the Waves "Amongst the Waves" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring music written by guitarist Stone Gossard and lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Amongst the Waves" was released on June 21, 2010 as the third single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . It was released... " |
– | 17 | – | 27 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Packaging
The artwork for the album was handled by editorial cartoonistEditorial cartoonist
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary....
Dan Perkins, who goes by the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Tom Tomorrow
Tom Tomorrow
Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins. His weekly comic strip This Modern World, which comments on current events, appears regularly in over 90 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada as of 2006, as well as on CREDO Action and Daily Kos, where he is its comics curator...
. Perkins spent six months working on the artwork. In 2009, Village Voice Media
New Times Media
Village Voice Media is a privately held corporation headquartered in Phoenix.The company owns the Village Voice, America's oldest and largest alternative weekly newspaper, as well as LA Weekly, OC Weekly in Orange County, California, Seattle Weekly, City Pages in Minneapolis-St...
, publishers of 16 alternative weeklies, suspended all syndicated cartoons across their entire chain. Perkins lost twelve client papers in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Seattle, prompting his friend Vedder to post an open letter on the Pearl Jam website in support of the cartoonist. Perkins referred to the artwork as "dreams and memories," while Gossard referred to the artwork as a "bizarro otherworldy dreamscape." The album's cover art features nine images created by Perkins, and was revealed through a contest on the band's official website. The nine images were hidden on various websites, and the contest asked Internet users to search for the websites containing the images, whereby the images would be placed on a grid on the Pearl Jam website after clicking on them. After finding all of the images, users were rewarded with a demo version of the song "Speed of Sound".
On the cover and spine of the limited edition gatefold sleeve version, the "Backspacer" keys glow in the dark.
The album title was chosen in part because of nostalgia for the historical name of the backspace
Backspace
Backspace is the keyboard key that originally pushed the typewriter carriage one position backwards, and in modern computer displays moves the cursor one position backwards, deletes the preceding character, and shifts back the text after it by one position....
key on typewriters that went out of use in the 1950s and also as a reference to looking back on one's life. Vedder is known to use typewriters when writing lyrics and letters. Vedder said, "Backspacer [means] actually you kind of have to go back and look at your mistake." Gossard said, "There's some retrospective moods on this record, where Ed is looking at both his past and his future." The album title Backspacer was also used for the name of a leatherback turtle that was sponsored by Pearl Jam for Conservation International
Conservation International
Conservation International is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, which seeks to ensure the health of humanity by protecting Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity. CI’s work focuses on six key initiatives that affect human well-being: climate, food security, freshwater...
and National Geographic
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
's Great Turtle Race.
Backspacer Tour
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
in 2009. On October 4, 2009, the band headlined the Austin City Limits Music Festival
Austin City Limits Music Festival
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day American music festival that takes place in Austin, Texas at the city's central public park, Zilker Park...
. The appearance took place amidst a fourteen-date North American leg of the tour. Afterward, the band continued to tour in Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. In November, 2009, they appeared in Australia, with their first performance in Perth, and after, gigs in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Their next concert performances followed in New Zealand. After their last date there, Pearl Jam returned to the United States for a final American leg in May, 2010, and a European leg in June 2010.
Singles
The lead single "The FixerThe Fixer (song)
"The Fixer" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by drummer Matt Cameron and guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, "The Fixer" was released on August 24, 2009 as the first single from the band's ninth studio...
" (backed with B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
"Supersonic", also from the album), was made available through the band's official website. "The Fixer" entered the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at number 56 and has reached number three on the Alternative Rock Tracks charts. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was made for "The Fixer". Footage from the video, directed by Cameron Crowe
Cameron Crowe
Cameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....
, was used for a commercial for Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
advertising Backspacer which features "The Fixer". The song was also nominated for Best Rock Song at the 52nd Grammy Awards.
The band also released the double a-side single "Got Some"/"Just Breathe
Just Breathe (song)
"Just Breathe" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. "Just Breathe" was released on October 31, 2009 as the second single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . The single was released as a double A-side along with the song "Got Some"...
" a month after Backspacer and "Amongst the Waves
Amongst the Waves
"Amongst the Waves" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring music written by guitarist Stone Gossard and lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder, "Amongst the Waves" was released on June 21, 2010 as the third single from the band's ninth studio album, Backspacer . It was released...
" the following summer.
Track listing
Canadian iTunes bonus trackAmazon.co.uk bonus track
The iTunes LP
ITunes LP
iTunes LP is a format for interactive album artwork introduced by Apple Inc. on the 9 September 2009. It is similar to the CMX format being developed by the 4 major record labels, and operates within the iTunes 9 software, allowing the user to view multimedia elements alongside the music...
edition also features a video of a live performance of "The Fixer" as well as a short documentary on the making of the album.
Personnel
Pearl Jam- Jeff AmentJeff AmentJeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, layout designPage layoutPage layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :... - Matt CameronMatt CameronMatthew David "Matt" Cameron is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the American rock bands Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Stone GossardStone GossardStone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Mike McCreadyMike McCreadyMichael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
– guitar - Eddie VedderEddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
– guitar, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, layout design; credited as "Jerome Turner" for album concept
Additional musicians
- Bruce Andrus – hornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
- Justin Bruns – violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- Richard Deane – horn
- Danny Laufer – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
- Cathy Lynn – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- Brendan O'BrienBrendan O'Brien (music producer)Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
– backing vocals, piano - Christopher Pulgram – violin
- Susan Welty – horn
Production
- Billy Bowers, John Burton, Tom Tapley – additional engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
- Nick DiDiaNick DiDiaNick DiDia is an American record producer mostly known for his work with Australian rock group Powderfinger and American pop-rock group Nine Days...
– recording - Andy Fischer – layout design
- Eddie Horst – stringString sectionThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
and horn arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s - Patti Horst – copyistCopyistA copyist is a person who makes written copies. In ancient times, a scrivener was also called a calligraphus . The term's modern use is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript.-Music...
and contractorIndependent contractorAn independent contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement. Unlike an employee, an independent contractor does not work regularly for an employer but works as and when... - Neil HundtNeil HundtNeil Alexander Hundt is the bass guitarist for Arthur, a side project of MxPx. Hundt is credited for being the drum technician for Yuri Ruley on MxPx album The Everpassing Moment. A year later, in 2001, he provided vocals for the songs "Party II," "Time Will Tell," and "Yuri Wakes Up Screaming" on...
– drum technician - Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
at Gateway Mastering – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced... - Steve Morrison, Tom Syrowski – assistance
- Brendan O'Brien – productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Jackie O'Brien, Mala Sharma – production coordination
- Tom TomorrowTom TomorrowTom Tomorrow is the pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins. His weekly comic strip This Modern World, which comments on current events, appears regularly in over 90 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada as of 2006, as well as on CREDO Action and Daily Kos, where he is its comics curator...
– album concept, album artCover artCover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
, layout design - George Webb – guitar technicianGuitar technicianA guitar technician is a member of a music ensemble's road crew who maintains and sets up the musical equipment for one or more guitarists during a concert tour...