Pearl Jam Month: Yield
by Zane Ewton
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I turned 16 years old in the winter. My first tastes of gasoline-fueled freedom were under cloudy, rain-soaked skies. Deep dark blue and black. In my personal CD player, which was then connected into the car's tape deck, was Yield by Pearl Jam.
This is what preteen dreams are made of. The record's presence in my life at that time, and the way it has grown over the years, makes it difficult to discuss Yield in a fair and balanced manner. This is a personal album, the kind you love and defend despite all its faults. Yield takes me back to those with nowhere to go, lit up by streetlights, or just the full moon shining off my Corolla's hood.
To look at the entire Pearl Jam oeuvre, Yield is a safe album. The safest Pearl Jam has ever been. It never gets too weird. It has a smooth production value. Yield plays like a collection of the best songs they had at the time, rather than the indulgent album with transitions and little oddities in between. The band returns to more direct songwriting, and the wonderful drums that colored No Code take a backseat.
The directness of the songs also gives them the typical rock trappings. With the band playing it so straight, they lose the novelty and quirks that helped make Vitalogy and No Code good. Pearl Jam playing it straight is still better than many bands who try to write the same kind of songs.
Yield may be the easiest Pearl Jam album to sing along with. Vedder just leans back and sings with full voice. Simple refrains and choruses. It begins on "Faithful."
We're faithful
We all believe
We all believe it
And it continues through songs like "No Way" - I'm not trying to make a difference - or "Pilate" - Like a Pilate, I have a dog. It is nonsense that Vedder's lyrics are so easy to sing along with. Like a Pilate, I have a dog? It doesn't matter, you still howl along.
"Wishlist" is a song that, without the fadeout, would go on forever. Every day we can wish to be something we are not. As a 16-year-old, I wished to be anything else than who I was. Today I wish to be more than what I am. The song doesn't tune into just a helpless feeling, but one a feeling of significance. To feel necessary, or at least loved in a small degree. It is also the kind of lyric only Eddie Vedder could make work.
I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me.
I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me.
I wish I was a messenger, and all the news was good.
I wish I was the full moon shining off a camaro's hood.
Along with "Given to Fly", "Wishlist" is the centerpiece of the album. "Do the Evolution" is ashock to the system, and "MFC" is the emotional takeoff before the mellow finale. "Low Light", "In Hiding" and "All Those Yesterdays" are each wonderful tracks, especially the shimmering "Low Light." And Vedder finally scores with some spoken-word rambling on "Push Me Pull Me."
If Yield is considered one of Pearl Jam's weaker albums, it is just proof that the band has a line of consistently good to stellar albums. Yield stands apart, just as each album does, for its moods, textures and vibe. It just happens to be the one that resonates most for me personally. I always stand amazed that a scrap of plastic with a dozen songs on it, produced for mass consumption, can feel like a little love letter written just for me.
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