Ten - Pearl Jam

Ten is the 1991, twelve times platinum, debut studio album by Seattle-based rock band Pearl Jam. Their most successful album to date, it was a slow burner and took almost 2 years to reach the US Billboard Top Ten. The band are widely recognised as part of the Holy Trinity of grunge bands along with Nirvana and Soundgarden and despite criticism that they simply “jumped on the grunge bandwagon” it’s fair to say that Ten was an instrumental part of the rise of alternative rock in popular music in the ‘90s.
Originally calling themselves Mookie Blaylock (after the professional basketball player), they recorded the album in Seattle’s London Bridge Studios in one month as most of the material was written before going in to studio.

The album's eleven tracks deal with dark subjects like depression, suicide, loneliness, and murder. “Jeremy” and its accompanying video were inspired by a true story in which a high school student shot himself in front of his classmates. The songs “Alive”, “Once”, and “Footsteps” (the last of which was not on the album, but appeared as a b-side on the “Jeremy” single) formed a song cycle Vedder called the “Mamasan” trilogy. Vedder has said that the lyrics tell the story of a young man whose father dies (“Alive”), causing him to go on a killing spree (“Once”) which leads to his capture and execution (“Footsteps”). It was later revealed that Vedder's lyrics were inspired by his discovering at the age of seventeen that the man he thought was his father was not, and that his real father had already died.

“Ten” is almost universally considered to be one of the highest points of the early 1990’s alternative rock sound. With the success of “Ten”, Pearl Jam became a key member of the Seattle grunge explosion, along with groups like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. However, they were criticised by both the music press and their peers; British music magazine NME said the band was “trying to steal money from young alternative kids' pockets”, and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain angrily attacked Pearl Jam, claiming the band were commercial sell-outs and arguing that “Ten” was not a proper alternative album because it had so many prominent guitar leads. Cobain later reconciled with Vedder, and they reportedly became friends before Cobain's death in 1994.
Ten is this Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track listing
1. Once
2. Even Flow
3. Alive
4. Why Go
5. Black
6. Jeremy
7. Oceans
8. Porch
9. Garden
10. Deep
11. Release