"... I was a fool because I thought
I thought the world
Turns out the world thought me..."
This is not the first Pearl Jam album I've bought on my own, and it hopefully won't be the last, it was like the others, an anonymous purchase. If I lose the receipt by this time next month I'll have forgotten all the details of where I bought it. I spent the last pennies I have until I get paid, whenever that may be, on it. But it doesn't matter. Money comes, money goes, mostly goes. But I'll get by and do it again next week. I left work sick today but remembered to grab it on the way home. Because Pearl Jam are home at times to me, Eddie's voice is one of the safest sounds I know.
The sleeve notes are familiarly composed of Jeff Ament's beautiful black and white photography depicting the band rehearsing and chain smoking, filled in with a strange native american illustration by Brad Klausen.
The dedication at the end of the sleeves notes reads the names of John Entwistle, Dee Dee Ramone and Ray Brown accompanied by a sketch of each of their instruments.
Musically Riot Act is honest. Honest in the brutally clear way. None of the lyrics leave any interpretation open to doubt, they all do exactly what they say on the tin. In it there are is a pledge to a friend, a plea to love, an attempt at redemption and a "goodbye I'm leaving" speech.
My first review of this album, which was based on my own assumptions rather than any actual evidence, was that Pearl Jam were going to the cd I'd have on my glass Ikea coffee table in five years, the background noise to my civilised dinner parties my version of Dido. I was wrong, my lack of faith once again played me foul. They are still edging towards Crazy Horse, they have the beards and the guitar sounds to go with it now. But I can still hear the young angry men that recored Ten. If I try I can even hear the ghosts of vs. in the background.
This is the same band that made Glorified G but now, ten years later, they've quit drinking, married and even made sense of their own personal worlds. They look at to have found the inner calm they always seemed to need so badly. Someone said recently in another write-up that you grow up to learn that revolution starts from inside. So does peace.
The songs are:
- Can't Keep
- Save You
- Love Boat Captain
- Cropduster
- Ghost
- I Am Mine
- Thumbing My Way
- You Are
- Get Right
- Green Disease
- Help Help
- Bushleager
- 1/2 Full
- Arc
- All or None