Yield (CD - 1998)

Pearl Jam: Eddie Vedder (vocals, guitar); Stone Gossard, Mike McCready (guitar); Jeff Ament (bass); Jack Irons (drums).

Recorded at Studio Litho and Bad Animals, Seattle, Washington; Southern Tracks Recording and Doppler, Atlanta, Georgia.

"Do The Evolution" was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Short Form Music Video. YIELD was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.

Personnel: Eddie Vedder (vocals, guitar); Mike McCready, Stone Gossard (guitar); Jack Irons (drums).

Audio Mixers: Nick DiDia; Brendan O'Brien.

Recording information: Jack Irons Home; Southern Tracks Recording And Doppler, Atlanta, GA; Studio Litho, Seattle, WA; Studio X, Seattle, WA.

Photographers: J. Glacier; Jerry Gay; Greg Montijo; Jeff Ament.

Nay-sayers and trends be damned. Pearl Jam's follow-up to 1996's NO CODE continues down the path of aggressive rock and roll, existential musings and musical experimentation. This isn't your older brother's grunge. Opening with the hard-driving "Brain Of J," YIELD goes from a punky swagger representing man's arrogance in asserting his lofty place on the food chain ("Do The Evolution") to a free jazz approach and a disembodied Vedder vocal questioning the meaning of life ("Push Me, Pull Me").

Most of YIELD continues to ply the standard Pearl Jam sound: Vedder's pained emoting, the interesting use of dynamics between McCready and Gossard's guitars and solid rhythm-work from the Ament/Irons rhythm section. Rather than falling into the creative rut many huge bands succumb to, Pearl Jam's music has instead developed its own identity while still walking the fringes of the unorthodox. Hence the inclusion of a weird, untitled percussive instrumental cut in Jack Irons' home studio and an Eastern-flavored hidden track pointing towards the influence of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. minimize