Clint Brownlee

Pearl Jam's Vs. by Clint Brownlee, part of the 33 1/3 series, places the making of the album in the context of their exploding popularity and their reluctance to fully embrace it. While it largely covers familiar ground there is some new information here and, more important, everything is connected rather than just a bunch of anecdotes.

First, to set the record straight, Vs was released on vinyl (z53136) one week before the CD, largely because of their love of vinyl albums. While Vitalogy was more publicized for being released two weeks early, that fact has no bearing on what they did with Vs. If anyone who "knows everything" in the book states otherwise, well, they don't know everything. Enough said.

Some of the stories about song origins and recording issues may be fairly well known to their fans but largely as separate trivia bits that are told as standalone stories. Brownlee takes these events, along with some lesser known things, and weaves the story of the making of the album as well as the place the album has in the band's history. The impact of the book is not in the little anecdotes but in the larger narrative to which they belong, and the book tells that narrative very well.

I would recommend this to both Pearl Jam fans as well as the more casual music fan who remembers the 90s but might have preferred other genres. This is an important chapter in music history. I would also recommend, for Pearl Jam's more complete history, Ronen Givony's Not for You.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (altro)