"Fun" isn't a word normally associated with
Eddie Vedder, a singer who has specialized in earnest sincerity ever since
Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" blanketed MTV and modern rock radio in 1992. His guileless gravity served as
Pearl Jam's lodestar in the ensuing decades, steering the band toward such weighty statements as
Gigaton, a searing ecological warning the group delivered at the eve of their 30th anniversary.
Earthling, the solo album
Vedder released two years later -- it's his second, following the subdued
Ukulele Songs by about 11 years -- feels as vigorous as
Gigaton even as it sounds nothing at all like it.
Vedder peppers
Earthling with a few righteous rockers that are precisely in
Pearl Jam's wheelhouse -- "Power of Right" helps kick off the record in a high gear -- but he spends most of the album playing the kind of vibrant, colorful rock
Pearl Jam consciously avoids. Often, it seems as if
Vedder is intent on reconnecting with the kind of rock that filled the airwaves in the days prior to grunge. "Invincible" is a stirring, openhearted anthem that conjures the ghost of prime Peter Gabriel, "The Dark" propels forward on an insistent widescreen rhythm reminiscent of late-'80s college rock, and "Fallout Today" is buoyed by thick layers of acoustic guitar.
Vedder also invites a number of classic rockers to play on songs with explicit connections to their own past. "Mrs. Mills" is an unexpected bit of stately
McCartneyesque pop anchored by
Ringo Starr on drums, "Long Way" is a de facto homage to
Full Moon Fever-era
Tom Petty complete with
Benmont Tench on keyboards, while "Picture" is a rollicking duet with
Elton John, who also contributes barrelhouse piano.
Vedder knows enough to throw a curveball on occasion, as when he has
Stevie Wonder race to keep pace on "Try," a rocker invigorated by
Stevie's harp. On a strictly musical basis,
Earthling is the most varied project
Eddie Vedder has ever released, and it's also his lightest album: there's a palpable joy to his free experiments here that's infectious, even fun. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine