And Now My Bitter Hands Chafe Beneath The Clouds
Black by Pearl Jam is a cathartic, lush, sweeping epic with a sound that starts in a tin before lifting off into a mellow sonic groove as big as the sky.
Black by Pearl Jam is a cathartic, lush, sweeping epic with a sound that starts in a tin can but quickly lifts off into a mellow sonic groove as big as the sky. The immenseness builds throughout as a titanic vocal performance goes toe-to-toe with towering pianos and guitars swirling around each other. It's an intense, dreamy, melancholic performance, and a masterpiece of production.
I never "got" Pearl Jam. I probably still don't. Their fanbase is rabid and loyal, and I'm too late to the party to be anything except an outsider. But I've always liked a few of their songs. I am, in the most derogatory sense of the phrase, "a casual." I don't deserve their earnestness.
These guys were labeled as "grunge" coming out of Seattle in the early 90s. But it's arena rock to me. Pearl Jam is missing Nirvana's thrash punk edge, and they are more classic rock than their metal-adjacent peers, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. The sound is big, the issues are serious, and the performances are sincere. And, of course, the sound is fabulous, or we wouldn't be here.
Black starts with a teeny, tiny, tinny guitar riff and vocal accompaniment that sounds small and far away. It's a pastiche quickly obliterated (0:22) by a sliding bass guitar note and a few gunshot-like raps of a snare drum. The soundstage goes from backward-sbinoculars to Panavision in about two seconds. It's a really fun trick, and the execution is perfect.
What follows is a lavish five-plus-minute production with reverberating drums, piano, gang vocals, and wicked guitar solos. It builds throughout to a cacophonous climax but never gets muddy.
Black is a "wow" track. I've heard it literally solicit a "wow" multiple times when used as a hifi demo. It's also a fantastic song boasting multiple classic rock hooks. It's easy to listen to, easy to share, and easy to love.
Data
Song: Black
Album: Ten
Artist: Pearl Jam
Genre: Rock, Alt-Rock, Grunge (sort of)
Year: 1991
Length: 5:43
Composer: Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard
Producer: Pearl Jam, Rick Parashar
