2008 Woodie Awards
Into the Wild is standout solo album for Vedder
Kyle Thacker
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Entertainment
02/06/08 - Into The Wild is the story of Christopher McCandless. It was first published as non-fiction account, written by John Krakauer, of McCandless' journey into the wilderness of the western United States. Last year it was adapted by Sean Penn for the screen and the movie was released to critical acclaim for its directing and the strong performances of its actors. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder provided the soundtrack for the film.
The story is of a young man who came from an affluent family and then, after college, gave up all of his superfluous possessions in favor of the essentials for survival. The same could be said for Vedder on this soundtrack.
The album is stripped down from Pearl Jam's heavier, rock and grunge sound. Vedder is left with the bare essentials for creating a song. The record is built mostly on acoustic instruments, including banjo and ukulele.
Although the sound is very different from that of Peal Jam, Vedder never seems out of place or lost within the songs and his voice carries many of the tunes. The album includes nine original Vedder tracks and two covers, "Society," by Jerry Hannan and Indio's "Hard Sun."
"Hard Sun," featuring Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney, is one of the standout tracks on the album. With handclaps and a chorus you could easily sing along to, the song seemingly becomes like an anthem, and you could see the protagonist of the film walking along through some lush forest to this track. It is also one you could picture Pearl Jam adapting for its own use.
"Hard Sun" is also one of the longest songs on the record at about three and a half minutes. Most songs end at around two minutes and some others run only about a minute. This for me was the only problem for the album because some of the short songs are really good and seem to be building up and coming into something greater and then they end.
The album only runs about 33 minutes long. Songs like "No Ceiling," a song with a plucking banjo, is a song that deserves much more time to develop and unfold then the minute and a half allotted on the record. There are also a couple of nice rambling instrumentals such as "Tuolumne" and "The Wolf."
On "The Wolf," Vedder plays the part well ... not necessarily howling like a wolf, but if a there was ever a Seattle grunge band that had a wolf for its lead singer, it would probably sound like this song.
The album is a very good soundtrack for the film and also stands on its own as Vedder solo album - and a good one at that. The sound may be different from what Pearl Jam fans expect from Vedder, but nonetheless it's an album worth checking out- whether you're a fan of Pearl Jam or not.
The story is of a young man who came from an affluent family and then, after college, gave up all of his superfluous possessions in favor of the essentials for survival. The same could be said for Vedder on this soundtrack.
The album is stripped down from Pearl Jam's heavier, rock and grunge sound. Vedder is left with the bare essentials for creating a song. The record is built mostly on acoustic instruments, including banjo and ukulele.
Although the sound is very different from that of Peal Jam, Vedder never seems out of place or lost within the songs and his voice carries many of the tunes. The album includes nine original Vedder tracks and two covers, "Society," by Jerry Hannan and Indio's "Hard Sun."
"Hard Sun," featuring Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney, is one of the standout tracks on the album. With handclaps and a chorus you could easily sing along to, the song seemingly becomes like an anthem, and you could see the protagonist of the film walking along through some lush forest to this track. It is also one you could picture Pearl Jam adapting for its own use.
"Hard Sun" is also one of the longest songs on the record at about three and a half minutes. Most songs end at around two minutes and some others run only about a minute. This for me was the only problem for the album because some of the short songs are really good and seem to be building up and coming into something greater and then they end.
The album only runs about 33 minutes long. Songs like "No Ceiling," a song with a plucking banjo, is a song that deserves much more time to develop and unfold then the minute and a half allotted on the record. There are also a couple of nice rambling instrumentals such as "Tuolumne" and "The Wolf."
On "The Wolf," Vedder plays the part well ... not necessarily howling like a wolf, but if a there was ever a Seattle grunge band that had a wolf for its lead singer, it would probably sound like this song.
The album is a very good soundtrack for the film and also stands on its own as Vedder solo album - and a good one at that. The sound may be different from what Pearl Jam fans expect from Vedder, but nonetheless it's an album worth checking out- whether you're a fan of Pearl Jam or not.