Wintertijd

Into the Wild

In 2000 I had just moved to Sweden, and at the time I was in a rocky relationship with a woman who was into the whole alternative rock thing, and to paraphrase Samuel L Jackson, that practically made me into the whole alternative rock thing too. So when the news surfaced that Pearl Jam was coming to Stockholm, we scored us some tickets. It was after all one of the only things we could agree upon. So we went to Sjöhistoriska Museet, a museum on the North-East side of Stockholm City, on a bank of the Baltic. It was one of those long Swedish summer evenings where the sun seems to set and then just hover there on the cusp of coming back up immediately, casting everything in a four hour red twilight.

We arrived a bit early, but there was already a huge commotion of people making for the stage. I didn't know at the time that Eddie Vedder is prone to do half-hour solo sessions before his Pearl Jam gigs in which he can do folk, pop and other covers. In we went, sat down, and were treated to him doing 30 minutes or so of brilliant acoustic singing and playing. Vedder Alone and Acoustic is, in retrospect, a much bigger treat than Pearl Jam as a whole. The gig was fine though. They played quite a bit of their "Ten" album and quite a bit of the stuff that came after, and things were good. We even got a fly by of big hot-air Balloons that crashed the concert. Vedder made the quip "I hope you enjoy it, you fucking freeloaders", and merrily continued playing his tunes.

Almost seven and a half years later, I found myself standing in this record shop in Ra'anana I've been talking about, and I see a solo album by Eddie Vedder out. Apparently, Sean Penn had made a movie to the book Into The Wild, and asked Vedder to pen the Soundtrack. The whole thing, upon closer inspection, only lasts for 33 minutes but is an absolute joy to my ears. Precisely because it leads my thoughts back to that open-air concert on that night in Sweden. Essentially, this album is played and written by Vedder. The tracks are short, folky and earthy, and generally speaking all instruments are done by the man himself. There are some guest musicians on one or two tracks, and there are two tracks he didn't write. But all in all it feels like Eddie Vedder just climbed on a stage with an acoustic guitar, a banjo and a drum to do his thing for half an hour.

This makes it outstrip any Pearl Jam album ever made. To illustrate what I mean I'd herewith like to give you the sublime, banjo plucked (or is that a ukelele?) Rise. Enjoy!

Such is the way of the world, you can never know...

Posted by Chris at November 13, 2007 08:50 AM