Album of the Week – No Code by Pearl Jam – August 1996 on Epic Records

Over the past week I dug deep into my catalog of albums, sifted through from a to z (on my ipod) and after some listening settled on No Code as my album of the week.

No Code is a departure from previous albums that were purely grunge rock. The depth of their growing sound was exhibited through experimenting with eastern influences and simple drums and guitar. “Sometimes”, “In My Tree” and “Present Tense” are the softer highlights to this album with eastern influenced drums and more simple sweet guitar lines. “Smile”, “Red Mosquito” and “Hail Hail” and “Lukin” are some of my other favorite tracks but take the heavier approach with grungier guitars, guitar soloing, driving drum beats and more of the aggressive vocals. Rollingstone gave this album four stars but I would give it three. It is definitely not as excellent in my opinion as their first three albums not because it is more experimental but because it lacked the song writing of past album tracks such as the creepy grunge of “Garden” and “Jeremy”, the heaviness/guitar soloing of “Go” and “Animal” or brilliance of “Not for You” or “Immortality”. However, through and through this is a good album, in fact if you don’t own it go and buy it.

A track by track break down continues below.

This album starts of with the soft and subtle “Sometimes”. An eerie yet pretty guitar is balanced out by some bass plucking, light drums and welcoming Veder lyrics. This track leaves you begging for more.

The rocking “Hail Hail” comes next which some would think would be a great opening track to the album. However, I tend to disagree because the quiet opening track to this album allows “Hail Hail” to have a much more dominant opening. This track is driven by swirling guitars and a straight rock beat that ends with a Veder vocal excursion.

“Who you Are” and “In my Tree” are heavy in eastern influences led by Irons drums. Veder’s vocals move from dark to happy. These two songs are a distinct departure from the grungy days of Ten and Vs and are welcomed because it sheds a new light on their maturity as a well balanced rock and roll band.

“Smile” is one of my favorites on the album and reminds me of both Tom guitars and Neil Young harmonica. It is upbeat, catchy and delivers the first mini guitar solos from McCready and Gossard.

“Off he Goes” was always a track that many loved because of its sweet lyrics, acoustic guitars and because I believe it got some radio play. You could place this in the likes of older tracks like “Black” and “Nothing Man”.

“Habit” is the heaviest track of the album so far. Veder’s lyrics are aggressive and growly in tone while blurting out “Never thought you’d habit…” It breaks at times to just a fading guitar and crash cymbal hits but brews into the first massive guitar solo on the album. McCready and Gossard wind in and out of each others guitar lines and exemplifies the ability of McCready to shred his guitar like we heard on Ten.

“Red Mosquito” which was one of the radio hits for this album is led by guitar through and through. This track opens with a ripping guitar line that fades into “Whacked out the window with a red mosquito…I was bitten it must have been the devil”. One guitar boasts a fuzzy back bone and the other a screeching tone that shines through the rest of the instruments.

“Lukin” is the heaviest, punkiest and shortest track of the album. A strumming grunge guitar lays the foundation for Veder to sing as if he is out of breathe and angry! This is an explosion in the middle of the album that helps to balance out the explorative aspects of other tracks.

“Present Tense” has a quiet acoustic guitar and pretty guitar lines the flutter through the first four minutes. A crack of the snare drum breaks the silence and delivers a much needed swinging guitar and Veder muttering in the background.

“Mankind” is written, sung and led by Stone Gossard with a guitar part that again reminds me of Neil Young. The song isn’t extremely flashy but is a nice poppy treat with the catchy line “It’s all just inadvertent simulation a pattern in all mankind, What’s got the whole world fakin”. It boasts a guitar solo that bends back and forth and is much more akin to old Pearl Jam.

“I’m Open” has a spoken word intro, a touch of piano, a plucked guitar section and is not one of my favorites.

“Around the Bend” closes out the album in the same fashion that it started soft, smooth and pretty. Brushes on the drums, a country-esque guitar part and solo twangs while tangling with a piano.


*note these reviews will be some of the first in my career as a writer and will hopefully only improve as the years build…I also believe that iPods drowned out all bass playing…