10 Underrated Hard Rock Albums Of The '90s

7. Yield - Pearl Jam

The end of the '90s were not nearly as kind to Pearl Jam as they were at the start of the decade. While these slackers from Seattle turned in one of the greatest debuts of the modern age on Ten, some of the weirder detours we got on some cuts off of Vitalogy and No Code were losing the attention of a lot of mainstream listeners. Even though there was plenty of good to be found on those "eccentric" records, Yield was where PJ really started to get their groove back.

Instead of the weird genre detours from the other records, most of this album sounds like these guys reacquainting themselves with their hard rock roots, albeit with a more focused sheen. Though there are some modest hits to be found here like Given to Fly, some of the more adventurous parts of this album feels like the era of No Code...only done well.

Compared to the few previous records, Yield is an incredibly well-balanced affair, with punkish songs like Brain of J being put against a song like Wishlist, which might be the quietest tune to come from this band's golden period. I would also be remised leaving out Do the Evolution, which contains one of the best riffs that Stone Gossard has ever put to tape. Pearl Jam could have kept doing whatever the hell they wanted to after this, but sometimes there's nothing wrong with going back to what you know.