10 Amazing Later Releases By Legendary Rock Acts

Ever since the days of Ten, Pearl Jam always had a bit of a strange relationship with their star power. Though songs like Alive and Jeremy may have sold like gangbusters at the time, Eddie Vedder was not all that comfortable seeing his personal thoughts shared on that grand a stage, and the next few years would see them delving deeper into art rock on albums like Binaural and Riot Act. They seemed to be back on track with Backspacer though, and Lightning Bolt let them become the arena act that they were always meant to be.

Seeing how one of Eddie's biggest heroes was the Who, there's a lot more stadium rock energy that you would have been found on some of Pete Townshend's greatest work, like the heartbroken ballad of Sirens or the throwback to '70s rock and roll on songs like Getaway or Yellow Moon. This isn't Pearl Jam getting bloated by any stretch though, with them bringing out the more punk leaning songs like Mind Your Manners that we hadn't seen since the days of Vs. where Eddie was shrieking his guts out.

There are even a few moments here where the band decides to just go in a completely different direction, like the new wave energy behind a song like My Father's Son or the bluesy swagger coming off of a song like Let the Records Play. The golden age of grunge had long since been buried at this point, but Pearl Jam were never looking to be pigeonholed in the first place. These guys were just about rock and roll, and that means doing whatever the hell you want.