10 Grunge Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die
1. Ten - Pearl Jam
Once Mother Love Bone went kaput, it was pretty much anyone's guess as to what the other members were going to be up to within the next few years. Though Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament still wanted to make music together, there was no way of knowing whether this next shot was going to work or not. When they found another singer in Eddie Vedder, lightning struck when they released their debut album Ten.
Starting right out of the gate, this entire record is the lynchpin for what would be classified as classic grunge music in the following decades, from the '70s style riffs to the yarly vocal delivery erupting from the throat of Vedder. Aside from the actual sound of the music, this also fit grunge to a tee by being steeped with depressing themes, from Why Go being about a child put in a mental institution to the tale of a kid blowing his brains out in front of his classmates on Jeremy.
It's not all doom and gloom though, with songs like Black and Even Flow having the right amount of open hearted vibes to keep you transfixed from cover to cover. While this record brought Pearl Jam to new heights that they didn't necessarily want to be at the time, you deserve to be celebrated on that level when you define the cultural zeitgeist this effectively.