10 Hard Rock Albums That Divided The Fanbase

Amid all of the grunge bands to reach the mainstream, no one despised their massive attention quite like Pearl Jam. From their refusal to make videos to their massive lawsuit against Ticketmaster, Eddie Vedder seemed to being taking every step he could to distance himself from his own celebrity.

Regardless of their nonmusical antics, the band's albums were always great from a purely musical perspective, from the aggression of Vs. to the off-the-wall weirdness of Vitalogy. Once fans were greeted with Binaural though, they were treated to something much more downtempo than they expected. Make no mistake, there were some outright bangers on the record like on "Breakerfall" and "Evacuation," but much of the record felt more sleepy compared to the band's previous cuts like "Jeremy" and "Even Flow."

Then again, many fans saw this record as a bold new direction for the band. All of the sleepier elements of the record that people were complaining about ended up winning over a lot of fans, who saw these tracks as a great way for the band to play with atmosphere like on the Pink Floyd inspired "Nothing As It Seems." This may have been a different look for the grunge icons, but the end result resulted in something much more focused than fans probably remember.