10 Most Underrated Pearl Jam Songs

There was pretty much no better time for Pearl Jam to hit it big than the early '90s. Even though they were put into a popularity contest with Nirvana for a majority of their beginnings, there aren't that many sounds connecting the two bands together all that much. Especially if you see where they are now, Pearl Jam has a ton more than just grunge rock in their arsenal.

Across every one of their albums, it felt like PJ were embracing every single project as a new creative endeavor, whether it was trying a different approach to songwriting or adapting to the changing world they had around them. Across the 3 decades that they've survived in, each iteration of the group has something unique to offer. Though there are a few of the lowlights of grunge rock sprinkled in for good measure, the best songs of their career are when these guys go bold and actually take a risk.

Though some of the less celebrated moments in their career show them taking risks for the wrong reasons, that doesn't diminish the shine on the times where it works, either going into the realm of new wave or just breaking out an acoustic guitar for the hell of it. Considering how many stellar tracks aren't even hits, Pearl Jam have certainly earned their spot as a legacy act.

After the disastrous sessions for No Code, Pearl Jam really sounded like they needed a break. Having lost their drummer on the album before and virtually no one being on the same page, something needed to ignite the spark to remind these guys why they loved playing music again. While Yield didn't have nearly the return to form numbers as something like Vs., this is the highest quality Pearl Jam you could expect...but with a twist.

In the same vein as classics like Elderly Woman and Better Man, Low Light is a breezy acoustic song that feels as far away from grunge as possible. Since grunge wasn't always the best look on Pearl Jam, this almost feels like a folk song that their old musical uncle Neil Young would have written, only with bits and pieces of off kilter time signatures thrown in for good measure.

Being one of the first lyrical contributions from Jeff Ament, you can tell that Eddie really clicked with this kind of writing, using minimal words but making every single one of them count in the context of the song. Granted, this is not the Pearl Jam song that really says it all for the band who wrote classics like Alive. Save this one for a rainy day and then you'll realize the many facets that these guys have.