10 Most Underrated Pearl Jam Songs
5. You Are - Riot Act
It would be a lot trying to unpack the entire process that went into Riot Act in just a few paragraphs. Suffice to say, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the tragedy that went down at Roskilde, Pearl Jam were definitely world weary had a few things to say about it. Though a lot it turned in some boring songs that went nowhere, they did manage to get a huge shot in the arm from Matt Cameron.
Being the main man behind the percussion for Soundgarden, you can hear his influence on the band on this one song he cowrote with Vedder, having a darker vibe than the entire rest of the record. Hell, if you didn't know any better, you could have sworn that this was an instrumental made for Chris Cornell before you actually hear Eddie come in on the vocals.
Also, there's a lot more optimistic themes in this song when compared to something like Bu$hleaguer off of the same album, talking about love being a tower and Vedder's flame holding the key to his heart. Yeah, this song basically has hippy-level lyrics with a backing track that sounds like it could have come off of a Queens of the Stone Age album. Everything about this screams disaster, and yet the whole thing manages to sound more majestic that it has any right to.