10 Perfect '90s Rock Songs That Everyone Forgets About

As Pearl Jam stumbled into 1994, they were on top of the world and couldn't have been more miserable about it. Even though they were climbing the charts and in serious talks of being the rival to acts like Nirvana, Eddie Vedder always seemed to have a strange relationship with the idea of fame, feeling like he had no control over where his life was going to take him next. He did have control over music though, and Vitalogy is where you get to see the most wounded version of him yet.

While there are definitely musical moments on this record that are both classic and garbage like Better Man and Bugs respectively, Nothingman seems to fly a bit under the radar by the standards of amazing Pearl Jam material. Touching on the same kind of jaded love song material that you heard all the way back on Black from Ten, this is the time when you start to see two souls slowly drift apart, as Eddie talks about being able to tell your significant other how you feel before you lose them forever.

Though it's borderline impossible to recognize what Eddie is saying on some of the earlier material, using the metaphor of catching a bold of lightning and cursing the day he let it go is enough to sum up anyone who feels like they've lost the most important person in their lives. There had already been two colossal Pearl Jam albums that came out before this one, but this is one of the first times where it felt like the real Eddie was ready to show us a different side of himself.