10 Perfect Post Grunge Albums In Rock Music History

Towards the end of the '90s, most of the original grunge bands were trying to run away from their early sound as fast as possible. Of all the big 4, no one could really stand up for themselves anymore, with Nirvana having long since passed and both Soundgarden and Alice in Chains being dead in the water. That only left Pearl Jam, and they actually maneuvered their way into the next phase of their career with ease on Yield.

Having already gone through the headache of Ticketmaster and deliberately trying to lose fans on the album No Code, this is one of the truest return to form records in the band's catalog, going back to what made them love playing together in the first place. Outside of a few slow cuts like the single Given to Fly, the real highlights are just how much fire they still have, with Brain of J verging on punk territory and Eddie Vedder getting his signature scream back on the song Do the Evolution.

That's not to say that they left their slow game in the past either, especially on songs like Low Light where they break out the acoustics and go for a stadium sized power ballad. Even when they delve into more experimental territory on songs like Push Me Pull Me, you can still see the band that made Alive in there somewhere, looking to morph their sound into new and interesting directions. For as far as they had come at the end of the '90s, Yield is all of the elements of what made Pearl Jam great all squeezed into one album.