10 Rock Albums That Were Ruined By One Song

The mid '90s were not really a good time for the grunge community. After Kurt Cobain had shuffled off this mortal coil, most of the veterans of the genre were not having the greatest time as well, with Eddie Vedder especially getting more and more uncomfortable with fame and having to deal with a lawsuit wagered against Ticketmaster for unfair prices. It wasn't just the pressure though. Eddie wanted to really test his audience, and that turned out to be an endurance test on Vitalogy.

While most of this record is bogged down by songs that make you scratch your head like Pry To and Bugs, those little interludes almost seem to add character to the record, especially when you contrast them with songs like Corduroy and Better Man. Just when the album should logically end with the sweeping ballad Immortality, here comes Stupid Mop to create one of the most jarring listening experiences in grunge. Taking bits and pieces from a TV show he saw when he was a kid, Eddie basically turned in an 8 minute avant garde piece for the back end of the record, which feels more like an audio horror movie than a rock song.

Ed has always stuck by the pent up weirdness of this record, even calling this song one of the most emotionally moving songs that he has ever recorded with the band. It may have been fun and even cathartic to put a track like this together, but it's definitely not a song that anyone would look forward to if it turned up on a Pearl Jam setlist.