In their later years, Pearl Jam have had no stronger defender than me. OK, I'm sure that's not true, but I've said nice things about their recent output, including Backspacer, and I've felt that they've aged gracefully, a not-insignificant achievement. (And bear in mind that this is coming from a card-carrying Nirvana fan who always thought Pearl Jam were kinda mediocre back in the day.) All of this is my preamble before admitting that their new album, Lightning Bolt, is incredibly OK -- and it's incredibly OK in a dispiriting way. For my Culture Club column at Playboy, I discussed the album and the failed dream some of us had about alt-rock. You can read it here.
