ALBUM REVIEW: Pearl Jam - Live on Ten Legs

(Released on Monkeywrench, 2011)
Review by Matt Hallett
                                               

4/5

To commemorate their 20th year as a band, Pearl Jam has released Live on Ten Legs, a compilation of 18 live tracks recorded on tours spanning from 2003 - 2010. The album is a follow up to the 1998 release Live on Two Legs.

Over the last two decades the Pearl Jam lads have gained a reputation as being an exciting and energetic live act, which is highly evident when listening to Live on Ten Legs. Songs like Animal, Rearview Mirror, Alive, Jeremy, and Spin the Black Circle are played with as much youthful vigour, if not more than when they were originally conceived. Even on more recent tracks such as Got Some and The Fixer there is a sense of energy asserted when listening.

Although the songs were recorded from a number of different concerts, spanning across seven years, the tracks flow surprisingly well together. All the transitions between songs are fairly seamless and rather quick; keeping the momentum flowing and providing a sense of continuity.

Aside from being an energetic live act, it would be fair for one to expect a band of 20 years to mature, and Pearl Jam also show their maturity with melancholy tracks such as Nothing as it Seems, Just Breathe, and I Am Mine.

Live on Ten Legs also includes two covers; Joe Strummer’s Arms Aloft, and Public Image Ltd’s Public Image. These covers are well played, but are probably a slight let down to what is otherwise a captivating live album.