This week The Celebration Rock Podcast continues its Vitalogy-alogy series on the history of Pearl Jam by revisiting the band’s final two studio albums of the ’90s, 1996′ sNo Code and 1998’s Yield.
On No Code, Pearl Jam was in the process of imploding, spending late nights in the studio in the midst of scattershot tours hamstrung by the band’s ongoing battle with Ticketmaster. Many bands would’ve folded under the pressure, but Pearl Jam channeled its weariness and exhaustion into a set of intimate, powerful songs. Helping Steve break down No Code is his Celebration Rock co-hort Derek Madden, who agrees that Stone Gossard shouldn’t have been allowed to sing “Mankind.”
After surviving the dysfunction that distinguished the No Code sessions, Pearl Jam re-committed to working together as a band on 1998’s Yield, resulting in one of the most consistent albums of the band’s career. But does Yield mark the end of Pearl Jam’s world-conquering period, or the beginning of a new period of stability with Matt Cameron of Soundgarden in the fold? Getting to the bottom of Yield with Steve is writer and poet and critic Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib (Get his book The Crown Ain’t Worth Much here if you haven’t already.)
If you like what you hear, please subscribe to Celebration Rock on iTunes, Audioboom, or Stitcher, and listen below.
No Code with Derek Madden:
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Yield with Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib:
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