and working hard to destroy his legacy

Gotta be honest: I am 1000% less repulsed by solo career suckage than I am when the band does something that sucks.

I mean, I expect Eddie Vedder solo to be worse than Pearl Jam. It would be a pretty big slight to the other members if that wasn’t so. So the other reason I favor The Haves in this case is probably that at least it isn’t now and forever a part of the Pearl Jam song set.

That’s pretty stupid but it’s still true

No, that's right, the stakes are lower. Grade the solo career on a curve.

But don't write The Haves. And don't put it on an album. And, please (please) don't release it as a single. Also, please don't play it live in concert.

The new song sucks…


…and it’s on a solo project

Yeah, this. The Haves (and perhaps most of Earthling TBD), coming after Gigaton, of course makes me nervous about what the next Pearl Jam record might be like if Ed and his new producer steer things too much. But CDM was literally Pearl Jam proper. They all got together and recorded it and decided it was going onto an album and should be released to the world. No comparison.

Theoretically, this is true, but I would bet the farm that Ed was 100% the leading factor behind the CDM greenlight. Thought they were making a big political statement and it needed to get out. The rest of the band shrugged and/or said "Sure?"

Think Josh Evans is pissed about this Andrew Watt news?

I’m super curious to know what Jeff thinks about it

Probably doesn’t even know about it

In the millions of extra syllables he injects into every word.

I bet Ed talks the band into performing "The Haves" live at some point

He won’t have to… Mike already thinks it’s the best thing Ed has ever done.

The issue is that Ed’s solo work bleeds into the main catalogue. Like an introduction of sorts. Tulumne becomes Just Breathe. Sleeping By Myself becomes well Sleeping By Myself. If he’s going to be a on a totally different plain then sure. Hopefully they keep it out of the Pearl Jam catalogue.

From today on The AV Club:

"For his first solo album in more than a decade (since 2011’s Ukulele Songs), Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has made an album that tackles as many different genres and styles as the singer has explored throughout his career. That means going from tracks that sound almost exactly like contemporary Pearl Jam rockers (“Brother The Cloud”) to Coldplay-like anthems (opener “Invincible”), to ’80s-pop stompers (“The Dark”), punked-up bangers (“Good And Evil”), and a few versions of the agreeably mid-tempo adult-contemporary ballads that have been Vedder’s forte for awhile now. With guests as varied as Stevie Wonder and Ringo Starr, the album may sacrifice consistency for eclecticism, but it contains some hidden gems." [Alex McLevy]

thats 100% true for me as well. Eddie’s solo output is extremely hit or miss, but I never feel more than a vauge disappointment that I didnt get a better song. I am so much more invested in anything canonically labeled pearl jam

I am not invested in the overall quality of PJ's catalogue anymore so I can't relate. Whether it's "Out of Sand" or "Can't Deny Me" I tend to just judge the songs as songs

yeah, i agree with this. Ed's solo career is, sometimes, a fun outlier for some new related stuff from the band for me. but the real stuff is what happens in Pearl Jam.

Even as a band related project, his solo career would rank in 4th or 5th place.

I mean, it’s presented less as an outlier than his other projects - some of which I felt were fantastic:

Into the Wild - movie soundtrack is excuse as outlier, but otherwise an A album for me

Ukulele Songs - songs with predominantly only a ukulele and reads more like a compilation of sorts than a proper album, but solid B for me otherwise.

Flag Day - movie soundtrack with collaborators which is also a solid B outing overall for me.

Earthling - sounds like first full effort to be a solo album proper, though with a full backing band. TBD.

I think his output as a solo artist probably about even for me with Jeff Ament’s, but neither can top those two Stone Gossard albums that I love both. If we are including side bands, I would take Mad Season, RNDM and Painted Shield over Ed solo, but I am not sure about any others (unless you count Temple of the Dog which blows all of this away at least for me).

I agree with this to a point, but EV solo tracks just register with such little significance to me -- I feel like there have been so many of them over the past 10 years, and they've all just gone in one ear and out the other. We're all raking "The Haves" across the coals, but if I'm honest it doesn't really feel that much worse to me than most of what he's been peddling since 2012, and that includes EV-centric PJ songs like "Future Days" and "River Cross," as well as PJ-leaning EV songs like "Brother the Cloud." All of it is more or less the same to me; his writing style, his musical sensibilities, when given center stage, all equalize for me in roughly the same generally unremarkable space. Little things about each song that may seem especially egregious (i.e. comparing his partner to a siamese twin, Ghostbusters references, etc.) just register as momentary spikes on an otherwise flatlining monitor.

I still, and probably always will, listen to new PJ music with curious ears, and sometimes a "Buckle Up" or a "Take the Long Way" or a "Get It Back" still manages to surprise and delight me. If not, no big deal. But even with tempered expectations, I always look forward to seeing what they come up with.

FWIW, I think the EV song that I still find the most ludicrous is his rewrite of Phil Ochs's "Here's to the State of Mississippi." The ultra-literal, artless zenith of his "three chords and the truth" phase.

For me ITW is his best album, and a really great one on itself. Ukelele Songs...i prefer Uke songs. Those demos were cooler. But it was what it was, a nice experiment.

Flag Day feels more like a collaborative effort, and a nice one too.

I prefer Stone and Jeff solo albums. And as a side project its behind them and Temple Of The Dog, Mad Season, Brad and RNDM for sure.