Into The Wild Merrill WI

Into The Wild

Eddie Vedder

J Records, 2007

http://www.pearljam.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/22/2008

It took Eddie Vedder 16 years to release a solo record, and the resulting disc is just what longtime Pearl Jam fans would expect -- subtle, reflective and somewhat experimental, reflecting everything the band has done since No Code in 1996. The downside is that the subtlety translates into half-finished ideas and a half-hour running time that barely justifies the cost of the disc.

Granted, Pearl Jam fans will eat this up, so Vedder has nothing to worry about commercially, although that's been the least of his concerns since the mid-90s. And those who have not heard of Vedder got some exposure to him in mid-January at the Golden Globes, where the singer won an award for "Guaranteed," the final track on the Into The Wild soundtrack.

It's rare that such a low-key song would garner such a gaudy award, but Vedder deserves it, as the reflective lyrics and his sonorous voice mesh well with the picked guitar. "Wind in my hair, I feel part of everywhere / Underneath my being is a road that disappeared / Late at night I hear the trees, they're singing with the dead / Overhead," he sings, and one can feel the narrator's solitude.

The movie Into The Wild tells the story of a suburban kid who gave away his money and wandered into the Alaskan wilderness; Sean Penn is behind the film, which explains why Vedder is involved, as the two are in line politically and have been spotted together at various events. Vedder's lyrics center around the theme of leaving behind what one knows to find what is important, to find one's soul.