{"id":829097,"date":"2026-08-28T21:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/829097\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:56:13","slug":"every-song-on-pearl-jams-ten-ranked-from-worst-to-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/829097\/","title":{"rendered":"Every song on Pearl Jam’s Ten ranked from worst to best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rewind 35 years to 1991, the high-water mark of grunge. In a provincial outpost of Our Price, something makes me reach past the album featuring the baby\u2019s tadger<\/a> to the purple one with the human maypole. As it turns out, a good choice. <\/p>\n

I loved Ten back then, and a quarter-century later, that righteous anger and jaw-breaking riffage holds a magic that Pearl Jam<\/a> have never quite matched. I could be happily marooned with any one of these 11 songs, but if you\u2019re putting a gun to my head, here\u2019s how they stack up for me.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Classic\n<\/p>\n

11. Deep<\/p>\n

I put up with Deep back in the day, mostly because I couldn\u2019t afford a Discman, and my Walkman\u2019s fast-forward button usually chewed the tape. In the iPod era, though, my knee-jerk response to that fruity opening flourish is to move along. The stalking, wah-drenched groove and pummelling beat is decent enough, but on an album of such riches, \u2018decent\u2019 brings up the rear.<\/p>\n

10. Porch<\/p>\n

It was a live highlight, of course, with Eddie Vedder using the instrumental break to straddle the gantry, swan-dive into the crowd and generally give Pearl Jam\u2019s tour management the cold sweats. On the album, though, I\u2019ve mostly sucked the juice out of this two-chord thrasher.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

9. Garden<\/p>\n

That eerie intro riff was required learning for the bedroom guitarists of the nineties, and the way the bass slopes in beneath Vedder\u2019s shamanic moan is a moment of malevolent genius. But by the time Garden wraps up, I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

8. Release<\/p>\n

In a flash of rehearsal-room serendipity, Ten\u2019s slow-burn finale was born when Vedder improvised his vocal over Stone Gossard\u2019s shimmering riff. It\u2019s the perfect sun-setter on Ten\u2019s tempestuous tracklisting, but, honestly, I could have done without the Master\/Slave instrumental reprise tacked on the end.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

7. Why Go<\/p>\n

Sandwiched between big-hitters Alive and Black, Why Go was kinda overlooked at the time, and that\u2019s probably why its furiosity still sounds so fresh. Vedder\u2019s spitting-mad vocal was sparked by a news story about a teenager sectioned for minor drugs offences, but it\u2019s Jeff Ament who deserves the backslaps, for both writing and driving the song on twelve-string bass.<\/p>\n

6. Oceans<\/p>\n

A musicologist might argue there isn\u2019t much meat on this two-minute vignette (even Gossard admits \u201cit\u2019s just two fingers that come on and off to create the whole thing\u201d). Still, for me, Oceans is a work of strange, glowering beauty, and gave Ten\u2019s first indication that Pearl Jam could shift gears. \u201cWe thought it was important to pick the weirder moments,\u201d noted Ament, \u201cbecause we wanted to be able to explore those areas further down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam – Oceans (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Pearl<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a>
\n5. Alive<\/p>\n

What\u2019s that you say? Alive should be in pole position, and I\u2019m a towering arsehole with shit for ears? Well, maybe. The trouble is, I\u2019ve heard Pearl Jam\u2019s signature tune too many times now: that riff has been blunted by ubiquity, to the point where it\u2019s practically the alt-rock Layla. But if I imagine myself unjaded, hearing it for the first time, then, yes, Alive is obviously a stone-cold classic, from Gossard\u2019s stadium-ready intro lick to Mike McCready\u2019s spring-heeled solo (which he admits, incidentally, that he stole from KISS\u2019s She).<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam – Alive (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Pearl<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a>
\n4. Even Flow<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam themselves seem to have a problem with Even Flow, generally agreeing that they flogged the spark out the original demo with too many takes (\u201cNot sure why we didn\u2019t use that one,\u201d said original drummer Dave Krusen, \u201cbut I know it felt better\u201d). For everyone else, the version that made it onto Ten was a belter, driven by that muscular-yet-snake-hipped riff, and managing to sing about homelessness without getting up your nose.<\/p>\n

3. Jeremy<\/p>\n

When Texas teenager Jeremy Wade Delle shot himself in front of his classmates on January 8th, 1991, the seed was planted for what remains arguably Vedder\u2019s most powerful lyric. The blood-spattered MTV video was sensationalist, but the song is deathless, from Ament\u2019s opening chimed harmonics to the bereft outro. Strange to think that Jeremy almost didn\u2019t make the cut for Ten, the band struggling to balance the dynamics. \u201cBut this was an instance,\u201d remembered Ament, \u201cwhen persistence paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Black<\/p>\n

Epic apparently badgered the band to release Black as the fourth single from Ten, but the lineup dug in their heels, helping the song to its enduring fan-favourite status. It\u2019s a bit of an odd one, Black, alternating between rock\u2019s most jaunty verse and most gut-wrenching chorus, but when Vedder delivers the devastating pay-off \u2013 \u201cI know you\u2019ll be a star in somebody else\u2019s sky, but why can\u2019t it be mine?\u201d \u2013 you\u2019ll feel a cold shiver of recognition. Stunning.<\/p>\n

1. Once<\/p>\n

During the false start of the Master\/Slave instrumental \u2013 which burbles away pointlessly for the opening forty seconds of Ten \u2013 it was only natural to start fishing for your receipt. Then a key turns in the ignition and Ten\u2019s whip-crack opening salvo leaves the blocks, Vedder in character as a vengeful maniac with pedal to the floor and \u201csixteen-gauge buried under my clothes\u201d. A song to make your neck bristle and your fists bunch, it announced Pearl Jam as a band to treasure, right out of the blocks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam – How Death Brought Ten To Life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rewind 35 years to 1991, the high-water mark of grunge. In a provincial outpost of Our Price, something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-829097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}