Ironically, by looking within the music opens up, as the group isn't fighting against the dying light but embracing how this most classicist of alt-rock bands is an anachronism in 2009. Despite this lighter spirit, Pearl Jam remain the antithesis of lighthearted good-time rock & roll - they're convinced rock & roll is a calling, not a diversion - but there's a tonal shift from the clenched anger that's marked their music of the new millennium, a transition from the global toward the personal. To a certain extent, the band has reached the point in its career where every move, every cranked amp, every short tough song is heralded as a return to form - call it the Stones syndrome - and so it is with Backspacer, whose meaty riffs have no less vigor than those of Pearl Jam they're just channeled into a brighter, cheerier package.

Pearl Jam made peace with their hard rock past on their eponymous eighth album, but its 2009 sequel, Backspacer, is where the group really gets back to basics, bringing in old cohort Brendan O'Brien to produce for the first time since 1998's Yield.

Cover songs by pearl jam