Pearl Jam – Ten

Just an ok pressing for an otherwise stellar debut album. I need to invest in a later pressing of this one. This is an album that is best heard loudly. You have to practically turn the volume all the way up on this one just to hear it at a level to your liking.

This pressing of this classic debut from Seattle grunge heroes Pearl Jam sounds exactly like what it is. A 12" vinyl pressing with too many songs per side. So it sounds like garbage, you could say. However, the good news is all the good songs you'll want to listen to are on Side A. So once it finishes, you can just put it away. Notable lyrical collossals are "Black" and of course, "Jeremy"-- song about a student who walks up in front of class and blows his brains out, although it never actually says that. Eddie Vedder was a real misfit, who fit in nowhere and happened to write poetry, much like Jim Morrison. He is the modern-day Morrison, and sometimes he may get equally annoying in real life. As a matter of fact, Eddie Vedder & Jim Morrison are one and the same. Neither one exists separately.

It’s a ‘meh’ sounding pressing, but on can’t expect audiophile-level listening for ~$20. It’ll do.

I can’t seem to find the right version of my copy but this one is as close as I can get. The matrix runoff reflects the barcode number with either -1-A or -1-B on each side, and it has NRP etched into it. Jeremy also does not cut off early. Otherwise, all of the artwork matches this release, and the sound is great, so I have no clue. Might be a totally new release but can’t tell.

Not as bad as most comments below made it seem.

Got it for 15 on AMZN so im not that upset but I definitely wouldn't pay over 20 for this pressing for the reasons stated below .....

I bought it at Walmart along with Green Day's "Dookie". I opened up my Pearl Jam record & I found that both sides has the side 1 label. I'd may have bought a mispress or something.

Found my copy at Wal Mart today. It sounds fantastic. And for 20 bucks? Hell yeah. Yes, it does have some surface noise but I didn't notice it being super quiet. Of course the first thing I did was grab a cold beer and crank it up regardless so who knows. I also run mine through a 10-band EQ so maybe that helps with the volume on my end. Either way, it's a record, not an MP3. It's hilarious to me that a *grunge* album has a bunch of people critiquing wanting absolute perfection. I didn't seem to care in the 90's listening to it on the radio where it definitely wasn't audiophile quality. Or on cassette tape for that matter. Lol. Sorry for the rambling. To each their own I suppose. 🤘

I have a copy that is mispressed. The entire side b is some Belgian hip hop (I used Shazam to figure out what I was hearing). Does anybody have any info on the mispress I have? Suggestions on what I should do with it?

Just picked this up for $15 on AMZ. Based on the first two tracks, it is indeed a bit quiet but it also sounds out of phase and poorly mixed to me. Vocals and kick drum are ok while the rest of the band is pushed back. Not very enjoyable to listen to. Feels like a recording from the 80s, and for a $15 record of a band's first album circa 1991, I guess that's okay. For an album I rocked out to all through high school, this record sucks all the life out of the room and is wholly unfamiliar to me.

Edit: uh... wow. Side two is FAR better 🤘. wtf.