Ukelele Songs (Eddie Vedder)
Reviewed by: BucketofJustice
Reviewed on: 30-May-2011
- Summary
- Whether you're a diehard Eddie Vedder fan or not... avoid...
- Ratings
- Overall: D+
- Pros
- Short
- A couple of good songs
- Cons
- The rest is filler
- The second good song PJ fans have heard before
- Most songs fall flat if they're just plain not bad
- The lone cover song is a terrible cover
- Into the Wild soundtrack is much better
- No discernable Neil Young influence
- Links
- Buy it on Amazon (if you must)
- Images
Description
"Ukelele Songs" by Eddie Vedder is his second solo album, after the Into the Wild Soundtrack. That soundtrack was a great soundtrack, as Vedder collaborated with producer Adam Kasper, who has also produced the Foo Fighters, Vedder's own band Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and produced the Nirvana song "You Know You're Right". Sean Penn hand-picked Vedder to write most of the score for Into the Wild, which was a very good or even great solo album.
"Ukelele Songs", however, is NOT an "excellent" album... or even a "very good" album. It's not even "good". "Fair" would be about the best I could give this solo Vedder album. This album, literally, is Eddie Vedder and a ukelele on 15 out of 16 songs, and the other remaining song has a female backup vocalist. This is as basic an album as it gets, and that will most likely be the best thing about it. That, and its' brevity.
The album starts with a song I've heard countless times on Pearl Jam live shows and bootlegs, "Can't Keep". This song and "Longing to Belong", the first single from the album, are the two only noteworthy songs on this entire record. The rest of this album is filler at best, and not even good filler. Good thing the album is short, clocking in at under 36 minutes for 16 songs.
The longest song on this entire record is "You're True", clocking in at an impressive 3:23. The shortest "song", "Hey Fahkah" (sounds exactly how you think it does) is a whopping 0:09. Six tracks on this record clock in under 2 minutes, and most of them hover around 2:15 to 2:45. There is a cover of "Dream a Little Dream of Me", written by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, with Gus Kahn supplying the lyrics. This song has been covered by many groups over time, including the Nat King Cole trio, Dean Martin, Kate Smith, Bing Crosby and most notably The Mamas and the Papas. Eddie's version does not measure up to any of these.
The one thing that truly sticks out here is Eddie Vedder's complete disregard for anything... good, for lack of a better word. A man and his ukelele can be a great thing, or it can be... this. With the Into the Wild soundtrack and later a few songs on Pearl Jam's very good "Backspacer", you can hear Neil Young's influence on Vedder's songs and the way he sang them. With "Ukelele Songs", you hear none of that. It's almost like the lead singer of Pearl Jam went from "Ten" to this, and failed miserably. There's also thought that Vedder thinks he had to do this.
All in all, this album can't be recommended at all. It's worth a listen to diehard Eddie Vedder fans, which in full disclosure I am... but this isn't a very good release at all. If you want to hear a good solo Eddie album, check out Into the Wild soundtrack and "Just Breathe" on the Pearl Jam album "Backspacer". Also, there's a hope amongst the Pearl Jam camp that the next traditional album will be out sometime this year (2011), so there's at least something to look forward to from Eddie Vedder, because this isn't it.
Avoid "Ukelele Songs".
"Ukelele Songs", however, is NOT an "excellent" album... or even a "very good" album. It's not even "good". "Fair" would be about the best I could give this solo Vedder album. This album, literally, is Eddie Vedder and a ukelele on 15 out of 16 songs, and the other remaining song has a female backup vocalist. This is as basic an album as it gets, and that will most likely be the best thing about it. That, and its' brevity.
The album starts with a song I've heard countless times on Pearl Jam live shows and bootlegs, "Can't Keep". This song and "Longing to Belong", the first single from the album, are the two only noteworthy songs on this entire record. The rest of this album is filler at best, and not even good filler. Good thing the album is short, clocking in at under 36 minutes for 16 songs.
The longest song on this entire record is "You're True", clocking in at an impressive 3:23. The shortest "song", "Hey Fahkah" (sounds exactly how you think it does) is a whopping 0:09. Six tracks on this record clock in under 2 minutes, and most of them hover around 2:15 to 2:45. There is a cover of "Dream a Little Dream of Me", written by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, with Gus Kahn supplying the lyrics. This song has been covered by many groups over time, including the Nat King Cole trio, Dean Martin, Kate Smith, Bing Crosby and most notably The Mamas and the Papas. Eddie's version does not measure up to any of these.
The one thing that truly sticks out here is Eddie Vedder's complete disregard for anything... good, for lack of a better word. A man and his ukelele can be a great thing, or it can be... this. With the Into the Wild soundtrack and later a few songs on Pearl Jam's very good "Backspacer", you can hear Neil Young's influence on Vedder's songs and the way he sang them. With "Ukelele Songs", you hear none of that. It's almost like the lead singer of Pearl Jam went from "Ten" to this, and failed miserably. There's also thought that Vedder thinks he had to do this.
All in all, this album can't be recommended at all. It's worth a listen to diehard Eddie Vedder fans, which in full disclosure I am... but this isn't a very good release at all. If you want to hear a good solo Eddie album, check out Into the Wild soundtrack and "Just Breathe" on the Pearl Jam album "Backspacer". Also, there's a hope amongst the Pearl Jam camp that the next traditional album will be out sometime this year (2011), so there's at least something to look forward to from Eddie Vedder, because this isn't it.
Avoid "Ukelele Songs".