Pearl Jam to Reissue Four Different Versions of Ten

Not gonna lie: Pearl Jam's Ten was a very influential record for me. I believe it arrived at my house in the same Columbia House shipment as Nirvana's Nevermind, R.E.M.'s Out of Time and Eponymous, an Andrew Lloyd Webber collection and Genesis' We Can't Dance. (Hi, 1993, what's up?) So I was not-so-secretly geeked when I received an email about the reissues of the album, which are due March 24. Pitchfork sums up the editions best, but in a nutshell the basic reissue contains Ten remastered, with a bonus disc featuring a remastered/Brendan O'Brien-remixed Ten and six extra songs, including the monster "State of Love and Trust." (Check out this amazing 1991 uber-grunge video of the song below; click here for the song in Singles, during a scene translated into Spanish on YouTube.)



The extra-super-special-deluxe edition, however, is the one worth mentioning...

...mainly because it pretty much includes everything but Eddie Vedder's home phone number. From the email I received:

Super Deluxe Edition (2-disc set plus DVD, 4 LPs and replica cassette in linen-covered, slip-cased clamshell box):

·            Disc 1: original Ten tracklisting digitally remastered (original mix)

·            Disc 2: original Ten tracklisting digitally remastered and remixed by Brendan O'Brien, plus six bonus tracks: "Brother," "Just a Girl," "State of Love and Trust," "Breath and a Scream," "2,000 Mile Blues" and "Evil Little Goat"

·            DVD of Pearl Jam's previously unreleased 1992 MTV Unplugged performance including never before seen bonus performance of "Oceans" with 5.1 surround sound audio remix

·            LP 1: original Ten tracklisting remastered for vinyl

·            LP 2: original Ten tracklisting remastered for vinyl and remixed by Brendan O'Brien

·            LP 3 & 4: Drop in the Park - Live at Magnuson Park in Seattle on September 20, 1992 (audio mixed by Brendan O'Brien)

·            Cassette: replica of original "Momma-Son" Pearl Jam demo cassette featuring "Alive," "Once" and "Footsteps"

·            Package also includes an Eddie Vedder-style composition notebook filled with replica personal notes, images and mementos from the collections of Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament, a vellum envelope with replicated era-specific ephemera from Pearl Jam's early work and a two-sided print commemorating the Drop in the Park concert.

Funny that there's no mention of price for this last item. Any guesses? Either way, Pearl Jam -- along with Radiohead, Dave Matthews Band and very few others -- is a band that's maintained its integrity and cred even after reaching arena-level status. I mean, really, you can say that you're a Pearl Jam fan, and there's absolutely no shame, distaste or guilty pleasure involved. I saw 'em at Lollapalooza last year, and they sounded amazing -- whether they drew from early albums or played newer songs.

Pearl Jam, "Porch," live in 1992:

-- Annie Zaleski