CD Review: Into the Wild by Eddie Vedder
Record Label: J Records
Release Date: September 18. 2007

Though we could have expected more from the almost-first solo album by Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder—more than a 33-minute Into the Wild movie soundtrack—the album does have a cohesiveness about it that may have only been met through divine intervention. Vedder is arguably the most recognized superstar of the grunge era, after Kurt Cobain, whose vocal style has become almost synonymous with the genre.
And he releases a motion picture soundtrack as his long-awaited solo attempt? Check it out.
An appraisal of a good soundtrack should consider how well it stands on its own without the movie. While the album sometimes lacks those certain defining characteristics that Vedder is glorified for, it does stand strong regardless if you see the movie. It stands strong even with a few wavering production decisions that consequently, causes it to fall a bit short of what listeners may have expected. Disappointing to some of Vedder’s really fervent fans, it does seem a bit overproduced in some areas like over-the-top instrumentation and commercial intent, as well as the disappointing lack in length.
All things considered, it is a major motion picture soundtrack, bound by major motion picture creative control. Which is why we could—and will—expect more of Vedder with his first real solo album that is hopefully in be the making.
Because a major motion picture was backing the project financially, there are major motion picture production guidelines, writers and unfamiliar accompanying musicians to deal with which may be frustrating and limiting for the artist.
But 33 minutes of mostly great music hammers 50 minutes of crap, which has become much too acceptable for many consumers these days.
“No Ceiling” is one of the best tracks on the album. It plucks banjos, acoustic guitar and mandolin, that lead you to “walk the hemisphere/ sure as I’m breathin’/sure as I’m sad.” Wandering around unnamed territory, it leads you to climb a mountain and, just as your eyes scan the expanse before you, the edge gives without warning. It ends, you wait, and nothing but the minute-long acoustic instrumental that follows ending the same way. Perhaps there’s wisdom in it to be found; the album photo for this song, Tuolumne, has an old Bronco driving on the train bound side of a railroad track along the Alaskan coast. They do what they want.
Vedder’s distinctively sexy tonality will be turning the ladies into sugar, no doubt. And the men? Expect to feel the same as you hear his deep cracking baritone that you’ve come to know so well with, if you’ve got any taste, your favorite high school grunge band.
Vedder wrote all but two songs, “Hard Sun” and “Society” which incidentally are the two most produced songs in that they lack the unchained Vedder quality that his listeners have come to know and trust. “Hard Sun” is supplemented by professional voices and has a very clear commercial appeal. Graced with the throbbing of echoing tribal drums and tribal voices, the song is sweating during a daring travel through African plains. It is hardly what one would imagine Vedder to record on his own. But knowing he did not write it, helps.
No song exceeds two and a half minutes, which consequentially torques up some serious disappointment among excited fans. Consider this a warning for Vedder aficionados; you’ll be swept off your feet into the tightly woven textures of some of these tracks, like the striking 12-string guitar on “Setting Forth”, the ethereal electric guitar on “Long Nights”. Expect to be left suspended from time to time, hurting even, because a great song will drop off, while it could really stand at least two or three more verses.
Lyrically contemplative, Vedder’s songs contain short, sound lyrics in response to dreams of freedom and wandering away from society’s consumption with everything and nothing, particularly in the song, “Society”. “I think I need to find a bigger place/ Cause when you have/ More than you think/ You need more space.” In “No Ceiling”, his journey responds to returning home with a promise: “to keep this wisdom in my flesh.” These songs don’t just sit on your skin, they saturate.
The last song on the album “Guaranteed” sounds like a bedtime lullaby for his baby girl, soft, whimsical and dreaming: “If ever there was someone to keep me at home/it would be you.” Explaining his rambling and his intentions, it’s “wind in my hair I feel part of everywhere.” He ends, “Leave it to me to find a way to be.” If you’re the emotional type, the song alone could nudge some tears, as it seems to have a common nostalgia about it for anyone who is or has known someone with a spirit so free, itching to breathe outside unfeeling city lights.
We could expect this to be an action packed movie without lengthy musical punches, full of watershed realizations and the grasping of one’s inner wisdom. With weeping electric guitar, bouts of piano keys and pump organ, a kick drum keeping time with a consistent and sure heart beat while solid bass lines hold the bottom down, this album really does leave us wanting more.
Because it’s so honest. Not a Pearl Jam rock anthem, though political and charming just the same. Bound with basic human insight, it penetrating race, creed, home, no matter. It is a departure from Vedder’s usual arena energy, which by no means denotes an end for Pearl Jam. In fact Vedder is the last of his band mates to record a solo album. Pearl Jam is however, on brief hiatus as two of his band mates care for their newborn daughters. In response to the circumstances Vedder has hit on an exciting possibility to the L.A. Times, he says he is “mulling the possibility of playing a few shows on his own, preferably at venues more intimate than the band’s usual arenas.”
anna webber