Their debut album, Ten, was a runaway success, they were MTV favorites, and ticket sales set off the kind of hysteria not seen in rock since the Beatles. Success happened so quickly the band faced an immediate backlash: Kurt Cobain labeled them “careerists” (true, but it’s not as though he ... 

 Vs. was a far better example of what Pearl Jam could do live, and by this second album the group was already consciously unplugging from the trappings of fame by refusing to make videos and starting to battle with Ticketmaster. As a result, riff-heavy songs like “Animal,” “Daughter,” and ... 

 On Vitalogy Pearl Jam hit their creative zenith, combining their driving brash sound with the kind of songwriting that keeps tunes on classic radio for decades. Vedder turns in vocal performances on “Better Man,” “Spin the Black Circle,” and “Not for You” that seem possessed, and the ... 

 In the midst of a war with Ticketmaster that forced the band to tour in unconventional, out-of-the-way venues, Pearl Jam in 1995 teamed with Neil Young and did service as his backing band on Mirror Ball. Although songwriting takes a backseat to spontaneous riffing, the results here are inspired a... 

 Both No Code in 1996 and Yield in 1998 may have let down fans who prefereed the straight-ahead rock of Ten, but they were crucial steps toward ensuring the band’s creative survival. Having pulled back on every level, the Pearl Jam of No Code looks to its influences (The Who, The Ramones, Led Ze... 

 In 1998, Pearl Jam released Live on Two Legs, their first live album. Although the band has traditionally been better in concert than on record, this tour highlighted tunes from Yield, which made it less essential than some of the fan-produced bootlegs from earlier tours. But it’s the first rec... 

 The experimentation of No Code out of its system, Pearl Jam works comfortably within a classic rock framework on Yield, ratcheting up the arena-sized choruses ("Given to Fly," "In Hiding," "Faithfull") alongside Fugazi-style post-hardcore ("Brain of J"), punky raveups ("Do the Evolution") and a l... 

 By the time they made Binaural, Pearl Jam were no longer enraged by its own celebrity, so they railed against the state of the world tracks like “Insignificance” (inspired by the WTO protests), “Rival” (the Columbine massacre) and "Grievance" (the loss of personal freedom). New producer T... 

 Made in the wake of a June 2000 tragedy at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, where nine fans were killed in a crowd surge during Pearl Jam's set, the band's last album with Epic crackles with energy but has the lowest ratio of hits to misses of its career. A sexy stomper which feeds its... 

 A long-awaited clearinghouse of rarities, Lost Dogs features key B-sides like "Yellow Ledbetter," "Footsteps" and "Hard to Imagine." It also spotlights plenty of tracks where the guiding principle is simply having fun in the studio ("Gremmie Out of Control," "Leaving Here"), plus the band's ... 

 With the bootleg program now a permanent fixture for every tour, Pearl Jam offered up a variety of other concert product in the 2000s. Live at Benaroya Hall, taped in front of a hometown crowd in 2003, finds songs both familiar and ultra-rare given the acoustic treatment, while Live at the Gorge ... 

 2004 contract-fulfilling Greatest Hits has everything a Pearl Jam beginner would ever need, but is notable only for remixed versions of three songs from Ten, foreshadowing the complete Brendan O’Brien-steered scrub job afforded the debut on a deluxe 2009 Ten boxed set.  

 Pearl Jam roared back to relevancy on its 2006 self-titled debut for J. Vedder returned to his storytelling roots, focusing on the intricacies of life in a post/9-11 world. "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted" were radio smashes. "Severed Hand" gets downright funky a la "Porch" from Ten, while ... 

 With the bootleg program now a permanent fixture for every tour, Pearl Jam offered up a variety of other concert product in the 2000s. Live at Benaroya Hall, taped in front of a hometown crowd in 2003, finds songs both familiar and ultra-rare given the acoustic treatment, while Live at the Gorge ... 

 Backspacer, self-released by the band with the help of Target in the U.S., is lean, mean and vital, and owes a surprising musical debt to new wave. The band’s oft-hidden sense of humor is at the forefront of tracks like the Devo-ish blast “Got Some,” “Johnny Guitar” and the almost joyou...