New Reviews: Pearl Jam's Ecstatic Career Retrospective

'Pearl Jam Twenty'

Courtesy of Monkeywrench Records

In this week's slate of Rolling Stone reviews, Andy Greene says the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's new documentary Pearl Jam Twenty includes some of the most stunning moments from the career-spanning film, including a euphoric arena sing-along of "Better Man" and a triumphant cover of Mother Love Bone's "Crown of Thorns." Also, Will Hermes praises the debut album by Mick Jagger's new supergroup SuperHeavy, Monica Herrera pans the third record by Disney star Demi Lovato and Caryn Ganz writes that Mary J. Blige's new single, "25/8," is "goopy stuff" but "more neck-poppin' fun than Beyoncé's '1+1.'"

ALBUMS

Pearl Jam - Twenty (Soundtrack) (stream entire album)

SuperHeavy - SuperHeavy (stream one song)

Tony Bennett - Duets II (stream one song)

Demi Lovato - Unbroken (stream one song)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical (stream one song)

Big K.R.I.T. - Last King 2 (God's Machine) (stream one song)

Gavin DeGraw - Sweeter (stream one song)

Dave Stewart - The Blackbird Diaries (stream one song)

SONGS

Noel Gallagher - "AKA…What A Life!" (stream)

Blink-182 - "After Midnight" (stream)

Mary J. Blige - "25/8" (stream)

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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