04.14.2008

PULSE RATING 8.5

EDDIE VEDDER

INTO THE WILD

by Karlo Jose R. Pineda

 


The night I popped Into the Wild in my player, the lights in my room turned out, the ensuing darkness enveloping the place grew cold, and suddenly, at the center, alit a campfire. From the scene emerged a background of dismal trees and faraway horizons. From the flame’s soft burning came the illumination of a familiar figure. There he was, Eddie Vedder. He was in a small group circling the campfire, gently strumming his guitar. He glanced at me and said with that deep voice of his: “Come sit here and join the circle.” I sat. He began singing. We were in the wild.

Into the Wild is the first solo album of Eddie Vedder. The album came to reality after Director Sean Penn requested him to provide the music for his film of the same title, which was based on the best-selling book of Jon Krakauer about the adventures of Christopher McCandless. According to the story, McCandless, a 22-year-old honor student and athlete, abandoned his family and possessions, gave away his $24, 000-savings, and hitchhiked to the Alaskan wilderness to “find himself” in the beauty and savagery of nature. He eventually died of starvation.

At the outset, it was tempting for me to watch the film first before reviewing Vedder’s recent opus. Perhaps to establish a stronger relation with the songs through their cinematic interpretations. But that exactly made me flinch from doing so. I thought it better to review Into the Wild (album) not as something to complement Into the Wild (film). After all, after spending a night—which consequently stretched to nights—by the campfire with all these faceless people and Eddie the Guitarman, I realized how the album can stand alone, even without picturesque movie excerpts. It wasn’t hard for me, too, to evoke my own vignettes of the excommunicated McCandless while adhering to Vedder’s album.

Which then brings me to the strongest point of this 11-tracker (12, including Guaranteed the Easter egg version, which features the guitar-accompanied humming of Vedder): its thematic mood that spreads out as infinite papyrus where Vedder’s simplified yet evocative verses come alive.

Wait. Maybe that is stronger than the strongest point: Vedder’s verses. King Jeremy the Wicked and the Man of the Hour (Big Fish OST) may not be in the current stories the Pearl Jam vocalist is crooning about, but the way he invites people to listen to him is just powerfully the same—vivid, novel, and magnetically compelling.

How telling the line “Burning back holes in dark memories” (Rise), pushful the line “On bended knee is no way to be free” (Guaranteed), and Hinduistic the line “Empty pockets will
allow a greater sense of wealth” (Far Behind). How arresting the lyric “This love has got no ceiling” (No Ceiling) upon looking up and beholding nothing but the clear sky. Truly, what we have here is a poet singing his poems more than a songwriter pursuing a poetic attempt.

And he did not stop there. If it be that the instrumental Tuolumne is named after a California river near where McCandless could have traveled, then I’d say that the piece is just as fluvial. Makes you want to close your eyes and imagine yourself for a while, a minute to be exact, kayaking on a sun-splashed river.

On the one hand, The Wolf, another instrumental, this time punctuated by wails from Vedder, which, according to All Music Guide’s Thom Jurek, is “where the well of Vedder’s power as a singer gets touched but never dug,” is the type that draws goose bumps all over.

The album’s musicality, meanwhile, misses out on some dynamics. We hear here acoustic guitars, banjos, a mandolin, and the like. Quite plain. But then such simplicity speaks of an audacious aural depth, engineered perhaps to present the music to be organic as nature. Nature drunk, as Vedder sings in the album’s opening track.

Apparently, Into the Wild is moving. Although it came in short. Literally.  Hard Sun, originally written by Gordon Peterson, may be running at the 5-minute mark, but most of the other folksy cuts progress for only a minute or two. Bitin as in the Tagalog lexicon. Had songs like Setting Forth (1:37), which has the catchy “Keeeeee-heeeheep/Setting forth in the universe,” been given a longer playing time, the audiences in Vedder’s first solo tour slated April 2008 might be able to sing along as stirringly as those which Vedder played Better Man on. Well, it’s Eddie Vedder so that can still happen.

But this I know can happen: after submitting to an Into the Wild song, already singing along, the song will leave you for silence. I can remember how, during our first campfire meeting, Eddie would peruse our circle after closing a song, waiting for somewhat a sign of approval from his crowd. We wouldn’t be able to react right away as we were kept hanging on the last chord he had struck, clueless and wanting for more.

But then maybe that’s just how it is. Like magic, Vedder’s songs appear and disappear in a poof!

The other night, Eddie confessed to us how surprisingly easy it was for him to penetrate the thoughts of Chris during his odyssey as he wrote his songs. I went up to him and said, “Can you penetrate mine right now?” He gave me a vacant stare, and instantly, there I was, back in the earthly order of my room with Eddie’s CD still running.

TAGS: eddie vedder into the wild

Share this Review!

I watched the movie after learning that Eddie Vedder wrote most (if not all) of the Movie Soundtracks. But since this is an Album review (I love the movie though), I have to say Society is my favorite on the list. I tried checking out the other tracks..and I still prefer the angry Vedder..but it just goes to show how versatile he is as a musician. Nice Album..makes you wanna live in a ranch or somethin':)

Posted By: Marcel on January 06, 2009 at 20:44

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