Learned this afternoon that Pearl Jam’s debut album TEN broke the 10 million record plateau… rarefied air seeing how a handful of artists/albums have done this in the past 25 years.
TEN is possibly one of the oldest CD’s I have in my personal music collection. I purchased it originally on cassette and replaced it with a CD 10 or so months after stressing my cassette copy from too many listens.
I’ve never quite been able to figure out what drew me to the record… It’s not my favorite PJ album, that distinction goes to NO CODE.
There’s a number of songs on the album I could go without ever hearing again like “Jeremy” and “Alive”.
I’m also torn over liking/disliking the production of the record as a whole. These feelings are only punctuated by members of the band also going on record as saying that they disliked the final mixes of the album.
Still… all it takes for me to rekindle my appreciation for the record is to listen to the song “Black” in a dimly lit room/by myself to appreciate the record as a whole and the band for disallowing it to become a single.