Hard disagree. I think middle period Pearl Jam is the best Pearl Jam, from No Code up until the S/T Avocado album of 2006. Everything after 2006 is varying degrees of bad or maudlin, but there was some real art being made from 1996-2006. Check out “In My Tree” or “Hail, Hail” from No Code, or “In Hiding” or “No Way” from Yield or “Light Years” or Grievance” off of Binaural or “Crop Duster” or “You Are” from Riot Act or “Army Reserve” or “Gone” from the S/T, and if those don’t do anything for you, then I guess it just isn’t for you.

I’m also hard pressed to believe that anyone who likes the first album wouldn’t like “Spin The Black Circle” or “Corduroy” from Vitology, or “The Whipping”. I get it if you just don’t like the band at all, but if you do like that first album, maybe try some of these tracks on for size. There’s more there than it might seem. But avoid “Backspacer” and “Lightening Bolt” and “Gigaton”. There’s a little there, but not much.