Vs. (Pearl Jam album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other meanings, see VS.
| Vs. | ||
 |
||
| Studio album by Pearl Jam | ||
| Released | October 19, 1993 | |
| Recorded | March - May 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California and Potatohead Studio, Seattle, Washington | |
| Genre | Grunge | |
| Length | 46:17 | |
| Label | Epic | |
| Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pearl Jam chronology | ||
| Ten (1991) |
Vs. (1993) |
Vitalogy (1994) |
Vs. is Pearl Jam's second album, released on October 19, 1993 through Epic Records. The album received a Grammy nomination in 1995 for Best Rock Album. Several tracks from Vs. are still played on popular rock radio, a tribute to the record's significance in solidifying the band's artistic and commercial success. Vs. has since gone septuple (7x) platinum.
Contents |
[edit] First week sales
Vs. stayed at #1 for five weeks, selling over 950,000 copies in its first week on sale; this set the record for most albums sold in its first week of release. This record has since been broken by the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, but by then, the method of counting first-week sales had changed. When Pearl Jam set the record, first-week sales only counted the first five days the album was on sale. Soundscan changed from this method to counting all seven days that an album was first released some time in the late 1990s. While others have sold more than Pearl Jam have in the first week of release, Pearl Jam still holds the title for most albums sold in the first five days. Had Soundscan counted all seven days, the album would have sold more than 1,000,000 copies in its first week.
[edit] Overview
Vs. was the first Pearl Jam album to have production duties handled by producer Brendan O'Brien. The album features a much looser and rawer sound compared with their debut album Ten. Vs. included the hit songs "Daughter", "Dissident", "Go", and "Animal". "Daughter" reached the #1 spot on both the Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, spending a total of eight weeks on the latter. In 1995, "Daughter" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and "Go" was nominated the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance
The band made a conscious decision beginning with the release of Vs. to scale back their commercial efforts.[1] They declined to produce music videos after the massive success of "Jeremy" and opted to give fewer interviews as well as make fewer television appearances.
[edit] Etymology
The title Vs. is a nod to Mission of Burma, whose 1983 LP Vs. was greatly admired by Vedder. Originally, the album was titled Five Against One (In the song "Animal", Vedder sings "One, two, three, four, five against one..."), but was later changed at the last minute, first as a self-titled album and later as Vs., a nod to the album's general theme of conflict present in most of the songs.
[edit] Alternate versions
- The decision to change the album's name at the last minute resulted in a few different versions of the record:
- Some of the first pressings of the cassette still contained Five Against One printed on the cassette itself.
- The first couple of pressings of the CD and cassette do not contain the title printed on the artwork at all.
- The vinyl version has never had the title printed on it.
- There are also different versions that are unrelated to the title:
- The initial versions of the CD came in an Ecopak. While not rare, they went out of print quickly and are now hard to find. The song titles aren't printed on the back cover of this version, but the artwork remains the same.
- The picture of the "elderly woman" changed at some point after the first pressings. Allegedly, the original woman never gave permission for her picture to be used, so Pearl Jam changed the picture to another woman. The difference is easy to spot, as "the new and improved woman behind the counter" is printed below the picture.
- The cover art on the vinyl copies is different from the CD and cassette.
- The lyrics to "Indifference" are only printed in the cassette version.
[edit] Track listing
- "Go" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:12
- "Animal" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 2:49
- "Daughter" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:55
- "Glorified G" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:26
- "Dissident" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:35
- "W.M.A." (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 5:59
- "W.M.A." stands for "White Male American"
- "Blood" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 2:50
- "Rearviewmirror" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 4:44
- "Rats" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 4:15
- "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:15
- "Leash" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:09
- "Indifference" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 5:02
[edit] Sample clip
- "Daughter" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "Daughter" from Vs.
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Singles
- "Go" / "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in a Small Town" (Acoustic) / "Alone" (1993)
- "Animal" / "Animal" (Live) / "Jeremy" (Live) (1993)
- "Daughter" / "Blood" (Live) / "Yellow Ledbetter" (Live) (1993)
- "Dissident" / "Release" (Live) / "Rearviewmirror" (Live) / "Even Flow" (Live) / "Dissident" (Live) / "Why Go" (Live) / "Deep" (Live) (1994)
[edit] Album charts
| Album | Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
1993 | The Billboard 200 | No. 1 |
| 1993 | UK Albums Chart | No. 2 | |
| 1993 | German Albums Chart | No. 8 |
[edit] Singles charts
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | "Go" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 3 |
| 1993 | "Go" | US Modern Rock Tracks | No. 8 |
| 1993 | "Go" | Australian Singles Chart | No. 22 |
| 1993 | "Go" | German Singles Chart | No. 96 |
| 1993 | "Go" | UK Singles Chart | No. 190 |
| 1993 | "Daughter" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 1 |
| 1994 | "Daughter" | US Modern Rock Tracks | No. 1 |
| 1994 | "Daughter" | Irish Singles Chart | No. 4 |
| 1994 | "Daughter" | Australian Singles Chart | No. 18 |
| 1994 | "Daughter" | UK Singles Chart | No. 18 |
| 1994 | "Daughter" | US Top 40 Mainstream | No. 28 |
| 1994 | "Animal" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 21 |
| 1994 | "Animal" | Australian Singles Chart | No. 30 |
| 1994 | "Glorified G" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 39 |
| 1994 | "Dissident" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 3 |
| 1994 | "Dissident" | US Modern Rock Tracks | No. 3 |
| 1994 | "Dissident" | Irish Singles Chart | No. 7 |
| 1994 | "Dissident" | UK Singles Chart | No. 14 |
| 1994 | "Dissident" | German Singles Chart | No. 97 |
| 1994 | "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" | US Modern Rock Tracks | No. 17 |
| 1994 | "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | No. 21 |
| 1996 | "Daughter" | US The Billboard Hot 100 | No. 97 |
[edit] Certifications
| Organization | Level | Date |
|---|---|---|
| RIAA | Gold | January 6, 1994 |
| RIAA | Platinum | January 6, 1994 |
| RIAA | 5x Platinum | January 6, 1994 |
| RIAA | 6x Platinum | March 16, 1995 |
| RIAA | 7x Platinum | May 24, 2000 |
[edit] Credits
Pearl Jam:
- Dave Abbruzzese - Drums
- Jeff Ament - Bass
- Stone Gossard - Guitar
- Mike McCready - Lead guitar
- Eddie Vedder - Vocal
Additional Personnel:
- Produced by Brendan O'Brien and Pearl Jam
- Assisting - Nick DiDia, Kevin Scott, Adam Kasper
[edit] References
- ^ Ashare, Matt. "The Sweet Smell of (Moderate) Success". CMJ. July 2000.
