May 16th, 2000, Pearl Jam releases their 6th studio Album, Binaural.  At a time when 'grunge' was fading (or breaking up) and pop music was at it's worst, I feel that this under-rated album was a breath of fresh air.  While this was their first album to not go platinum, it's still a true rock and roll album.  Despite the bands personal problems, the quality of the songs is still there.  Binaural is dark and different from it's other albums.  But it is still distinctly Pearl Jam.

• The Name & the Art

The album was named after the binaural recording technique, which basically stuffed two microphones inside the ears of a mannequin to create a 3D stereophonic sound.  It was meant to replicate the sensation of actually being in the room where they played.   Binaural literally means "having or relating to two ears." There are some tracks on the album (Nothing As It Seems) that just have to be listened to on headphones to appreciate the technology. 
The cover art is a modified Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planetary nebula MyCn18, known as the Hourglass Nebula with permission from NASA.  The album art being a perfect reflection of the music within, the Binaural art features images of elemental reactions in outer space. Jeff Ament was quoted as saying:

The reason that we went with Tchad [producer] is because he provides an amazing atmosphere to songs....So, I think we wanted the artwork to represent that....One of the themes that we've been exploring...is just realizing that in the big scheme of things, even the music that we make when we come together, no matter how powerful it is, it's still pretty minuscule. I think for me the whole space theme has a lot to do with scale. You know, you look at some of those pictures, and there are thirteen light years in four inches in that picture

• The Recording

Coming off their 5th Album (Yield) Pearl Jam was in a funk and wanted to try 'something new'.  So they found producer Tchad Blake (who was well known for his binaural recording technique) to create different moods for the tracks.  The outcome was a 'muddy' production that often felt bogged down and muffled.  
This was one of the more difficult albums the band recorded.  For the first time, Vedder struggled to come up with lyrics to the songs noting 'writers block'.  This was actually the inspiration for a hidden track (Writers Block) that starts almost 7 minutes after the final track on the album.  Eddie insisted on not playing anymore music until he could come up with lyrics.  But soon picked up a ukulele and thought, that's not a guitar and wrote the song 'Soon Forget' using that as his main instrument. A song about 'rich fucks'.

“Sorry is the fool who trades his soul for a Corvette / Thinks he’ll get the girl, he’ll only get the mechanic.”

Adding to the chaos of recording the album was guitarist Mike McCready having to check into rehab for treatment of his addiction to prescription drugs.  If you didn't know, Mike was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at the age of 21 and was taking medications to cope with the pain.  You can read more about Mike's story here.

• 5th Times a Charm - Enter Matt Cameron

Almost a year after Soundgarden's break-up, in summer 1998, Matt Cameron was invited by Pearl Jam to drum on its Yield Tour after the band's drummer Jack Irons left due to the touring scheduling conflicting with his health issues and a desire to spend more time with his family.  Cameron learned over 80 songs in two weeks prior to the Yield tour.  Although the move was meant to be temporary, the band invited him to be a full-time member.

The guys made me feel real welcome and it wasn't a struggle to get it musically, but my style was a little bit different, I think, than what they were used to. And they've been through so many different drummers, I don't even know if they knew what they wanted. So, I just kind of played the way I played and then eventually we kind of figured out what worked best for the band

Cameron not only played drums for this album, he also wrote the song 'Evacuation'.  Cameron would go on to be the longest tenured drummer with the band, and is still with them to this day.

• The Tracks

Bassist Jeff Ament wrote lyrics for two songs on the album ("Gods' Dice" and "Nothing as It Seems"), and Gossard for three ("Thin Air," "Of the Girl" and "Rival").

The lead song of the album, 'Breakerfall' is a fast-paced punkish song that was never a single.  But it has become a fan favorite of the live shows because of the energy it delivers.  Had it been on another album, would it be better known?

One of the two singles on the album was ''Light Years'' - a grief-filled tune.  

With "Light Years", Mike McCready had written some music. We were excited about it for a while, but when we got down to recording it, it was too nice, too right there—it was a little too close to "Given to Fly". We changed the tempos, and then one night Mike and I, after working on it all day and getting frustrated, just flipped it backwards, and in about 35 minutes it became "Light Years", with words and everything. It still has a fairly contagious chorus and melody, but it's just sideways enough to make me happy.

Vedder dedicated the song to Diane Muus (Sony) a friend of the band that passed at the age of 33.  He said:

there are "times you have got friends that don't fuck up at all and are great people. And then you just lose them for some reason. They are off the planet and you never had a chance to say goodbye. I only mention this because there was a person we used to know here and that was Diane and ah, we never got a chance to say goodbye. This is goodbye. And if you've got good friends, love them while they're here."

After "Light Years" comes the meat of the album.  An emotional stretch of songs that are quintessential Pearl Jam.  And it starts with "Nothing as It Seems", written by Ament, who plays upright bass on the song and McCready uses a Fender Pedal to provide distortion.  He said the song was about growing up in rural Montana and not understanding what is going on with other people. 

From Jeff about the track:

It was just a little ditty on a demo that I kind of played some hand drums on, and had this little song. Actually, I spent quite a bit of time with the lyrics, and I think Stone initially said, 'Let's try that one.' There were little sections of the song [where] I definitely heard Mike doing his thing, so I kinda said, 'Hey, man, you need to write a theme for these little sections.' It's pretty cool to see a little song that I wrote being played by everyone. I mean, I can almost kind of stand back and just watch this great band play a song...and take it to a completely different level. Mike and Ed [Vedder], they have that ability where they can really raise the level of anything that they play.[3]

After the 'trip' you take with "Light Years" you return to reality with a country inspired chill-like jam with "Thin Air'', written by Gossard, who had this to say about the band and his contributions:

You don't know what it's like to be in a band with a singer that's open to looking at somebody else's songs and saying there's value in that. That's what gives life to this band, and what will sustain it, the idea that if everybody just writes two to three good songs a year. And usually it's the ones you don't even think that anyone will respond to that everyone responds to.

Rounding out the middle is one of the true highlights of the album, "Of the Girl" also written by Gossard.  While it's vague, the lyrics suggest the song is about heartbreak of a girl from the past. 

• The Reception

With only 2 singles released and the bands first album not to go Platinum, one would think this wasn't a successful release.  But it received favorable reviews and marked the bands return to rock and away from experimentation.  In a time where 'grunge' was dying, Pearl Jam proved it will power on.  Regarding Binaural, Ament stated that:

"we look back and think we didn't put some of the best songs on it", adding that "I think there are some beautiful things that came out of it, but we're never going to remember that record as one of the greats."

• The Bad & The Good

PJ went on to promote the album with tours in Europe and North America.  As some of you may know, the European leg ended in tragedy.  The Roskilde Festival in Denmark lead to nine fans being crushed to death as the crowd pushed forward.  Something the band, to this day, still can't forget.  The outcome was self reflection and the inspiration for Ed writing the song "I Am Mine"

The Binaural Tour was also the birthplace of the series of official bootlegs the band would release.  72 live albums were sold in 2000-2001, which also set a record for most albums to debut at the same time.  There are also those who believe that the live recordings were what slowed the sale of the Binaural album.  This may just be my biased opinion, but you're truly missing out if you don't give Binaural more than a few listens. It's some of their best stuff, and you'll never hear it other than live or in your headphones. It's really a solid piece of work.