I can’t put it better than this: The last two Pearl Jam albums have sucked and sucked big-time. They sucked so bad that it almost made me lose all faith in the band, and never even want to see them live again.

But something unexpected happened to change my mind: They put out something quite listenable. On their eighth album (and first away from Sony Music), Pearl Jam re-creates some of the fire that made the band one of the most recognizable of the 90’s, without sounding like a desperate attempt to recapture their glory days.

Starting with the poignant politically charged Life Wasted, Eddie Vedder sounds awake for the first time in eight or nine years. The album was more than likely influenced by their jaunt around the country on the Vote For Change tour, with most of the material going against the current political administration.

Vedder, along with guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready (who also have apparently woken from a long slumber as well) bring catchy guitar licks to tracks like the first single World Wide Suicide, as well as the punkish-sounding Comatose. The latter track almost sounds like a sequel to the 1994 tune Spin The Black Circle. The album trades off rockers, with more quiet and somber material that dominated the last two albums.

The more somber material is where Pearl Jam starts to falter a little. Life Wasted and Army Reserve stay political, but the message becomes lost through almost unbearable song structure.

But even with the slower tracks, Pearl Jam comes off as the best thing from the band since 1998’s Yield. It may not challenge the furious and defiant nature of their first two stellar albums, nor may it make me want to wear flannel again, but Pearl Jam will at least get people interested to hear this once great band again.

GRADE: B