Vitalogy is the third studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 22, 1994, through Epic Records. Pearl Jam wrote and recorded Vitalogy while touring in support of their previous album Vs. (1993). Vitalogy is generally considered to be a departure for the band, incorporating a more diverse range of influences than prior releases; the album features a number of experimental tracks, subdued ballads and punk-influenced hard rock songs.
The album was first released on vinyl, followed by a release on CD and cassette two weeks later on December 6, 1994. The LP sold 34,000 copies in its first week of release, and until Jack White's 2014 album Lazaretto it held the record for most vinyl sales in one week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. Upon its CD release, Vitalogy became the second-fastest selling album in history, behind only the band's previous release Vs., selling 877,000 copies in its first week and quickly going multi-platinum. The album received critical acclaim and has been certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of at least five million copies in the United States. The album was included on Rolling Stones 2003 and 2012 "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" lists at number 485, but was dropped from the 2020 edition. It is Pearl Jam's second and last album to feature drummer Dave Abbruzzese, who was fired from the band before recording was finished. He was initially replaced by session drummers and later officially replaced by former Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Jack Irons, who completed the recording of the album.
Recording For the band's third album, Pearl Jam again worked with producer Brendan O'Brien. The band wrote many of the songs during soundchecks on its Vs. Tour, and the majority of the album's tracks were recorded during breaks on the tour. The first session took place late in 1993 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the band recorded "Tremor Christ" and "Nothingman". The rest of the material was written and recorded in 1994 in sessions in Seattle, Washington and Atlanta, Georgia, with the band finishing the album at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle after the tour's completion. "Immortality" was written in April 1994 when the band was on tour in Atlanta. Sources state that most of the album was completed by early 1994, but it was not released until November due to either a forced delay by Epic or the band's battle with ticket vendor Ticketmaster.
Tensions within the band had dramatically increased by the time they were working on Vitalogy. Producer Brendan O'Brien said: "Vitalogy was a little strained. I'm being polite—there was some imploding going on." Bassist Jeff Ament said that "communication was at an all-time low". Drummer Dave Abbruzzese stated that the communication problems started once guitarist Stone Gossard stopped acting as the band's mediator. According to Gossard, Vitalogy was the first album for which lead vocalist Eddie Vedder made the final decisions. At the time, Gossard thought of quitting the band. Gossard said the band was having trouble collaborating, so most of the songs were developed out of jam sessions. He added that "80 percent of the songs were written 20 minutes before they were recorded." During the production of Vitalogy, lead guitarist Mike McCready went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse.
Months after finishing the initial recording sessions for Vitalogy, Abbruzzese was fired in August 1994 due to personality conflicts with other band members. Gossard said: "It was the nature of how the politics worked in our band: It was up to me to say, 'Hey, we tried, it's not working; time to move on.' On a superficial level, it was a political struggle: For whatever reason, his ability to communicate with Ed and Jeff was very stifled. I certainly don't think it was all Dave Abbruzzese's fault that it was stifled." Jack Irons, the original drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Abbruzzese's successor, plays drums on "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me". Gossard said: "Jack entered the band right at the end of making Vitalogy. Jack's a breath of fresh air, a family man. Everybody had a strong sense of friendship with him immediately. He was just there to play drums and help out."
Music and lyrics
Overall, Vitalogy has been identified as a punk rock album by both critics and members of Pearl Jam, departing the grunge sound of the band's previous work. Despite this, some publications have labeled the album as grunge.
In a 1995 interview, Guitar World writer Jeff Gilbert described Vitalogy as "strange" and "very eclectic". McCready agreed, saying: "There is some weird stuff on there." McCready attributed the album's sound to the group recording it on tour. During this period Vedder began to contribute in a large capacity as a guitarist. Gossard said: "Vitalogy is the first one where Ed plays guitar and he wrote three to four songs. I remember thinking, 'This is so different. Is anyone going to like this?'...It had a more punk feel to it. Simple songs recorded really quickly." The album has a notable lack of guitar solos compared with the band's first two albums. McCready said: "Vitalogy is not really a 'solo' album. I don't think the songs demanded solos; it was more of a rhythmic album."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that "thanks to its stripped-down, lean production, Vitalogy stands as Pearl Jam's most original and uncompromising album." He added that "in between the straight rock numbers and the searching slow songs, Pearl Jam contribute their strangest music—the mantrafunk of 'Aye Davanita', the sub-Tom Waits accordion romp of 'Bugs', and the chilling sonic collage 'Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me'." "Bugs" features Vedder playing an accordion that he found at a thrift shop, while "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me" was created using looped recordings of real patients from a psychiatric hospital. Tim Coffman of WhatCulture considers Vitalogy to be a delve into art rock, commenting that the band "[threw] every outlandish idea into the mix."
Many of the songs on the album address the pressures of fame and dealing with the resulting loss of privacy. These include "Not for You", "Pry, To", "Corduroy", "Bugs", "Satan's Bed" and "Immortality". Vedder said: "I'm just totally vulnerable. I'm way too fucking soft for this whole business, this whole trip. I don't have any shell. There's a contradiction there, because that's probably why I can write songs that mean something to someone and express some of these things that other people can't necessarily express." The lyrics of "Not for You" express anger at the bureaucracy of the music industry and "how youth is being sold and exploited", while Vedder said "Corduroy" is about "one person's relationship with a million people." In "Pry, To" the phrase "P-r-i-v-a-c-y is priceless to me" is repeated. Many think that the lyrics of "Immortality" may be about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's suicide, although Vedder has denied this, suggesting instead that it is about "the pressures on someone who is on a parallel train." The lyrics that appeared in the first live version of "Immortality" were altered before the song was released as part of the album. Vedder said, regarding "Nothingman", that "if you love someone and they love you, don't fuck up...'cause you are left with less than nothing." "Better Man" is a song about an abusive relationship. Vedder wrote the song when he was in high school and performed it with his previous band, Bad Radio. Considered a "blatantly great pop song" by producer Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam was reluctant to record it and had initially rejected it from Vs. due to its accessibility.
Outtakes "Hard to Imagine", a song previously rejected from Vs.,Cohen, Jonathan. "Pearl Jam: Spreading The Jam". Billboard. March 30, 2001. was also recorded during the Vitalogy sessions. This version found its way on to the soundtrack for the 1998 film Chicago Cab. "Hard to Imagine" is also included on the 2003 rarities compilation Lost Dogs, though that version is the one from the Vs. sessions.(2003) Album notes for Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam, [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music. According to Gossard, "Hard to Imagine" was cut from Vitalogy because it did not fit with the other songs the band was writing at the time.Letkemann, Jessica. "Interview with Stone Gossard". Tickle My Nausea Pearl Jam Fanzine. 1998.
"Out of My Mind", which is featured as a B-side on the "Not for You" single, was premiered on the band's 1994 spring tour of the United States and was played twice."Pearl Jam Songs: "Out of My Mind"" . pearljam.com. According to Vedder, the song was just a live improv."2000 Concert Chronology part 3". fivehorizons.com.
Title and packaging The original title for the album was Life. The first single, "Spin the Black Circle", was released before the album was released, and on the back of the single it states: "From the Epic album Life".
The title Vitalogy, which literally means "the study of life", came from an early 20th-century medical book that Vedder found at a garage sale. This book was also the inspiration for the album's cover art and liner notes. Ament stated: "Ed brought in that book, and we said man that would make a great album cover." After explaining that, from Vs. onward, the band tried to take different approaches to packaging its records, he said: "We tried really hard, to make it like a book, kind of tipped it so it opened horizontally, which pissed off record stores: they had to put it in sideways." Packaging the album in this way cost an extra 50 cents per copy. When the band discovered that later versions of the medical book were still under copyright, they had to confer with their lawyers as they worked out which material they wanted to utilize in the final version of the artwork.
The booklet contains outdated discussions of health and well-being, as well as other notes, dealing with life and death reflections, which seem to be more personal, like a message typed on the "Immortality" page that seems to be referring to the loss of a loved one ("I waited all day. You waited all day...but you left before sunset...and I just wanted to tell you the moment was beautiful. Just wanted to dance to bad music...drive bad cars...watch bad TV...should have stayed for the sunset... if not for me."). It also includes some poems or original sayings that do not belong to the songs' lyrics, but can be interpreted as commentary on the songs or, again, as a reflection on how life should or should not be lived. An example is the poem typed on the "Aye Davanita" page. The song's subtitle is listed as "The song without words", as it is an instrumental track, but the page also displays a sort of poem about the wasted life of a young girl. Another episode of "intruder words" is on the "Not for You" page. After the second refrain, instead of the actual lyrics, the typed words give a hint about the Sisyphus myth ("Call me Sisyphus love. Yeh, I move the rock. I just don't want to talk about moving the rock. Get pictures taken of me while moving the rock. Anything that distracts me from moving the rock."). The lyrics to "Whipping" are written on a copy of a petition to Bill Clinton against "pro-life" killings of abortion doctors. An X-ray of Vedder's teeth was pictured instead of lyrics on the page for "Corduroy".
Release and reception