Unpopular Opinion: Why Pearl Jam ‘Vs.’ Is Better Than ‘Ten’

Pearl Jam’s Vs. is a better album than Ten. There, I said it!

I know it’s not the popular opinion. Many publications out there will list Pearl Jam’s Ten album as one of the quintessential albums of the ‘90s grunge era. And I’m not here to dissuade you from the idea that it’s not an iconic album. There’s a reason it is held in such high regard and it was a key record at a key time in pushing grunge to the masses.

But I am here to tell you that it’s not the band’s best album. That honor should go to their sophomore set, Vs.

It’s something I’ve argued for over the years within Loudwire’s features (often losing that vote as you’ll see in some of our rankings), but it’s something that, as a longtime Pearl Jam fan, I firmly believe to be true.

I will take Pearl Jam’s Vs. album over Ten any day and here’s five reasons why that is the case.

It’s REALLY the First Pearl Jam Album

Yes, I know what you’ll say. Ten is Pearl Jam’s first album.

But is it really?

Most know the story of Pearl Jam’s pre-fame band Mother Love Bone. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard played with the group who seemed destined to be the breakout band from the Seattle scene before Andrew Wood‘s death from a drug overdose.

In the aftermath of that horrible loss, Ament and Gossard went on to form what would become Pearl Jam. The two musicians, along with guitarist Mike McCready and drummers Matt Cameron and Chris Friel, put together some instrumental material that was used for a demo while they sought out a new singer.

That demo found its way to Eddie Vedder in San Diego, who wrote lyrics to some of the instrumentals and sent them back to get an invite for an audition. Some of those songs eventually ended up on Ten.

So, essentially, the first album was a work in progress — the formation of a new band with music that eventually blew up upon the release of the record. It was not a record conceived as a whole, but came together through the addition of each part.

McCready even acknowledged in a Spin feature, “Ten was mostly Stone and Jeff; me and Eddie were along for the ride at the time.”

Ament added in a 1994 Bass Player interview, “We knew we were still a long way from being a real band at that point.”

But you have to look at Pearl Jam’s Vs. as the first true Pearl Jam album — meaning, it was made as a full band. This was not just a group of musicians coming together anymore and the songs were worked on collaboratively.

Vs. showcases more of a shared vision and that comes through within the album.

Vs. Is Where Pearl Jam Honed Their World View

While Gossard and Ament took the lead on Ten, that’s not to say that the record was without Eddie Vedder’s imprint. “Jeremy” addressed a school shooting based on an article that the singer had read while “Oceans” came from Vedder’s own passions for surfing.

But Vs. was the Pearl Jam album where their world view really came into focus and laid the groundwork for broaching more topical subject matter in the years to come.

For their sophomore set, there was a more direct approach to addressing multiple topics.

“Daughter” exposed the realities of child abuse. “Glorified G” saw them tackling gun culture. “Dissident,” meanwhile, highlights the band’s knack for storytelling, this one being a tale of a woman who takes in someone for political reasons only to turn her back on them when things got tough.

Other songs addressed problematic policing, racism and issues with the media.

READ MORE: Every ‘Big 4’ Grunge Album Ranked

You can look at Vs. and see the band taking more of a stance in their music. It was a bold step and one that they would continue to do with the albums that have followed.

Pearl Jam have become more comfortable with speaking their minds on issues of the day, not only on record but in concert as well. And you can look at Vs. as the album where that really became more of a creative focal point for the band.

Pearl Jam, “Daughter”

Vs. Has a Greater Exploration of Sound

There’s no doubt that Ten is a banger. There’s a passion and primal aggression that permeates the record that has made it an all-time classic. But Vs., I argue, has a more diverse sound and offers a better top-to-bottom listen. Part of that reason is the band, as said before, truly becoming a band.

Unlike the first album. the Pearl Jam had a full album cycle of touring support under their belt and their first dose of fame to sort through before they started their second record.

They had found their groove live, too. And by groove, I mean that literally.

The second album comes off more raw, more aggressive and yes, even funkier than their first record. Songs such as “Go,” “Glorified G,” “W.M.A.” and even the punk-driven “Blood” have moments that just groove on another level.

Pearl Jam, “Go”

McCready told Guitar Player in 1994 that the emerging funkiness wasn’t something that was a conscious decision but rather came about with the band “exploring different directions and combining our influences.”

The album also does a greater job of exploring Vedder’s vocals within the somber and more melodic realm.

Tracks such as the solemn album closer “Indifference” and the reflective “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” bring just the right change of pace in the perfect places on a veritable no-skip album.

A Greater Task at Hand

There should be some credit here given to the task faced by Pearl Jam in writing and creating the Vs. album.

While, ultimately, you hope to find success and people embracing your music, at the time of Ten there was probably more focus on just getting the new band together and seeing what could come of it. Even bands with huge initial success are rarely self-aware of the outcome that awaits them upon their initial breakthrough.

But with Vs., you had a band that was dealing with fame on a whole new level and quite suddenly.

Pearl made the conscious decision after the MTV VMA-winning success of “Jeremy” that they didn’t want to be a “videos band.” At the height of MTV’s popularity, it was a defiant step to consciously take away one of the outlets that had put them in the spotlight, but the idea was to shine more of a light on the music.

There’s a reason why the term “sophomore slump” has been coined. There are a lot of groups that have a hard time at this point in their careers, especially after having a hugely successful debut.

But, unified in their vision to let the music do the talking, Pearl Jam did not disappoint.

Without music videos as a promotional clutch, this approach still yielded a commercial hit and it was critically saluted for the most part as well.

The Stats

If you want to argue numbers, it’s always good to have some context.

There are two stats that you can meld to fit your argument.

For one, you can argue that Vs. was Pearl Jam’s first No. 1 album. But the context used against that would be that it’s often easier for the record after a big smash to have a giant debut on the charts. Debut albums have a more difficult time reaching the top when there’s little prior knowledge of the group.

On the flip side, you could argue that Pearl Jam’s Ten is the band’s biggest selling album, certified Diamond by the RIAA and recently counted as 13 times platinum. Vs., meanwhile, is only a seven-times platinum seller. But the context to add here is that Ten had a two-year head start.

One of the more difficult stats to dispute is that Vs. spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart — the longest run of any of the band’s albums.

It also set a record at the time for the most albums sold in the first week of release for an album during the SoundScan era. The mark was eventually eclipse by Garth Brooks‘ Double Live in 1998, but the record stood for four years.

Nothing in Pearl Jam’s career rivals the success that Vs. had at the beginning of its run when it comes to statistical data.

Other Notes Worth Mentioning

Though Eddie Vedder has spoken about the difficulty in working on the band’s second album, there’s little doubt this was one of the more fruitfully creative periods for the group. In fact, they just kept on going right into Vitalogy during their Vs. support cycle.

One of that album’s biggest songs and one of the bigger hits of the band’s career, “Better Man,” was actually worked up by the group during this album cycle, but eventually rejected and held until Vitalogy.

Pearl Jam, “Better Man”

“Whipping” was a second holdover that appeared on Vitalogy.

Pearl Jam also recorded their cover of Victoria Williams’ “Crazy Mary,” which ended up on the 1993 Sweet Relief tribute album during the Vs. sessions as well.

All in all, it was a very creatively fulfilling time.

Final Thoughts

I get it. Pearl Jam’s Ten came about at the arrival of the grunge era. The hits were bigger commercial smashes than anything that may have come from Vs. 

But please revisit both albums before rendering your verdict.

There are so many things about Vs. that showcase a step forward for the group.

The band members themselves even seemed to have liked the second album a bit better. “When we made Vs., our second record, I remember thinking, ‘Man, I wish our first record sounded like this.’ I thought it was more direct, more powerful,” remarked Jeff Ament to MSN Music at the time of Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary.

There are stats and reviews that also reflect what a big album Vs. was for the band as well.

But while I try to quantify why Vs. is better than Ten, ultimately you should let your own ears decide.

Personal tastes are personal tastes and there will still be some who take Ten over Vs., but now that we’re more than 30 years removed from their heyday, it’s easier now than ever to let your own ears provide you with a fair assessment without bias.

I know it may not be the most popular opinion, but I stand behind Pearl Jam’s Vs. being a better album than Ten.