Pearl Jam: Binaural альбомының жарыққа шығуы

Binaural is the sixth studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released May 16, 2000, through Epic Records. Following a full scale tour in support of its previous album, Yield (1998), Pearl Jam took a short break before reconvening toward the end of 1999 to begin work on a new album. During the production of the album, the band encountered hindrances such as singer Eddie Vedder's writer's block, and guitarist Mike McCready's entrance into rehabilitation due to an addiction to prescription drugs. This is Pearl Jam's first album to feature former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, who joined during 1998's Yield Tour to replace Jack Irons. The music on the album featured an experimental sound, evident on songs that used binaural recording techniques. The atmospheric tracks, mostly featuring somber lyrics dealing with social criticism, led the band to convey these themes with images of nebulas in the album artwork. Binaural received positive reviews, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. Although the album was certified gold by the RIAA, it became the first Pearl Jam studio album to fail to reach Platinum status in the United States. The album's 2000 tour spawned a large collection of official bootleg releases.

Similar to the process for Yield, the band members worked on material individually before starting the recording sessions together. Lead vocalist Eddie Vedder called the making of the album "a construction job." Binaural was the first album since the band's debut that was not produced by Brendan O'Brien. Gossard stated that the band "felt like it was time to try something new,"
Instead the band hired producer Tchad Blake, known for his use of binaural recording. Binaural recording techniques, which employ two microphones to create a 3 D stereophonic sound, were used on several tracks, such as the acoustic "Of the Girl." Regarding Blake, Gossard said, "He was just there for us the whole time, wanting us to create different moods." This was the first Pearl Jam studio album following the departure of drummer Jack Irons, and features drummer Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, who had previously drummed on Pearl Jam's U. S. Yield Tour. Binaural was recorded in late 1999 and early 2000 in Seattle, Washington, at Studio Litho, which is owned by guitarist Stone Gossard. According to McCready, Blake's work complemented the slower tracks such as "Nothing as It Seems" well, but faced trouble with others, which the band wanted to sound heavier. For the heavier songs, the group brought in former producer O'Brien, who remixed the tracks at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia. It was with O'Brien that the band determined the final sequencing of the album. During the writing and recording of the album, the band encountered several obstacles. Vedder has admitted that while working on the album he suffered from writer's block, which made it difficult for him to come up with lyrics. This inspired the hidden track "Writer's Block" which consists of the sounds of a typewriter that appears at the end of the album, starting at 6 minutes and 50 seconds on the track "Parting Ways". Vedder had written music for several songs, including "Insignificance" and "Grievance", but was having trouble coming up with lyrics for the songs. Guitarist Mike McCready went into rehabilitation to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription drugs. Several songs were rejected from the album that eventually found their way on to the 2003 Lost Dogs collection of rarities. These include "Sad", "Hitchhiker", "In the Moonlight", "Education", "Fatal", and "Sweet Lew". "Sad", originally called "Letter to the Dead", was called "a great pop song" by Ament, but he said the song did not fit the album because the band does not "really [write] very many pop records." "Sweet Lew", about Kareem Abdul Jabbar,

Binaural opens with three up tempo songs before growing more diverse. Vedder explained, "We'd rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that's easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it." The song "Nothing as It Seems" has been compared to the style of Pink Floyd. Vedder addressed the social criticism contained in the album's lyrics by stating, "I think what everyone's looking for, y'know, is freedom That's part of being comfortable in your own skin. I know I had a problem with being told what to do, and had a problem with being mentally and physically constricted. All of humanity is searching for freedom and I think it's important to know when you have it, too." Vedder called "Evacuation" a "song about change", Vedder took inspiration from the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle when writing "Grievance",

The album's cover art is a modified Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planetary nebula MyCn 18, popularly known as the Hourglass Nebula. Hubble Space Telescope photos of the Helix Nebula and Eagle Nebula are also featured in the inside cover and liner notes for this album, respectively. The photos were used with the permission of NASA. Regarding the artwork, Ament said, "The reason that we went with Tchad [Blake] 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."

Pearl Jam promoted the album with tours in Europe and North America. The tour started along with the album release on May 23, with a show in Lisbon, Portugal. The European tour had 26 dates. The final concert of the European tour ended in tragedy, where an accident at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark on June 30 led nine fans to be crushed underfoot and suffocated to death as the crowd rushed to the front. This led two additional concerts through July to be cancelled. A month after the European tour concluded, the band embarked on a two leg North American tour, starting on Virginia Beach, Virginia on August 3. The band released 72 live albums in 2000 and 2001, and set a record for most albums to debut in the Billboard 200 at the same time. Following the conclusion of the 2000 tour, the band released Touring Band 2000, a DVD which featured select performances from the North American legs of the tour.

I "Parting Ways" contains the hidden track "Writer's Block" at 6:49. * Asterisks denote the use of binaural recording techniques. * Live tracks recorded at the 1999 Bridge School Benefit.

+Weekly chart performance for singles from Binaural Year Single Peak chart positions US US Main IRE ITA NLD NOR NZ SWE SWI UK2000"Nothing as It Seems" 49 3 10 7 98 27 6 33 5 42 40 83 22"Light Years" — 17 26 64 — — 25 — — — — — 52 "—" denotes singles that did not chart.