Yep, Eddie Vedder and the crew are at it again. Seattle’s Pearl Jam has come out with their first album in four years, hoping to reclaim Gen X fans and reach a new generation as well. The sound is a little harsher than the band’s older albums, and overall, a bit more forgetful.

This is a slightly different sound for Pearl Jam. As much as we would like to recreate the grunge era of sound, that was a whole different time, and the band is a little weaker for it.

The first single, “”World Wide Suicide”” hints at the band’s disapproval of war and the president.

Parts of this song and others on the album sound more like Aerosmith than Pearl Jam’s early ’90s anthems such as “”Jeremy”” and “”Dissident.”” The best songs from the album include the hard-rocking “”Life Wasted,”” and “”Unemployable,”” which is slightly more reminiscent of the old sound.

As much as I don’t want flannel shirts and overalls to come back into style, I do kind of wish the old Pearl Jam – grunge sound and all – could come back to us in 2006. The new album is not all bad, but the harder sound is apparent. Perhaps invest in a “”best of”” album instead of the new release.