Into the Wild (Music from the Motion Picture)

iTunes Review

There might be no one more appropriate than Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder to score the soundtrack to a film about a brazen, if deluded, young man who left behind the society he rejected and wandered into the Alaskan wilderness where he died of starvation. Vedder’s vocal bluster has always harnessed bravado in its intensely serious croak. He’s the perfect leader for a hard rock group, but he’s always had aspirations to join the campfire singalong and many of Pearl Jam’s best moments were its quietest. Now, playing nearly all the instruments himself and singing to songs he wrote as much for mood and empathy, Vedder still sounds grandiose, but more relaxed. His best lyrics have always been more imagistic and symbolic than narrative and here the pieces of human desperation come forth in short, resonant bursts. “Got my indignation but I’m pure in all my thoughts,” sings Vedder during “Guaranteed.” He doesn’t try to soften this crazy, mixed-up kid. The kid’s dreams were wild and borne of frustrations, both personal and societal. Vedder charges up the hard rock for “Setting Forth” and “Hard Sun,” but mostly he settles into a luminous lope that makes these songs tragically sad.