The Obama Administration has done wonders for Eddie Vedder’s mood. He sounds…happy. I mean, Beach Boys happy.
The new Pearl Jam single, “The Fixer,” can only be described as a windows down, radio up summer drivin’ song. The first fifteen seconds sounds like a cousin to “Worldwide Suicide,” but then it shifts into this, er, joyful gear where Eddie seems positively gleeful.
The chorus (“If I could get it back again/Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”) is singalong stuff, right down to the piano (!?! At least I think it’s a piano. Or it could be some kind of tightly-strung steel-stringed instrument) and the cowbell.
Yes, Pearl Jam has added more cowbell.
By the time the song faded away after two minutes and fifty-five seconds, I was initially left with a “What the hell was THAT?” feeling. It’s still Pearl Jam—but an optimistic, post-Dubya one.
“The Fixer” will be released to radio on Monday. The album, Backspacer, is scheduled for September 21 (but that could change).