Best Albums !: Pearl Jam. Vitalogy (1994)

Vitalogy is the third major release and a loose concept album by the band Pearl Jam, released on December 6, 1994. Upon its release, Vitalogy became the second-fastest-selling album in history, behind only the band's previous release Vs. As of 2007, Vitalogy has been certified 5 times platinum in the United States.

Compared with their previous two albums, Vitalogy was more varied and idiosyncratic. Sparse productions and often bizarre lyrics (such as on "Bugs") made the album inaccessible without repeated listens. Eddie Vedder's hooks are a primary draw, built around furious guitar riffs and arrhythmic drum beats. With Vitalogy, the band started to incorporate more punk influences into their music. During this era Vedder began to be featured more on rhythm guitar.

Many of the songs on the album seem to be based on the pressures of fame and dealing with the resulting loss of privacy. These include "Not For You", "Pry, To", "Corduroy", "Bugs", "Satan's Bed", and "Immortality". In "Pry, To" the phrase "P-r-i-v-a-c-y is priceless to me" is repeated. (When played backwards the song contains a hidden message that sounds like "Oh, Pete Townshend, how you saved my life!" and contains variations of this. It is well known that Eddie Vedder is a huge fan of The Who.) Many think that the lyrics of "Immortality" may be about Kurt Cobain's suicide, although Vedder has denied this. Many of the lyrics appeared in live versions of the song before Cobain's suicide, although some lyrics were altered following Cobain's death.