Best Albums !: Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam (2006)

Pearl Jam is the eighth studio album by Pearl Jam and its debut release for J Records. Released on May 2, 2006, it was the band's first full-length studio release in almost four years, the longest gap between Pearl Jam's studio albums to date. Following its appearance on the 2004 Vote for Change tour, the band commenced work on a new album. The music on the record was proclaimed as a return to the band's roots.

Pearl Jam debuted at number two on the Billboard charts. Pearl Jam was well-received critically, and eventually outsold the band’s previous release, Riot Act (2002). The band supported the album with a full-scale tour in 2006. The album has been certified Gold in the United States.

Many claim the new album is a return to the band's roots, with even Mike McCready having compared the new material to Vs. in a 2005 interview. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide said, "Nearly 15 years after Ten, Pearl Jam finally returned to the strengths of their debut with 2006's Pearl Jam, a sharply focused set of impassioned hard rock." Eddie Vedder said, "It's easily the best stuff we've done but also some of the hardest stuff. It's very aggressive, because again, it's kind of a product of what it's like to be an American these days. It's pretty aggressive, especially when you turn it loud." The album begins with a number of up-tempo songs before expanding to a variety of tempos for its second half, with Ament observing that "the front of the record is so extroverted but it ends up so introverted."

Current socio-political issues in the United States are addressed on the album. The Iraq War is addressed in the songs "World Wide Suicide", "Marker in the Sand", and "Army Reserve". The lyrics of "World Wide Suicide" depict anger against the war. Other themes addressed on the album include substance abuse ("Severed Hand"), poverty ("Unemployable"), leaving everything behind to start again ("Gone"), and loneliness ("Come Back"), Vedder wrote the lyrics for "Life Wasted" after attending the funeral of Johnny Ramone. Damien Echols, one of the three members of the West Memphis 3, co-wrote the lyrics to "Army Reserve". For the first time guitarist Mike McCready contributed lyrics to a Pearl Jam album, penning the lyrics to the closing track "Inside Job". This is the second studio album by the band that does not contain any cursing in the lyrics (the first being Binaural).