Orson Welles crafted the menacing noir of “Touch of Evil” and “The Lady from Shanghai,” yet nothing the director-writer did came close, frame-by-frame, line-by-line, to the magic of “Citizen Kane.” As far as long shadows cast, jumping out of the gate with the epically angst-ridden “Ten” was Pearl Jam’s “Kane.” Its release, in 1991, meant that every slow boiling album that Eddie Vedder and company made since their bugged-out and brooding first full-length has had to live up to that bible of aggressive grunge rage. “Vitalogy” (1994) and “Backspacer” (2009) are great, and greatly pissed-off, but, for the most part, Pearl Jam’s recorded catalog has been a spotty one when it comes to making albums that maintain the blister of its best tracks.
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