Categories : Folk + Roots, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Trent McMartin |
In the summer of 1992, as Pearl Jam’s Ten was racing up the charts, Christopher McCandless, a young American adventurer, left behind his old life, hitchhiked to Alaska and died in the wilderness. Fifteen years later, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder has composed the soundtrack for Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, the film based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer about McCandless. Here, Vedder wisely strips things back. Rather than trying to create a band like atmosphere, with multiple instruments and musicians, the singer mostly goes at it alone, allowing each composition to flourish in simplicity.
In terms of inspiration, Vedder did not have to look far. The material was already there; he just had to fill in the gaps. The slower, more contemplative numbers: ‘Long Nights,’ ‘Society,’ ‘Rise,’ ‘Tuolumne’ – are self-described attempts by Vedder to provide a voice for McCandless; to get into the young man’s head and ultimately give weight to the movie and to the soundtrack itself.
Yet it’s the more upbeat, optimistic tracks that serve to set the tone of the film. The opener ‘Setting Forth’ and the Indio cover ‘Hard Sun’ (featuring guest vocals from Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker) are both positive in nature, giving off the illusion of well-being. But behind their luminary exteriors are ominous retrospectional glimpses – like the calm before Katrina or the ice warnings that preceded the Titanic’s maiden voyage; in this case, a foretelling of the impending doom of the film’s lead. Probably most astonishing is the song ‘Rise,’ which sums up the dual spirit of the movie, with Vedder, who felt a commonality with McCandless (similar ages and upbringings), forgoing the hectic intensity of Pearl Jam for the uplifting mandolinesque beauty of the Grateful Dead.
