Cafe Aracir

There are a number of ways for a band to look back on a chunk of their career, and for this two-disc retrospective, Pearl Jam have chosen to take the thematic, rather than the chronological, route. Rearviewmirror is divided into an "Up" disc and a "Down" disc, a sensible approach given the often wild mood swings that mark the band's output. The former portion, naturally enough, concentrates on the quintet's charging rockers, from the ecstatic, vinyl-worshipping "Spin the Black Circle" to the rending tones of "Jeremy" to the careening punk assault of "I Got S**t." The "Down" volume delves into the more introspective side of {|Eddie Vedder|} and company, running together such alternately doleful and pensive songs as "Nothingman" and "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town." That disc also serves up the band's sole Top 40 hit, a cover of {|J. Frank Wilson|}'s early-'60s death ballad, "Last Kiss." While there's no new material to be found here, longtime collaborator Brendan O'Brien does remix three tracks from the band's earliest days -- and those new versions of "Once," "Alive," and "Black" do differ significantly from the originals, particularly in the crisp separation in {|Mike McCready|}'s and {|Stone Gossard|}'s guitars. Objects in this Mirror are certainly worth a second look.