Ukulele Songs

 (88 customer reviews)

I'm not a Pearl Jam fan. That may have to change after listening the this album. I am an ukulele fan and player. When I saw this getting a mention on Morning Express this morning, I took a look a the description and immediately downloaded it. And I'm very impressed. Eddie Vedder has a great voice and it matched with the ukulele very well. It is not easy to get seriousness and a touch of sadness with the bright sounds of the instrument, but he managed to bring it together in a nice folk tune way. This music would fit with any folk song collection and is certainly helping promote the ukulele in a big way!

If you go into Eddie Vedder's latest album "Ukulele Songs" expecting stripped back Pearl Jam, you're going to be disappointed. However, if you go into it expecting somewhat of a mismatch of a record, with elements of "Into The Wild's" escapism, a Pearl Jam cover, plenty of love songs, guest vocalists, and everything else in between, then you'll love it and appreciate everything about it. Things get started with "Can't Keep," a Pearl Jam classic from the Riot Act album played on a ukulele by Vedder. The song doesn't sound too different then the original but the added texture of the ukulele brings it to a new level. The next few tracks leave you with a distinct feeling of loneliness; "Sleeping By Myself," "Without You," Goodbye," and "Broken Heart" are just as subdued and sad as their titles sound. This is a tribute to Vedder's talent as a singer and songwriter: you actually FEEL his pain in the music and the lyrics. Things pick up with "Satellite", which serves as the lead in to...Read more

Simply put, this is an amazing and beautiful collection of songs that feels like a journey through the heart and soul of Eddie Vedder. It's not Pearl jam, and that's a good thing: there's something vastly different about writing, composing, and performing songs with a band as opposed to a solo effort. It's not the "Into the Wild" soundtrack, either; although that collection of songs was beautiful in its own right, for the most part the songs that Eddie wrote for it were meant to be told from the perspective of Christopher McCandless. Instead, this is a truly unique effort that gives the reader a starkly personal view of Eddie on a level heretofore unseen in his vast collection of work.

The covers here are lovely, particularly the lighthearted "Tonight You Belong to Me" and the wistful "Sleepless Nights." On both, Eddie's voice works perfectly with the guest vocalists, avoiding the feeling of forced-collaboration that often afflicts these type of duets. "Dream a Little...Read more