pearl jam unplugged and undrugged album cover

The album was mixed by Kasper at Studio X.

Bassist Jeff Ament attributed the length of time recording to lead vocalist Eddie Vedder having a child and the band touring in the middle of recording.

The recording sessions started in February 2005, and they worked on it off and on throughout the year, with the sessions being interrupted toward the end of the year when the band toured North America and South America. The band began work on the album following the 2004 Vote for Change tour in November 2004, and again employed producer Adam Kasper, who worked with them on predecessor Riot Act. Pearl Jam was recorded at Studio X in Seattle, Washington. Writing for Kerrang!, George Garner called the album 'criminally underrated'. The band supported the album with a full-scale world tour in 2006. The album also produced three singles-' World Wide Suicide', ' Life Wasted' and ' Gone'-which were moderately successful. Pearl Jam was critically well received and a commercial success, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and eventually outselling the band's previous release, Riot Act. The song lyrics are mostly told from the point of view of characters and deal with the socio-political issues in the United States at the period, such as the War on Terror. The music on the record was proclaimed as a return to the band's roots, with an emphasis on up-tempo songs with an aggressive sound.

The band commenced work on Pearl Jam in November 2004 at Studio X in Seattle, Washington and finished in February 2006. It was the band's first full-length studio release in almost four years, since Riot Act (2002). It was Pearl Jam's first and only release for J Records, their last album issued by Sony Music. Pearl Jam is the eighth studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released on on J Records.

Pearl jam unplugged and undrugged album cover