Ten

Mother Love Bone ended in 1990 when their singer Andrew Wood died. It took months before bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard could play together again. Gossard eventually began rehearsing with Mike McCready, who in turn pushed him to get back in touch with Ament. The three recorded a five-song instrumental demo with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron among others, and copies of that tape reached drummer Dave Krusen and a singer in San Diego, Eddie Vedder. The album was made in March 1991 at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, when the band were still calling themselves Mookie Blaylock. Rick Parashar produced and engineered, and also played piano, organ and percussion, co-wrote the vocal harmonies and shaped the album's opening and closing passages. Only "Alive" was carried over from an earlier session that January. Most of the songs grew out of instrumental jams or Mother Love Bone material, with Vedder writing new melodies and words over them. The record is treated as a defining grunge album, yet it carries far more classic rock in it than its contemporaries, and it has been compared to Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin ever since. The running order here is the original's as printed.