The Best New Pearl Jam We’ve Heard in Forever

“Late Pearl Jam” isn’t a phrase that typically has us reaching for our headphones, but “The Fixer,” the single from the band’s forthcoming Backspacer, might inspire us — and here we even paraphrase the song — to love again. It can’t be a coincidence that it’s exactly three minutes long: The track is pure and simple pop rock of the highest order, the kind of thing we’ve hoped Eddie Vedder would turn his restless attention toward for years now. He wants to fix things, uncross signals, “get it back again,” and we’re sharing so earnestly in the sentiment that we feel it would be an injustice to relate it to the populist bent of this music.