START WITH: Ten (1991)

Pearl Jam’s debut is the kind of lightning-in-abottle scenario that’s difficult to comprehend as an outsider. After the death of Mother Love Bone’s singer Andy Wood, Seattleites Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were encouraged to reconnect by Shadow guitar-slinger Mike McCready. Gossard responded with a new intensity in his writing that found the perfect muse in singer Eddie Vedder. His initial instrumentals — “Alive,” “Once” and “Black” — were given a raw heart by the singer that started a chain reaction. By the end of their first week rehearsing in Seattle, the fledgling band had 11 songs that weaved the classic threads of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and McCready’s heroic Hendrixian moves with a jaw-dropping performance by their singer. The tour de force concludes with the startling plea to Vedder’s late father in “Release,” allegedly written on the spot in the rehearsal room.

Download: “Alive”