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"Nothing as It Seems" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Written by bassist Jeff Ament, "Nothing as It Seems" was released on April 25, 2000 as the first single from the band's sixth studio album, Binaural (2000). The single peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song also appears on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991–2003.

Origin and recording

The song was composed by bassist Jeff Ament. Ament plays upright bass on the song giving it a very atmospheric feel. Guitarist Mike McCready used a Fender Pedal for the song which provided the song with its distorted sounds. The song was recorded using binaural recording techniques, and was produced by Tchad Blake. Ament on the song:

It was just a little ditty on a demo that I kind of played some hand drums on, and had this little song. Actually, I spent quite a bit of time with the lyrics, and I think Stone initially said, 'Let's try that one.' There were little sections of the song I definitely heard Mike doing his thing, so I kinda said, 'Hey, man, you need to write a theme for these little sections.' It's pretty cool to see a little song that I wrote being played by everyone. I mean, I can almost kind of stand back and just watch this great band play a song...and take it to a completely different level. Mike and Ed , they have that ability where they can really raise the level of anything that they play.

Lyrics

Ament revealed that he wrote the song about his childhood growing up in a rural area of Northern Montana. He stated:

It's a little bit reflecting on where I came from...I grew up in really rural area in Northern Montana, and looking back at . I think until two or three years ago, I looked back at my childhood as being a fairly utopian situation where I had the freedom to ride my bike around town when I was five years old, and my parents didn't have to worry about anybody taking me and killing me or whatever. In the last couple of years...there have been some things that have kind of allowed some darker things to come to the surface of my childhood, seeing things that I had kind of selectively forgotten for my own mental health or whatever. I had just seen Affliction and I had just read Nine Below Zero by this guy, Kevin Canty, all very kind of rural things that unearthed a lot of stuff. is just kind of what came out. I'm just now starting to actually really analyze what I was talking about...because I still don't really have a grip on that.

Release and reception

Regarding the choice of the song as the band's first single from Binaural, vocalist Eddie Vedder explained, "With that one we felt like we...weren't trying to fool people. It actually felt like we were offering them something fairly challenging. We obviously respect the audience." "Nothing as It Seems" was the most successful song from Binaural on the American rock charts. The song peaked at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and number ten on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Outside of the United States, the single was released in Australia, Austria, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. "Nothing as It Seems" reached the top 30 in the UK and peaked at number seven on the Australian Singles Chart. "Nothing as It Seems" reached number 98 in Germany, number 83 in Switzerland, the top 50 in New Zealand, the top 40 in the Netherlands and Sweden, the top 30 in Ireland, and was a top ten success in Norway. It was a moderate top 20 success in Italy.

In its review of Binaural, The Guardian called the song "brooding and mysterious" and one of the album's "best moments." The song has been compared to the style of Pink Floyd. Although the song was not a major commercial success, it has been cited as a Pearl Jam fan favorite.

Live performances

The song's live debut took place at Neil Young's 1999 Bridge School Benefit. A live performance of "Nothing As It Seems" can be found on the live album Live at Benaroya Hall. A performance of the song is also included on the DVD Touring Band 2000.

Track listing

Chart positions

References

1. Aledort, Andy. "Aural Exam". Guitar World. July 2000.
2. Basham, David. "Pearl Jam Talks "Nothing As It Seems," Firms Up Tour". MTV.com. April 28, 2000.
3. Basham, David. "Pearl Jam's Ament Probes Childhood With "Seems"". MTV.com. May 3, 2000.
4. Kaufman, Gil. "Pearl Jam's Anti-Career". Sonicnet. May 15, 2000.
5. "Other pop releases". The Guardian. May 12, 2000.
6. "Jeff Woods with Pearl Jam for Radio Rock Network". Radio Rock Network. May 15, 2000.
7. "Pearl Jam Songs: "Nothing as It Seems"". pearljam.com.
8. "Canadian Rock/Alternative Top 30 – "Nothing As It Seems"". RPM. Retrieved 2007-03-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. "Norwegian Single/Album Chart / Pearl Jam / Longplay". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
10. "PEARL JAM - NOTHING AS IT SEEMS (SINGLE) (4284)". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
11. "Classifice Artisti - Archivio". FIMI. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
12. "EveryHit.com". Retrieved 2007-02-16.
13. "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". Irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
14. "Dutch Single/Album Chart / Pearl Jam / Longplay". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
15. "Swedish Single/Album Chart / Pearl Jam / Longplay". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
16. "PEARL JAM - NOTHING AS IT SEEMS (SONG)". New Zealand-charts.com. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
17. ^ "Pearl Jam Artist Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-04-28. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
18. "Schweizer Hitparade". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
19. "Chartverfolgung / Pearl Jam / Single". musicline.de. Retrieved 2007-06-11.

External links

• Lyrics

• 2000 singles
• 2000 songs
• Pearl Jam songs