 According to Metacritic , which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics , the album received an average score of 74 , based on 28 reviews , indicating " generally favorable reviews . " The album was named in Rolling Stone 's top 50 albums of the year at number 13 . Rolling Stone staff writer David Fricke gave Pearl Jam four out of five stars , calling it the band 's best album in ten years . He said it 's " the most overtly partisan — and hopeful — record of their lives , " adding that it 's " as big and brash in fuzz and backbone as Led Zeppelin 's Presence . " Allmusic staff writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four and a half out of five stars , saying that " Pearl Jam has embraced everything they do well , whether it 's their classicist hard rock or heart @-@ on @-@ sleeve humanitarianism . " Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B + , saying that Vedder 's " passionate howl seems more valuable now , pitted against the navel @-@ gazing emo whine that 's commandeered the landscape , " and he went on to say that " in a world full of boys sent to do a man 's job of rocking , Pearl Jam can still pull off gravitas . " Jon Pareles of The New York Times said , " Now as ever , Pearl Jam takes itself seriously . But it delivers that seriousness not with the sodden self @-@ importance of rock superstardom , but with the craft and hunger of a band still proving itself on the spot . " PopMatters writer Michael Metivier gave the album a 9 / 10 rating and viewed it as a progression in " melody and songcraft " over the band 's previous work , writing that it " more consistently achieves the grandeur , rage , and beauty they 've always pursued , throughout its entirety " . 
