''Ukulele Songs'' is the second solo studio album by American singer and

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. One of the key bands in the grunge, grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam has outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries from the early 1990s, ...

frontman

Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a gues ...

. It was released on May 31, 2011. The album is composed of original songs and new arrangements of several standards.

Cover art

The cover art features a photograph of the underwater sculpture "The Lost Correspondent" by Jason deCaires Taylor at Moliniere Underwater Sculpture Park in

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

Critical reception

The album has been met with generally favorable reviews and currently has a 68% rating on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine gave the album three and a half stars, saying "The

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

doesn't allow for the widest range of expression, which makes it a challenging foil for Eddie Vedder, who never met a feeling he couldn't drive through a wall. But this uke-suffused album stands up because he adapts the instrument to his idiosyncratic needs."

Tours

Eddie Vedder did a solo tour through various parts of North America to promote the album, with support from

Glen Hansard Glen James Hansard (born 21 April 1970) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten o ...

. Vedder stated that the shows would be performed in smaller venues than those used by Pearl Jam. He cites this as a relief, as he claims "It's hard to be subtle when the back row of the crowd is 200 yards away". The tour began on June 15, 2011 and finished on July 16 in Seattle. The tour received positive reviews from critics. In 2012 Vedder was scheduled to play shows across the Southern United States beginning in April. However, these dates were postponed until November, after Vedder suffered temporary nerve damage in his right arm after an earlier injury to his back. European shows started in July 2012, which included his first solo shows in the United Kingdom.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Eddie Vedder albums Albums produced by Eddie Vedder Albums produced by Adam Kasper Folk rock albums by American artists Monkeywrench Records albums