Pearl Jam singer/songwriter Eddie Vedder was long overdue to spread his solo wings when Earthling arrived in early 2022. Though he exclusively wrote five songs for Pearl Jam’s 2020 release Gigaton, a quick glance at Vedder’s brief solo discography shows he has other interests than his band’s grunge-based guitar rock. As only his third effort under his name, Earthling is just the kind of record Vedder needed, not rejecting the influences of Pearl Jam but instead expanding on them in a way only he, with his individual style, could do.