PEARL JAM: "Vs. One" (Epic)

WHO WOULD have thought, say two years ago, that the pressure on 'alternative' bands would be as huge as it is today? That Kurt Cobain would be traumatised by the success of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. That record shops would extend their opening hours just so anxious fans could go to sleep as proud possessors of Pearl Jam's second album one night earlier.

But I suppose that if, like Pearl Jam, you created one of the most successful debut albums of all time - an album that has been in the American album charts for 93 weeks and counting - expectations are going to be high. So high that a follow-up release is going to have to be one hell of an album if the band want to make it to record number three.

Fortunately for all parties involved Vs. One is an album with the same subtle power of Ten and an equal capacity for long-standing impact.

The opening track 'Go' shows no mercy for necks that will inevitably ache from head-banging and proclaims the mighty return of the quintessential strong but sensitive band. Eddie Vedder then growls his way through 'Animal' and while the refrain - "I'd rather be with an animal" - lacks the significance of most other Pearl Jam lyrics past and present, it's a strong second link in what proves itself to be a weighty chain of songs.

Thankfully, Vs. One sounds distinctly unlike "another Ten". While the pacing of the album and its effects are the same, songs here rely less on Vedder belting out choruses. 'W.M.A.' with its tribal drumming and heightened harmonies demonstrates the increased variety of structure and approach present here.

But for all that, it's still songs like 'Go', 'Animal', and 'Rearviewmirror' - songs that reek of the very stuff that made Pearl Jam so massive in the first place - that make Vs. One the cracker of an album it is.

• Tara McCarthy