Backspacer
![A series of nine line drawings featuring a flaming train, a cross-section of a male human body, a stage magician, a woman diving in a synchronized swimming costume, a brain in a vat, a drummer in outer space, a man standing in front of a robot and UFOs, a man riding a tricycle beneath the legs of giant women, and a woman melting into a sea of purple fluid.](/Images/godic/202412/22/Pearl_jam_backspacer1127.jpg")
![Pearl Jam and collaborator Boom Gaspar (keyboards) on the Backspacer Tour. Pictured in a semi-circle behind Eddie Vedder in this concert in Manchester, England on August 17, 2009 are: from L to R: Matt Cameron, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Boom Gaspar, and Stone Gossard](/Images/godic/202412/22/PearlJamManchester09-041127.jpg")
Backspacer is the ninth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on September 20, 2009. The bandmembers started writing instrumental and demo tracks in 2007, and got together in 2008 to work on an album. It was recorded from February through April 2009 with producer Brendan O'Brien, who had worked on every Pearl Jam album except their 1991 debut Ten and 2006's self-titled record—although this was his first production credit since 1998's Yield. Material was recorded in Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California and O'Brien's own Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta, Georgia. The music on the album—the shortest of the band's career—features a sound influenced by pop and new wave. The lyrics have a more optimistic look than the ones in the politic-infused predecessors Riot Act and Pearl Jam, something frontman Eddie Vedder attributed to the election of Barack Obama.