Binaural is the sixth studio album by American rock band Pearl Jam, released May 16, 2000, through Epic Records.

During the production of the album, the band encountered hindrances such as singer Eddie Vedder's writer's block, and guitarist Mike McCready's entrance into rehabilitation due to an addiction to prescription drugs.

This is Pearl Jam's first album to feature former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, who joined during 1998's Yield Tour to replace Jack Irons.

The atmospheric tracks, mostly featuring somber lyrics dealing with social criticism, led the band to convey these themes with images of nebulas in the album artwork.

[5] Binaural was recorded in late 1999 and early 2000 in Seattle, Washington, at Studio Litho, which is owned by guitarist Stone Gossard.

[6] According to McCready, Blake's work complemented the slower tracks such as "Nothing as It Seems" well, but faced trouble with others, which the band wanted to sound heavier.

[3] Three instrumentals featured on the Touring Band 2000 DVD ("Thunderclap", "Foldback", and "Harmony") come from the early Binaural sessions.

[1] Bassist Jeff Ament wrote lyrics for two songs on the album ("Gods' Dice" and "Nothing as It Seems"), and Gossard for three ("Thin Air," "Of the Girl" and "Rival").

"[20] Vedder addressed the social criticism contained in the album's lyrics by stating, "I think what everyone's looking for, y'know, is freedom...That's part of being comfortable in your own skin.

[21] Vedder called "Evacuation" a "song about change",[4] and stated in an interview that the moral of "Insignificance" is "the ineffectiveness of political struggle.

In the review, Binaural is called "a seething, furious album; a declamatory statement against cynicism and passivity and the simple injustices of everyday life" and that "even when the band slow the pace, the songs are coloured by a heartfelt intensity.

"[36] Time reviewer Christopher John Farley noted that the album is "less impatient and rage filled than much of Pearl Jam's earlier work."

Farley added that "Pearl Jam, rather quietly, is building a long-term career to rival the rock legends of the past.

"[44] Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+, considering that the "weighty subjects [give] Pearl Jam's introspective lyrics and stone-faced rock a refreshing edge" and adding that "if PJ long ago lost the zeitgeist, at least they've kept a hold on their hearts.

"[42] Spin gave the album seven out of 10 stars, writing that "Everything you want is still there—goofy experimentalism, guitar frenzy, Eddie's self-abusive wail.

"[18] The Guardian also gave the album three out of five stars, stating that Pearl Jam "are dignified, musicianly, sincere... and a teensy bit dull" and observing that "Vedder's affecting vocal angst drowns in a sea of pessimistic riffola."

[45] Regarding Binaural, Ament stated that "we look back and think we didn't put some of the best songs on it", adding that "I think there are some beautiful things that came out of it, but we're never going to remember that record as one of the greats.

[48] The final concert of the European tour ended in tragedy, where an accident at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark on June 30 led nine fans to be crushed underfoot and suffocated to death as the crowd rushed to the front.

[47] The band considered disbanding after the Roskilde tragedy,[49] but Vedder stated that "playing, facing crowds, being together" in the North American tour "enabled us to start processing it.

The European and North American tours were documented by a long series of official bootlegs, all of which were available in record stores as well as through the band's fan club.

[13] Binaural was played in its entirety at the May 10, 2016 show in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre, as a block and in sequence, during the first set of a longer performance.

[54] Some tracks that were originally on the album were dropped and not released until the 2003 rarities compilation, Lost Dogs,[46] and "Gods' Dice" was added to the final version.