AllMusic (4.5/5): "It is with 'Backspacer,' whose meaty riffs have no less vigor than those of 'Pearl Jam'; they're just channeled into a brighter, cheerier package...'Backspacer' is a party record for Pearl Jam...and if 18 years is a long, long wait for a band to finally throw a party, it's also true that, prior to 'Backspacer,' Pearl Jam wouldn't or couldn't have made music this unfettered, unapologetically assured, casual, and, yes, fun. "
Rolling Stone (4/5): "'Backspacer,' Pearl Jam's ninth album, backspaces to that boyish spirit, with the shortest, tightest, punkiest tunes they've ever banged out ... Like 'Yield,' this revs the tempo while adding classic-rock texture to the punk rush, with layers of Thin Lizzy twin-guitar raunch going on down below....The songs seem to mess around with a loose theme of addiction and recovery."
Entertainment Weekly (B): "'Backspacer'... is an ode to analog bygones, the sort of sweaty rock & roll that belongs in a bar with cracked-leather booths and $2 beers. The album grows same-y, but tracks like the surfing-as-life-metaphor anthem 'Amongst the Waves' do indeed make something old feel, if not new, good again."
Guardian (4/5): "When Eddie Vedder yells of a "fight to get it back again" on 'The Fixer,' he is surely referring to the band rediscovering their mojo... this is a record made by mature men with perspective: full of reflection and eclecticism, finding space for both U2 guitar motifs and Buzzcocks solos... 'Backspacer' is full of such curveballs: the ninth Pearl Jam album may even be the best of the lot. "
