Release and Reception
"Light Years" peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia, Austria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. In Canada, "Light Years" charted on the Rock Top 30 chart where it peaked at number 21 and stayed there for three weeks. "Light Years" reached the top 60 in the UK and the top 30 in Italy.
In Allmusic's review of the "Light Years" single, it was stated that "with more enduring and darker tones set in place, fans of Pearl Jam receive a raw and sincere taste of the band's new musical and melodic direction, perhaps ignited with the additional presence of newcomer Matt Cameron on drums." NME called the song "painfully beautiful" in its review of Binaural, while Keith Cameron of NME said in his review of the song, "The specifics of what "Light Years" is about—the death of a friend, apparently—get subsumed into the song's plangent distillation of regret, thereby rendering it perversely uplifting, a trick only the most accomplished and sincere bands can execute with anything approaching conviction." Christopher John Farley of Time described the song as "muted but passionate."
Read more about this topic: Light Years (Pearl Jam Song)
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