Retrograde

[Ms Harmless]

I like them both, but I would be disappointed with "Retrograde" as a closer; "River Cross" is the far grander statement imo

[McParadigm]

I can see there's somewhat of a collective shrug of the shoulders to this one here...it's certainly a retread and doesn't surprise me that this is the reaction it garners. It holds the same mood as Yellow Moon and Amongst The Waves - staring into the sunset across a barren wasteland, with Vedder's Into the Wild vocal reverb effects chucked onto the end.

I actually feel that people would feel a lot better about this if this was, at least officially, the album's closing notes. There's that grandiose aspect and a finality to the closing notes.

I'm probably alone on this but I really like it. River Cross doesn't belong on the album - it should be a b-side or something.

I was like YES YES YES YES YES... NO! NO! like we were making love and it ended with you accidentally elbowing me in the face

I like the way they fit together. Retrograde is so much more at peace with these struggles than the rest of the album, and River Cross is such a funeral, that they feel very effective.

absolutely, like a euphoric sublime thought that takes flight, but then comes back to earth with the reality of life

Also, I think the acknowledgement that he won’t be around to see this fight through to the end is a big part of the album’s struggle. And because of that, I think a final prayer of expressed hope for the audience and a pained, personal lament for having to leave it in their hands are both essential to an honest conclusion.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I know its been talked about a lot already but i just really noticed how massive the outro is on this song, i really wonder if it can sound that big live.

This one like basically the whole album is just so good

[Bammer]

It’s growing on me.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Leatherhead]

Was listening to Gigaton in the car. Retrograde was about to start when I got out of the car. Kinda sad I didn't get to listen to it.

[Ms Harmless]

I don't know why, but for all Ed's weird sentence construction choices, "comes the summer rain" hits so much more poetically to me than "the summer rain comes" would; he did it right here

[Jaeti]

I think the difference between me thinking this album is Very Good vs. Great rests on how much this song grows on me.

[spike]

i tend to skip this song.

[philpritchard]

I don't know why, but for all Ed's weird sentence construction choices, "comes the summer rain" hits so much more poetically to me than "the summer rain comes" would; he did it right here

Completely agree. His tendency towards these awkward reversals to fit a rhyme scheme has bugged me for a while, but this one works so well.

[Leatherhead]

This song is best when listening to the whole album. It's a needed pick-me-up after Comes Then Goes.

[McParadigm]

This song is best when listening to the whole album. It's a needed pick-me-up after Comes Then Goes.

Listened to the album tonight, and the sequencing is fantastic. Don’t change a thing.

[reconstruction_ seeds]

I'm a big fan of this song and I like what's going on with the instruments in it but I'm hoping Mike will at some point write something very self absorbed (a song with a long guitar section and a lot of chords combined with a solo or solos). He only barely touched on that with Inside Job. It needs to happen before Pearl Jam hang it up.

[PHATJ]

This song is best when listening to the whole album. It's a needed pick-me-up after Comes Then Goes.

Listened to the album tonight, and the sequencing is fantastic. Don’t change a thing.

Yep. I’ve been saying this for a while now. The sequencing is is perfect.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[VinylGuy]

Im grateful this song wasnt in LB. It would have sucked so hard. The production here is classy it kinda lift the song up.

Ed is good. The band is good too, but this one is my least favorite from the album. Its just an ok song lifted by some good production choices and a very cool performance from the band.

Again, some eerie moments in those lyrics....

[VinylGuy]

The outro is good, i love what Matt´s doing there.

Damn this is a very good album from him.

[Kevin Davis]

I listened to this a few times today to see if I'd hear what others are hearing in it -- it's still not happening, unfortunately, but it did occur me to that Mike's acoustic part is really reminiscent of "Let Me Sleep," and it made me want to hear the song in that context - stripped down, kind of lo-fi, just nuts and bolts. The adult contemporary vibe of the production doesn't really shine a light on the song's strengths.

I feel the same way about "Yellow Moon."

[Ms Harmless]

this one kind of unlocked for me in a new way when I stopped (and I know this sounds cliche) comparing it to things that I wanted it to be like, and started hearing in it things that I liked but hadn't necessarily ascribed to Pearl Jam before

[bodysnatcher]

I legitimately can’t remember what this song sounds like, and I just listened to it about an hour ago.