RANK THE ALBUMS

[evenslow]

I think I've been kind of surprised to see, in all the post-Gigaton rankings, here and elsewhere, how low people still rate Riot Act. I feel like there is a general sense around here that the fanbase has "come around" on that album -- maybe it's just a small but vocal faction of RM'ers (with excellent taste, but still) that give that illusion.

Gigaton has grown on me immensely in the past week. But, as some others have said as well, I think I still pretty comfortably rank it below the first seven, if comfortably ahead of the last three.

I think both things are true. Riot Act is great. The other records ahead of it are exceedingly tough to top.

[Ms Harmless]

I listened to LB again last night, and I remember thinking, years ago, that it was better than BS because it was a little "darker"

it isn't better than BS, but I still like the chorus of "Getaway", the entirety of "Sirens" and "Swallowed Whole"; "Yellow Moon" and "Pendulum" are fine

[Brett]

I think I've been kind of surprised to see, in all the post-Gigaton rankings, here and elsewhere, how low people still rate Riot Act. I feel like there is a general sense around here that the fanbase has "come around" on that album -- maybe it's just a small but vocal faction of RM'ers (with excellent taste, but still) that give that illusion.

Gigaton has grown on me immensely in the past week. But, as some others have said as well, I think I still pretty comfortably rank it below the first seven, if comfortably ahead of the last three.

I was really big into Riot Act in my first two years of college when it was still new. Over time, though, its flaws seem to have been magnified. I really like the first five songs, but it gets hit or miss after that.

[Strat]

I dont know. Pearl Jam was always special to me because of their warts. Not every song on Ten is great. Not every song on Vs is great. Not everyone song on Vitalogy is great. But for most of their albums, they always felt like a complete work of art. A specific set of songs that were put out there for a very specific reason. I was always drawn to that.

Oceans, Garden, Deep....eh. BUt i wouldn't remove them from Ten. Ever.

[Ms Harmless]

I dont know. Pearl Jam was always special to me because of their warts. Not every song on Ten is great. Not every song on Vs is great. Not everyone song on Vitalogy is great. But for most of their albums, they always felt like a complete work of art. A specific set of songs that were put out there for a very specific reason. I was always drawn to that.

Oceans, Garden, Deep....eh. BUt i wouldn't remove them from Ten. Ever.

I differ on my "eh" songs from Ten, but you're so right, we forget that even their greatest albums had faults that we once picked apart endlessly; with time we've come to deify the earlier ones

[LoathedVermin72]

Oceans, Garden, Deep....eh. BUt i wouldn't remove them from Ten. Ever.

what the flying fuck

[Ledbetterdays]

Based strictly on ranking songs 1-5

1. Vitalogy 4.0
2. Ten 3.9
3. Vs. 3.8
4. Yield 3.8
5. No Code 3.5
6. Avocado 3.4
7. Gigaton 3.4
8. Binaural 3.3
9. Lightning Bolt 3.2
10. Backspacer 3.1
11. Riot Act 2.8

[Strat]

Oceans, Garden, Deep....eh. BUt i wouldn't remove them from Ten. Ever.

what the flying fuck

I actually really like the song but i remember being 11 years old and not understanding this song. It really didnt become interesting to me until the latter half of pearl jams career.

My point still stands.

[Fattie_Vedder]

I think I've been kind of surprised to see, in all the post-Gigaton rankings, here and elsewhere, how low people still rate Riot Act. I feel like there is a general sense around here that the fanbase has "come around" on that album -- maybe it's just a small but vocal faction of RM'ers (with excellent taste, but still) that give that illusion.

Gigaton has grown on me immensely in the past week. But, as some others have said as well, I think I still pretty comfortably rank it below the first seven, if comfortably ahead of the last three.

I think both things are true. Riot Act is great. The other records ahead of it are exceedingly tough to top.

Agreed. I love riot act, but there’s at least 7 albums I love more. There are days where riot act is exactly what I want to listen to.

[Kevin Davis]

I think I've been kind of surprised to see, in all the post-Gigaton rankings, here and elsewhere, how low people still rate Riot Act. I feel like there is a general sense around here that the fanbase has "come around" on that album -- maybe it's just a small but vocal faction of RM'ers (with excellent taste, but still) that give that illusion.

Gigaton has grown on me immensely in the past week. But, as some others have said as well, I think I still pretty comfortably rank it below the first seven, if comfortably ahead of the last three.

I was really big into Riot Act in my first two years of college when it was still new. Over time, though, its flaws seem to have been magnified. I really like the first five songs, but it gets hit or miss after that.

That's interesting, I think Riot Act has aged extraordinarily well, in many ways I find it their most natural-sounding, best-rounded album; in terms of personal meaning to me, I rank it only below Yield. I certainly understand others not putting it that high, but the number of folks putting it in their bottom 2-3 goes pretty soundly against the received RM wisdom of S/T being the clear moment the tides turned for the band.

[Ms Harmless]

I'm still completely in love with "Thumbing My Way" and "All or None", so certainly in terms of consistency of acoustic ballads, nothing comes close to RA for me

[Strat]

Riot Act was a lifeline album for me. Legit saved me.

[Fattie_Vedder]

I’ll attempt this though effort to do so meaningfully is futile.

1. Vitalogy
2. Yield
3. No Code
4. Binaural
5. Gigaton
6. Vs? Ten?

8. Riot Act
9. Pearl Jam
10. Backspacer
11. Lightning Bolt

The top 3 are interchangeable. Yield is often my number 1. Sometimes No Code is. Sometimes Binaural is. All depends on mood and broader mental and emotional state. But the holy trinity of Pearl Jam albums for me is Vitalogy-No Code-Yield. Binaural can tag along and make it a... Quad... rinity.

I have no idea how to rank Ten and Vs. They are more complete albums from top to bottom than most anything in their catalogue, full of timeless master pieces. Yet the albums themselves have not aged consistently well for me, and I almost never have a desire to listen to them back to front anymore. Yet some of the songs on them will forever be some of my favorites, and I bet would still sound amazing 30 years from now. They can be ranked at the very top simply for the fact that for the time they were created, they were perfect albums through and through, and for the sheer nostalgic emotional power they hold. Or they could fall in the middle of the pack for me because I’m more called to the music of the aforementioned holy trinity of albums.

Gigaton is the closest thing in sound they’ve done recently to that top tier. It naturally falls right after that. The fact that the messages in the album are both relevant to our times and resonate emotionally with my emotional and mental state at this age with how I want to approach life make it super fucking special.

And it puts Gigaton above Riot Act, as good as Riot Act is. Easily.

That may change over time, and time will tell where Gigaton ranks in the fold...

Nice post. I can relate very much with your thought process. Ranking Ten and Vs. feels impossibly complicated and nuanced. And your top five albums are basically mine in reverse order, but they’re all pretty much interchangeable. Like you, I’d rank Riot Act just a step below, but then a small gap before Avocado, and a massive gap before Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. To me, that’s seven 5 star albums, one 4 star album, one 3.5 star, and two duds. That’s a pretty damn remarkable career.

Thanks! Agreed, except that even the duds for me have some highlight moments.

I’ll elaborate on one thing: more than anything I miss the vulnerable, raw energy of the early albums, more than the style/sound of the music. I don’t crave powerful “rockers” as much anymore, but god damn if hearing or watching the band’s performance of Black Unplugged doesn’t send shivers down my spine. Nothingman and Long Road are other great examples. Simple, but super powerful songs. The perfect Pearl Jam album to me would be one with the sound/style of Yield/No Code/Vitalogy but also captures that raw, honest, and powerful emotional energy of early PJ. Gigaton comes close to doing that (River Cross is the one song that comes closest to that), which is why I like it so much, but it’s not quite totally there.

[Fattie_Vedder]

I think I've been kind of surprised to see, in all the post-Gigaton rankings, here and elsewhere, how low people still rate Riot Act. I feel like there is a general sense around here that the fanbase has "come around" on that album -- maybe it's just a small but vocal faction of RM'ers (with excellent taste, but still) that give that illusion.

Gigaton has grown on me immensely in the past week. But, as some others have said as well, I think I still pretty comfortably rank it below the first seven, if comfortably ahead of the last three.

I was really big into Riot Act in my first two years of college when it was still new. Over time, though, its flaws seem to have been magnified. I really like the first five songs, but it gets hit or miss after that.

That's interesting, I think Riot Act has aged extraordinarily well, in many ways I find it their most natural-sounding, best-rounded album; in terms of personal meaning to me, I rank it only below Yield. I certainly understand others not putting it that high, but the number of folks putting it in their bottom 2-3 goes pretty soundly against the received RM wisdom of S/T being the clear moment the tides turned for the band.

Riot Act is an interesting one for me, because the album doesn’t hold as much personal meaning for me as say Yield, but a couple of songs on RA hold tremendous emotional meaning for me and have a special connection to the time, place, and mindset I was in. Those two songs are Can’t Keep and Save You, two of my all time favorite PJ songs. Help Help, You Are, 1/2 Full, and All or None are the other standouts for me from that album.

[Fattie_Vedder]

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Comes Then Goes has the best lyrics of all the songs on Gigaton #Facts.

[Fattie_Vedder]

Question for the folks who have been on the RM forums way longer than I have; have there been thread topics about any of the following (I imagine they have but wanted to check):

1. If you could only listen to one, just one, Pearl Jam album for the rest of your life (not counting live albums or b sides), which one would it be?

2. If you were to make the perfect 13 song Pearl Jam album comprising of songs from their entire catalogue, what would it be? Rules are:
- the album would be 13 songs total
- no more than 2 songs from any one album

3. If you were to fuck up Gigaton by reordering the songs in a horrible sequence, what would the most painfully rage inducing sequence be?

[Birds in Hell]

Yield remains the last Pearl Jam album I can enjoyably listen to all the way through.

This is foreign to me.

I get it, im strat, a fanboy, but I can always at least enjoy hearing ed's voice, or mike playing guitar, etc...etc...

There are absolutely 0 songs that I would immediately turn off or skip because I couldnt stand them.

Yea, backspacer and lightning bolt are easily bottom of the pile, but if i decided to listen to the album i could still sit through the entire thing and find some enjoyment.

I can still listen to individual songs from their post-Yield records, I just can't sit through them in sequence.

I really do have a strong preference for the pre-Matt Cameron years. Following those recent rehearsal leaks, I listened to a few Dave Abbruzzese-era things and it's ruined me for listening to the recent material again for a while.

[B]

Vs.
Vitalogy
No Code
Yield
Ten
Backspacer
Binaural
Lightning Bolt
Pearl Jam
Riot Act

That was 2017. I see no need to change it. I'll slot Gigaton in after Ten, but it might edge out Ten in my head. I'm not sure.

Vs.
Vitalogy
No Code
Yield
Ten
Gigaton
Backspacer
Binaural
Lightning Bolt
Pearl Jam
Riot Act

[Ms Harmless]

Yield remains the last Pearl Jam album I can enjoyably listen to all the way through.

This is foreign to me.

I get it, im strat, a fanboy, but I can always at least enjoy hearing ed's voice, or mike playing guitar, etc...etc...

There are absolutely 0 songs that I would immediately turn off or skip because I couldnt stand them.

Yea, backspacer and lightning bolt are easily bottom of the pile, but if i decided to listen to the album i could still sit through the entire thing and find some enjoyment.

I can still listen to individual songs from their post-Yield records, I just can't sit through them in sequence.

I really do have a strong preference for the pre-Matt Cameron years. Following those recent rehearsal leaks, I listened to a few Dave Abbruzzese-era things and it's ruined me for listening to the recent material again for a while.

I will always be a Dave A stan, godammit

[RockPusher]

One thing is clear to me before I finish my ranking: I do not share everyone's super love of Vitalogy. I loved the packaging when it came out, and its high points are super high, but it's a seriously inconsistent album and just because it was probably designed that way does not make it any better, for me at least.