Gigaton: Official album thread

[darth_vedder]

This will probably change but my rankings as of now:

DOTC
Alright
Comes Then Goes
SBWM
Quick Escape
Who Ever Said
Never Destination
Seven O'clock
Take The Long Way
Buckle Up
Retrograde
River Cross

[liebzz]

r_s, the way you are saying this same thing over and over again in multiple threads is starting to look a lot like trolling.

Im not sure how it came across to others but my interest has been turned to greta van fleet, so I'll probably not post much more about pj anyway! I like gigaton but i want to wait and see what direction pj take in the future.

Ding ding ding! All has now been explained.

[Ms Harmless]

you're not gonna get "more like Jimmy Page" next time because PJ has never been that *shakes you* LET THIS GO FOR THE LOVE OF JANUS

[evenslow]

dude, just go listen to Led Zeppelin. they have plenty of albums.

[reconstruction_ seeds]

you're not gonna get "more like Jimmy Page" next time because PJ has never been that *shakes you* LET THIS GO FOR THE LOVE OF JANUS

I need slapped too.

Which "for the love of ...." names is best suited for the phrase?

[reconstruction_ seeds]

you're not gonna get "more like Jimmy Page" next time because PJ has never been that *shakes you* LET THIS GO FOR THE LOVE OF JANUS

I need slapped too.

Which "for the love of ...." names is best suited for the phrase?

How about something fresh like 'for the love of Earl Dean'?

[reconstruction_ seeds]

It's just that I don't want to pick a different favorite band after 30 years. I want Pearl Jam to do what I say or I'll get the belt!

[LetMeSleep]

DOTC
Seven O'clock
Alright
Quick Escape
Take The Long Way
Retrograde
Buckle Up
Comes Then Goes
Who Ever Said
SBWM
River Cross
Never Destination

[Hatfield]

Hymns of the apocalypse: Pearl Jam’s new album was made for this pandemic moment

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-a ... die-vedder

Some obvious mistakes in reporting, but I really enjoyed reading his experience and connection.

[Homeboyd]

Seven O'Clock
Quick Escape
Comes Then Goes
Alright
River Cross
Who Ever Said
DOTC
Take The Long Way
Retrograde
SBWM
Buckle Up
Never Destination

[Anders]

If Buckle Up is not in your top 4-5, that list is just wrong.

[PHATJ]

I like the first 57:00 of this album.

[Anders]

Needed three more minutes.

[7 Years and Maybe Longer]

I think Gigaton will have lasting power, because each song is pretty dynamic. It felt like with the last few albums they came up with a cool riff, added a few lyrics, then repeated these parts for the remainder of the song until the inevitable fadeout. No half-baked ideas with Gigaton and no fadeouts.

I'd even say the majority of the songs peak as they end begging for repeat listens:
SBWM - guitar solo and after
DOTC - stand back when the spirit comes!
Quick Escape - JA and the boys going off
Alright - quarantine ready finish - It's alright to shut it down/Disappear in thin air, it's your home
Seven O'clock - much to be done
Never Destination - ode to Tom Petty ending
Take the Long Way - plant a seed in your mind, what's yours is mine
Comes Then Goes - most cutting lyrics near end - Queen of Collections
Retrograde - the back half saves this song and flows perfectly into River Cross
River Cross - share the light, won't hold us down

[evenslow]

Hymns of the apocalypse: Pearl Jam’s new album was made for this pandemic moment

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-a ... die-vedder

Some obvious mistakes in reporting, but I really enjoyed reading his experience and connection.

thought he really nailed some of the themes and feelings around the album.

[96583UP]

nice article

i will probably listen to this today

[Tuolumne]

I'm gonna sound like a broken record, and Gigaton is great, but they were not lazy the 3 albums before that. The complete opposite. Just a different approach. On Gigaton they let the songs breathe naturally. On the previous albums, they would have lasered in on songs like Superblood, spent huge amounts of time streamlining the song structure, extended verses, removed transitions, connecting tempo changes, and tightening the music like crazy. It's obvious to me how hard they worked, the only criticism I will deem valid is that they *over* worked those songs. The mentality that they had and with BoB present, the 06-13 version of that band would have viewed some of these new songs as too "sloppy". They were going for cutthroat efficiency. A sideways detour into a tag like in Never Destination or the outro to Who Ever Said? Pull it out. Gigaton, they let the natural feelings of the songs shine, the compositions are kept loose and they probably labored over the sonics rather than song efficiency this time out. They've never had a major creative decline, IMO. 11 (well, 12 if you ask me) really good to excellent albums. They overcame the risk of a steep decline when they spread out the songwriting duties. One of the reasons I love this band.

My sense is that the majority of RM considers sonic layers to be the equivalent of hard work and fully fleshed out ideas. While that may be the case in terms of hard work, it is *not* lazy to beat up a song until it's tight and efficient. They followed the garage punk and pop songwriting ethos of "don't bore us get to the chorus" on Backspacer, and it is brilliant.

But back to Gigaton, I love that they are using guitars as a textural instrument, and letting the groove and keyboard atmosphere take a lead role on alot of the songs. I *really* like the idea of Ed's older voice matching up against organs, keyboard, drum programs, and synths. I could see River Cross, DOTC, Alright, and Seven oclock being great templates for his voice as he moves into his 60s in age. He's figured out a way to make that work. More importantly, the band appears to have figured out how to play behind him in this format. That's the biggest accomplishment of this album. Jeff, Stone, Matt adding in instrumentation that isn't their typical wheelhouse is extremely exciting. It shines a light on their talents and gives them new roles within the band. River Cross is actually flirting with a Doors or Velvet Undergroun kina trancy thing before they let allow a sort of earnest lift close it out, which is totally in character for Ed and the band. I really hope they keep building to these new things.

[VinylGuy]

I dont think they were lazy on both Backspacer nor LB. The first one is an album i really like while the second one is their most flawed album with i would say, at least 5 songs i really like.

But both of them suffered a lot from BOB´s production ideas. Not only how they record their instruments but the mix and most of the producing hurt a lot of those songs. Also, how their approached them..Infallible for example, im sure the demo or the initial idea was way better than the overproduced shinny pop song we got.

It didnt helped the band took so much time in between those albums for sure.

[Tuolumne]

I dont think they were lazy on both Backspacer nor LB. The first one is an album i really like while the second one is their most flawed album with i would say, at least 5 songs i really like.

But both of them suffered a lot from BOB´s production ideas. Not only how they record their instruments but the mix and most of the producing hurt a lot of those songs. Also, how their approached them..Infallible for example, im sure the demo or the initial idea was way better than the overproduced shinny pop song we got.

It didnt helped the band took so much time in between those albums for sure.

I really thing the biggest factor is time between albums. I think if there was a 5-6 year pause after No Code there would have been alot of busting on the second half. You put a microscope, even for a little bit, on some of those songs and they wouldn't have held up to that much scrutiny. Instead, we got Yield 18 months later and we kept moving into new songs.

[Ms Harmless]

I'm gonna sound like a broken record, and Gigaton is great, but they were not lazy the 3 albums before that. The complete opposite. Just a different approach. On Gigaton they let the songs breathe naturally. On the previous albums, they would have lasered in on songs like Superblood, spent huge amounts of time streamlining the song structure, extended verses, removed transitions, connecting tempo changes, and tightening the music like crazy. It's obvious to me how hard they worked, the only criticism I will deem valid is that they *over* worked those songs. The mentality that they had and with BoB present, the 06-13 version of that band would have viewed some of these new songs as too "sloppy". They were going for cutthroat efficiency. A sideways detour into a tag like in Never Destination or the outro to Who Ever Said? Pull it out. Gigaton, they let the natural feelings of the songs shine, the compositions are kept loose and they probably labored over the sonics rather than song efficiency this time out. They've never had a major creative decline, IMO. 11 (well, 12 if you ask me) really good to excellent albums. They overcame the risk of a steep decline when they spread out the songwriting duties. One of the reasons I love this band.

My sense is that the majority of RM considers sonic layers to be the equivalent of hard work and fully fleshed out ideas. While that may be the case in terms of hard work, it is *not* lazy to beat up a song until it's tight and efficient. They followed the garage punk and pop songwriting ethos of "don't bore us get to the chorus" on Backspacer, and it is brilliant.

But back to Gigaton, I love that they are using guitars as a textural instrument, and letting the groove and keyboard atmosphere take a lead role on alot of the songs. I *really* like the idea of Ed's older voice matching up against organs, keyboard, drum programs, and synths. I could see River Cross, DOTC, Alright, and Seven oclock being great templates for his voice as he moves into his 60s in age. He's figured out a way to make that work. More importantly, the band appears to have figured out how to play behind him in this format. That's the biggest accomplishment of this album. Jeff, Stone, Matt adding in instrumentation that isn't their typical wheelhouse is extremely exciting. It shines a light on their talents and gives them new roles within the band. River Cross is actually flirting with a Doors or Velvet Undergroun kina trancy thing before they let allow a sort of earnest lift close it out, which is totally in character for Ed and the band. I really hope they keep building to these new things.

the problem is, there is nothing "garage rock" about Backspacer; it's far too slickly produced for that; they achieve it, and new wave, better on Gigaton; I find that apologists for Backspacer are always rehashing their stated aims in recording it, because those stated aims were absolutely fine; before Backspacer came out and it was described to us in theory, I was super into finding out how they would accomplish that; I was excited; but the actual album is entertaining in parts, not great according to what we were told we were getting (in my opinion)