Gigaton: Official album thread

[Monkey_Driven]

It went from ¨yeah i dont think i will listen to this one¨ to ¨FUCK YEAH I WANNA DANCE¨ to me.

Yeah, I've learned to embrace the unusual structure of the song. It's Gigaton's take on the throwaway rocker (i.e. Big Wave or Supersonic), but there's more there than you think after a few listens.

[VinylGuy]

Well, it doesnt belong in the same category at Supersonic. The structure is bonkers, Ed sounds fucking great and guys..the groove. The guitars are TASTYYYYYY

[Jaeti]

Enjoying this album more and more with each listen, but boy howdy does SBWM take me out of it every time.

Same, buddy

Not gonna argue anyone's song preferences, but it's probably fairly ideal that it comes in the second slot rather than mid-album, right? Better to be "taken out" before you're "fully in" (WES's excellence notwithstanding).

Especially assuming DOTC's excellence gets you right back in early in the album.

[Jaeti]

Enjoying this album more and more with each listen, but boy howdy does SBWM take me out of it every time.

Same, buddy

Not gonna argue anyone's song preferences, but it's probably fairly ideal that it comes in the second slot rather than mid-album, right? Better to be "taken out" before you're "fully in" (WES's excellence notwithstanding).

Especially assuming DOTC's excellence gets you right back in early in the album.

My personal analogy: I don't love STBC or Whipping, but Whipping's placement has always been much more of an irritant coming after tracks 3, 4, and 5 there.

[McParadigm]

I love SBWM. It's got all of the fun energy that Backspacer wanted to have, with none of the over-calculation and reductionism that record used to get there.

Someone compared it to an excited, yippy dog, or something like that. I like that.

[Ms Harmless]

my biggest problem with SBWM, with or without album context, is still that drum intro; after the authentic energy of WES, it's like the tire deflates, and the truck only starts up again at the guitar riff; that one-two punch of the album could be so much more tight and impactful with that fat trimmed off

still, it kicks ass anyway

[bune]

Listened to it again last night with headphones. still an amazing effort all-round. the only part of it that I like instead of love is some bits of Who Ever Said, Never Destination and Take the Long Way.

I immediately started Lightning Bolt and it was eery how similar the tracking is for the two albums.

[evenslow]

SBWM has only gotten better for me. Love it.

[McParadigm]

that drum intro

It does amuse me some, just how far off course a song has to be these days for Pearl Jam to not open the studio cut with a drum beat lead-in.

[Ms Harmless]

that drum intro

It does amuse me some, just how far off course a song has to be these days for Pearl Jam to not open the studio cut with a drum beat lead-in.

these guys used to be SO GOOD and inventive with their intros, what happened?

[stip]

do most start that way? I had not noticed but will watch for it now

[McParadigm]

do most start that way? I had not noticed but will watch for it now

I was happy that this time around, the producer and band tried to fold it under other stuff and make it feel less samey (see: Quick Escape, Seven O'Clock, and Never Destination).

[liebzz]

River Cross does not have a drum opening. Nor does Comes Then Goes. Nor Buckle Up. Nor Retrograde. But all the spunky numbers do.

[Ms Harmless]

do most start that way? I had not noticed but will watch for it now

I was happy that this time around, the producer and band tried to fold it under other stuff and make it feel less samey (see: Quick Escape, Seven O'Clock, and Never Destination).

even Who Ever Said's outro is clearly tacked on (Josh said it's taken from elsewhere) so without it you might just have the thud of those bass drums

[Ms Harmless]

River Cross does not have a drum opening. Nor does Comes Then Goes. Nor Buckle Up. Nor Retrograde. But all the spunky numbers do.

River Cross does, but it's just a couple of tom hits

[RockPusher]

I love SBWM. It's got all of the fun energy that Backspacer wanted to have, with none of the over-calculation and reductionism that record used to get there.

That's pretty much exactly how I've been thinking of it, though I don't believe I love it as much as you do.

[Ms Harmless]

PJ always had drum intros (Last Exit and Satan's Bed come to mind) so if I see the new ones in that context it's fine; they're just a little less characterful now, simply because PJ is less noisy

[RockPusher]

I was thinking about it and it seems that Jeff and Matt were the ones that were most liberated by the departure of BoB. With Matt, he just seems to be contributing a lot more with his drumming on Gigaton, and I imagine some of that could be because PJ is his only band now. Both he and Jeff are the experimenters of the group, and it seems that BoB didn't really like the experimenting. If they continue with Josh Evans, I could see their next album bringing out a little more of the mad scientist in the other band members- Ed and Stone used to try out various things, and it would be nice to see that happen again. And who knows, with Mike talking about finger-picking and singing, we could be in for a whole lot of new varieties of Pearl Jam.

[96583UP]

i don't think PJ writes another album

but i do enjoy this one

[Tuolumne]

You know if Ed decided not to do this it would've been ... Dave Grohl. Dude shows up everywhere as the "rock" guy. I like Dave as much as the next person, but man his shiteating grin and head banging hair thing can really feel overexposed sometimes.