Gigaton: Official album thread

[epilogue]

I can’t remember ever getting the sense that a record massively outperformed the prior one until Gigaton. The rest always were exciting because they felt new and it seemed at first a jump in quality just because the other songs were so lived in.

I can’t really fathom getting another jump like this into the next one because I think this is pretty close to as good an album they can create at this stage in their career, but I am sure I can be surprised.

The bar was set so incredibly low with Lightning Bolt

And yet it's still a thousand times better than Backspacer.

Ha, no.

Truly!

[liebzz]

I mostly see Backspacer and Lightning Bolt as basically equivalent. Backspacer probably has a bit more of energy behind it so I reluctantly would take it over Lightning Bolt, even though to its credit Lightning Bolt seems more cohesive, even if that cohesion is recycling elements of everything they had already done but in a less enthusiastic way. Truth is they are both good albums but these are the only ones in the Pearl Jam catalogue I would not even think about in terms of the albums that have had impact and meaning to me. They are simply good albums and Pearl Jam for me set the bar higher than that. If I were to list, in theory, my 200 or so favorite albums, 9 of them would be Pearl Jam albums (10 if you count Lost Dogs). Backspacer and Lightning Bolt are nowhere near that conversation. I don’t dislike the albums but that’s the sort of decline in quality I perceive compared with all the rest. That makes Gigaton that huge jump.

[stip]

Lightning Bolt has always reminded me of REM's Collapse Into Now. A good record that feels a little recycled (which I think is a consequence of its production - I don't think that claim holds up to much scrutiny). Except REM followed it up by retiring, and Pearl Jam followed it up by releasing one of their most vibrant albums. A lot of the same themes as lightning bolt, too. It was nice to see them try again and do it even better

[VinylGuy]

well, i dont agree with that at all. LB pretty much suffers from the worst production ever. Its not a bad album, it has maybe 6 great songs, but the production makes the other stuff sounds almost unlistenable.

Collapse is such a great album, and the fact thats the last one adds to its value.

[PHATJ]

Collapse Into Now is better than Lightning Bolt in every conceivable way.

[liebzz]

I like 2/3 of Collapse Into Now, but I think it’s a different beast than Lightning Bolt. Pearl Jam is 100% playing it safe on Lightning Bolt. Only Pendulum presents itself as even attempting to push any boundaries and that song had apparently been marinating for at least a few album cycles.

Collapse Into Now is more all over the place. It does in parts seem to try to bridge the gap between the Up/Reveal era and Accelerate, but feels more on the line between an album pushing its limits and keeping the band’s core sound. It feels a lot looser than Lightning Bolt. And blaming the production on Lightning Bolt obscures the fact that there are so many great pieces in there that the band straight made the wrong decision on. Sirens should have been one of those smoky back room atmospheric songs that Mike tears into, like NAIS or 1/2 Full but instead is turned to a schmaltzy song trying to sound like they wanted another Black. Infallible has musical pieces that could have rivaled Tremor Christ but but the band nearly turns that into a preachy ballad.

Future Days is just a disaster - a band somehow deciding that a Bon Jovi level cheese ballad would work - like Eddie’s in a room thinking “hey, we have all these great fans and they’re getting married now and need a song to dance to - I got it!”

There certainly are songs here I like and will happily defend, and some of the mediocrity is in the production, but there’s blame to go all around. They could have hit a home run if many of these ideas took slightly different turns, but instead they hit a solid single.

[PHATJ]

I can somewhat agree with that.

The difference for me is that R.E.M. didn’t fuck up their songs. I mean, Discoverer is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs ever. I love It Happened Today (that would have been an awesome closer btw). I am a big fan of Mine Smell Like Honey and Alligator_. I think both of those songs are great R.E.M. rock tunes; not as good as Living Well is the Best Revenge, but always fun to listen to. There are some sweet love tunes in the classic R.E.M. vein, and some artsy songs that may not push new boundaries, but are beautifully written nonetheless and performed with the Grace a band of their stature should exude. I love it. And I don’t think it lacks heart or soul. And it was a beautiful way to say goodbye to R.E.M.

Lightning Bolt is none of those things. It’s miss after miss with faint reminders of a band that formally had albums with barely any skip-able songs. Every song on LB begs for something more, something better. They’re all skip-able really.

Anyway. I love Collapse Into Now. Maybe more than most. Be even so, Lightning Bolt doesn’t sniff its jock.

[liebzz]

I agree that Discoverer is incredible and It Happened Today is really awesome. I am less keen on Oh My Heart. It’s definitely a very good album and I think adds to R.E.M.’s vast and great catalogue.

As rough as I was, I don’t think Lightning Bolt is all bad. There are good songs there. I am even the #1 LTRP apologist.

[Leatherhead]

LB sounds lazy. Everything sounds half-baked.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[VinylGuy]

Collapse Into Now is better than Lightning Bolt in every conceivable way.

PhatJ’s endless love for PJ combined with his ruthless hate of BS/LB is one of my favorite things about RM

i mean that wasnt a very weird take.

[PHATJ]

Collapse Into Now is better than Lightning Bolt in every conceivable way.

PhatJ’s endless love for PJ combined with his ruthless hate of BS/LB is one of my favorite things about RM

LOL! I’m glad someone appreciates anything about me at this point.

[TremorJam]

I'm so happy with this album. It was the daily soundtrack for the early stages of CoVid and sounds INCREDIBLE in my car. "Quick Escape" & "Retrograde" especially. There isn't a bad song on the record for me. Josh Evans done a phenomenal job

[Monkey_Driven]

I'm so happy with this album. It was the daily soundtrack for the early stages of CoVid and sounds INCREDIBLE in my car. "Quick Escape" & "Retrograde" especially. There isn't a bad song on the record for me. Josh Evans done a phenomenal job

[stip]

Happy Birthday Gigaton

[Strat]

Pj doing a listening party on twitter with comments from the band. Nothing earth shattering yet

Dance of the C's is legit a top tier pearl jam song. Easily top 10 if not higher.

Damn what a song.

[VinylGuy]

What an amazing album this is.

[Ms Harmless]

Pj doing a listening party on twitter with comments from the band. Nothing earth shattering yet

Dance of the C's is legit a top tier pearl jam song. Easily top 10 if not higher.

Damn what a song.

Can you get higher than top 10?

[Strat]

Pj doing a listening party on twitter with comments from the band. Nothing earth shattering yet

Dance of the C's is legit a top tier pearl jam song. Easily top 10 if not higher.

Damn what a song.

Can you get higher than top 10?

Perhaps it will crack the top 7

[E.H. Ruddock]

Happy birthday to Gigaton