Gigaton: Official album thread

[Ms Harmless]

For some reason Alright is getting to me these days.

I love how it sounds really.

[VinylGuy]

I didnt quite liked Retrograde when it came out, felt something out from LB. I kinda love it now yeah.

7 O Clock is one of my favs from Gigaton, a wonderful song full of different things happening at once, with the band being super tight and a very cool melody and lyrics.

Hope i can see it live

[Ms Harmless]

Retrograde feels like some lost 70's rock ballad to me and I love that (the video fits that vibe too)

[VinylGuy]

I love how the synths sound. I imagine that very exact song in LB sucking very very hard.

[Ms Harmless]

definitely, Josh knew where to go with it

[oneway23]

I'm really not diametrically opposed to either song...Don't despise any PJ song, really.
I guess I'd say those two are more mood dependent for me, whereas with most of the rest of the catalog, I can pretty much pluck any song at random and be content.

Probably the first time I'd ever experienced that with PJ before

If I'm not in the right frame of mind, I find them a bit maudlin, even for a weepy sort like me.

[stip]

Retrograde is like Sirens. There's such an unhurried quality to them both that feels part relaxed, part deliberate, almost lazy (though that's not the best word) that I need to slide into, but once I do they're impactful.

[oneway23]

Retrograde is like Sirens. There's such an unhurried quality to them both that feels part relaxed, part deliberate, almost lazy (though that's not the best word) that I need to slide into, but once I do they're impactful.

I think they both have a "settled in" quality to them. There's a quiet confidence in both songs...Completely comfortable in who they are as a band at this point in their lives, and what they each "bring to the table", so to speak, for better or worse.

[stip]

settled in is nice phrasing

[oneway23]

settled in is nice phrasing

On the other side of the coin, I suppose it could also be inferred as an implied insult, in a way.

One could view the songs of this ilk in their catalog as lacking in ambition, to an extent, but, I do think there is still a certain value in the notion of professional songcraft, even if that's not exactly what my personal mental construct of what Pearl Jam as a band should look like. That's a different thread.

Let's just say I'm optimistic when I hear them say that the Wotman made strides in shaking them out of their recent patterns.

[Val]

Songs like Retrograde and 7 O'Clock, while they have some decent component parts, are worst Pearl Jam, for me...The road I wish they never took that they stubbornly just seem to insist on ambling down.
Mid-tempo, aging, roots-rock adjacent MOR schlock.

Hope Watmon beat that complacency out of 'em

Yes to every letter in this post

[Val]

.Don't despise any PJ song, really.

I despise SBM and Future Days.

[oneway23]

.Don't despise any PJ song, really.

I despise SBM and Future Days.

I get the resistance to the cloying schlock factor, I really do.

Without getting into too much needless detail, I'll just say that my appreciation has grown exponentially in the past few years for songs like Sirens & Future Days, in particular...

I don't view them as I once did. It feels much more a case of my acknowledgement that certain swerves in life have led to my being better able to much more clearly see the perspective Ed might have been viewing things from when he wrote them.

The BO'B playing still doesn't survive my wrath, though. Borders on inexcusable producer incursion, imo.

I do unabashedly enjoy SBM. It's a bit kitsch, admittedly, but, very Ed in the way he expresses how he's touching on the subject

[Ms Harmless]

I love the Sirens love here, and everything about Future Days is lovely imo apart from that ridiculously intrusive piano

[oneway23]

apart from that ridiculously intrusive piano

So tasteless

[stip]

i love all 3 (SBM most of all) but that future days piano is SO bad. And the autumunal strings are really nice. more of that, please

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Kevin Davis]

In a lot of ways I think "Sleeping By Myself" is the most creative thing on Lightning Bolt. I loved the introverted, resigned version on Ukulele Songs, and I love how the full-band version just completely casts all fidelity to the subject matter aside and revels in the concept of rearrangement purely for the fun of it.

Ten years and some musical context out from Lightning Bolt, I find my favorite songs on it tend to be the ones that really lean into the garish, non-PJ-ish components of it -- "Sirens," "SBM," "Let the Records Play." A completely different list than I would have made in 2013.

"Future Days" I've never warmed to, unfortunately.

[oneway23]

I don't feel anything about harmless at all.

Heartless, yo

There's a fragility to the instrumental bed during "I believe... and I believe, that we can see" that I think is so compelling.

correct