hlniv wrote:Listening thru Gigaton now. These last two albums are superb.
PJ eras at this point:
1. Ten/Vs/Vitalogy
2. No Code/Yield
3. Binaural/Riot Act
4. Avocado/Backspacer/Lightning Bolt
5. Gigaton/Dark Matter
Ranking these groupings, I'd put #5 right there with #2 and #3.
I always loved this as a thought exercise. Actually all the albums (thematically) pair up really well right now, as luck would have it
1)Ten - VS
2)Vitalogy - No Code (No Code is, in many ways, a response to Vitalogy)
3) Yield - Binaural (I think an argument could be made (I make it in the book) that Binaural is not so much a response to Yield as the evolution of the tensions that exist below its surface
4) Riot Act - S/T. Sonically different but these are the Bush Administration albums. It's REM's Around the Sun and Accelerate, in Pearl Jam form
5) Backspacer - Lightning Bolt. These are the albums where the middle aged fear of loss/what is my legacy themes emerge. They are also the Obama administration albums, and the initial wave of optimism getting ground down by deeper, systemic problems around how our communities constitute themselves is all over here
6) Gigaton - Dark Matter. These are elder statesmen reflecting on their experiences and legacy and how to message it to the next generation. They are personal records, and deal with a lot of ideas in Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, but there is a shift as the audience (their children's generation as well as their own) as the rising generation is now ready to act on its own
I think there's also a thematic arc that starts in Ten and completes in Backspacer, and another one that begins in Backspacer and is still unfolding (and likely wont' resolve unless Pearl Jam sits down to intentionally make a FINAL album). Backspacer really is an important pivot record thinking about this stuff.
