Red Mosquito

Monkey_Driven wrote:

VinylGuy wrote:

epilogue wrote:I've been listening to both of these albums a lot recently. Gigaton is far and away the better record, I think. Which is no slight to Dark Matter -- an album I admire more than I like not still really like.

Stip often tasks about the weight an album bears when it is "the last" album. I think that's fair. So it's interesting to me that I liked Gigaton more from the jump (and it actually made Lightning Bolt lesser) and also find that the addition of Dark Matter had only exacerbated that attraction. I'm excited to see what a new album reveals about Dark Matter aloud we ever get one.

But right now, I know that what Dark Matter revealed about Gigaton is substantial. The record has only gotten better to me. Gigaton is a massive achievement and a very special record; something I worried Pearl Jan was no longer capable of delivering. Dark Matter, while being more direct and satisfying than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, is a big step back from Gigaton.

This is a very interesting view, and agree with Gigaton being the better one. DM is way more direct , it feels like Vs while Gigaton feels more like a mix between No Code and Yield maybe in what its trying to do.

This is right.

DM and Gigaton provide two different flavors of PJ. DM is more of the direct, catchier version (like Vs., Yield, and Backspacer) while Gigaton is messier and more nuanced (like Vitalogy, No Code, or Riot Act). I tend to prefer the latter when reaching for an album but both have a time and a place.