The accolades for Gigaton are pouring in!
Is This Even Pearl Jam?
Like Pearl Jam have expressed alot of variation throughout their long career. But what the fuck is this? This is not Pearl Jam. No way these are the same people that could write such explosive 90's classics like "Even Flow" or "Last Exit" and it's not the band that wrote some of the most heart wrenching ballads of the their time with songs like "Better Man". This is some hollow shell of what used to be a band. Just on complete autopilot, drifting through different "experimental" soundscapes and hoping to find something that sticks, but it's a fruitless effort. Vedder & co. offer nothing on this album, with the first 2 tracks being some of the most lifeless and passionless garage rock revival music I think I've ever heard. And then the album transitions into it's genre hopping phase where it just goes beat to beat, showing no hint of effort. Only until halfway through the track "Seven O'Clock" do we get a little of Vedder's original somber delivery, which is what gave me a clue that I was still listening to Pearl Jam. The album then goes on to drone on and on through it's 56:58 run time that feels more like 86:58.
I'm aware that Pearl jam is a love it or hate it band for most, I love their early work, and appreciate alot of the mid to later albums they've put out. But this is just utter trash.
2/10.
Another bland release with several good tracks in between mountains of filler.
Pearl Jam. Household name, one of the big four of grunge, and a band that has released some of the most iconic and landmark albums and songs of all time. Ten, Vs., and Vitology - Three back to back to back albums that are near perfect in their execution and with singles that still remain rock stalwarts to this day.
After the grunge era faded, Pearl Jam released eight more albums over the past 25 years - with mixed results. No Code lacked any radio friendly hits, but is underrated and features some wonderful tracks (Off He Goes is breathtaking). Yield had several good singles, but was the first PJ album to suffer from numerous filler tracks. Binaural had some of the same energy of Vitology, and as a whole is one of the better post-grunge era releases. Riot Act was a Bush-era protest album with mixed results. The Self-Titled album was easily the strongest release since Vitology and it seemed PJ was back on track. This was not the case however as Backspacer was incredibly bland, Lightning Bolt was terrible, and Gigaton is a total mess.
The album starts out strongly with the first three tracks easily being the best on the album. Dane of the Clairvoyants may be the best PJ track in 20 years. Everything else is mediocre, major-key boomer rock. It's boring, the songs are too damn long, and there is nothing of interest in any of the other nine tracks.
4/10
a reprioritzation on groove over guitar crunch and driving melody has left Mike McCready and Stone Gossard trying to punch out of sloppy mixing - new producer Josh Evans might have long-running connections with the band but between that and the messy synth keyboard blending and that awful horn pickup on ‘Buckle Up’, he sounds over his head, especially compared to how well Brendan O’Brien managed everything.
This album consists of 12 tracks, but not that much more. It sounds okay sonically, but really didn't bring forth any interesting for one to listen to. It basicly sounds like complacency.
Why
Pearl Jam continues to write flaccid and terrible music. What a surprise.
There's a few songs where the instrumentals actually seem promising (Never Destination, Take The Long Way, Retrograde) but they just don't go anywhere. The lyrics constantly fluctuate between being way too blunt and being total nonsense. Almost every vocal melody sounds like it was written by an AI, or while half asleep. You can feel every minute of the running time.
Shameful album. Please stop making music. Quit while you have a shred of dignity left.
dull, drab, and stuck in the 90s
pearl jam continues what they've been doing for 29 years, making subpar grunge music. this album is another in a string of uninteresting bland projects, overall i would not recommend this to someone who wanted to listen to something entertaining.
And just like that, Pearl Jam have released an album equally as bad as Lightning Bolt.
The ballads are twinkly and atrocious as ever (PJ are at least always consistent in that regard, so credit there), but the worst crime of all is making boring rock'n roll, that's not cool man.
The first song was okay I guess. The fourth track had some moments.. and climate change something something or other..
You want a stripped down sombre acoustic number that doesn't irritate? Dig up Vitalogy and listen to Immortality. You want a great rock'n roll tune? Pop in Yield and listen to Do the Evolution. Those are songs.
Megaletdown
With this album, Pearl Jam moves even further into that bland mall-rock sound that began in Backspacer. The follow up, Lightning Bolt, was their worst album, until this one.
Gimme the 36 minute jaunt of Backspacer over this hour-long snoozefest twice on Sunday.
more like Superdad Album
cool album cover but the music doesn't hold up at all. i feel like i'm listening to the dave matthews band at this point.
Gigaflop.
