Red Mosquito

Strat wrote:This fucking album.

Man alive.

Spun this today after a few days break. Yep, it’s still pretty fucking tasty.

30 years in...pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Tuolumne wrote:

stip wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:

PHATJ wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:

PHATJ wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:

PHATJ wrote:Gigaton is Eddie Vedder’s best performance since Vs.

It's a good record, but c'mon man. He wrote most of Vitalogy and No Code.

I think I like Gigaton better.

Perhaps you've spent too much time in quarantine...

I’m sure I like it better than No Code. I’m about 90% sure on Vitalogy now too.

It's just too soon for me to make any sort of statement like that, but I'm happy to hear you enjoy it so much.

I am pretty confident that even if it ages poorly it will rank ahead of no code, riot act, and binaural. all those albums have songs I feel like I need to make excuses for. There is none of that here

Truth. Those albums are underrated by the mainstream but overrated by the hardcore fanbase. The second half of No code is a mess, and parts of Binaural are good faith efforts and worthwhile but belong nowhere near the essential PJ canon. I think the band themselves would be the first to admit that. Gigaton is somewhere in Yield territory in terms of being universal but idiosyncratic at the same time.

the band would be "first to admit" a lot of bollocks about the quality of their output tbh, I use my own feelings to gauge it

I like Gigaton a lot.

I still spin it daily.

It's clever, interesting and fun.

It's not better than Vitalogy or No Code.

injuddstree wrote:I like Gigaton a lot.

I still spin it daily.

It's clever, interesting and fun.

It's not better than Vitalogy or No Code.

Definitely not Vitalogy.

Still not ready to commit to the No Code of it all.

I'm listening to this thing on shuffle, and may I say that "Take The Long Way" sounds fucking GREAT smashing in after "Comes Then Goes"

Ms Harmless wrote:I'm listening to this thing on shuffle, and may I say that "Take The Long Way" sounds fucking GREAT smashing in after "Comes Then Goes"

I want more of the retrograde outro.

If ever there was a "reprise" to be included somewhere. Why not this moment? They'd have to retrack it, but allow 3 more minutes later on and we get a tidy, 60 minute album.

I’m still going through this album and haven’t listed to it much the past week or so but I think my top 5 on the album are:
DOTC
Alright
SBWM
Comes Then Goes
Take The Long Way

Current rankings:

Quick Escape
DotC
Comes Then Goes (biggest riser lately)
Seven o’Clock
Who Ever Said
Never Destination
Alright
River Cross
Superblood Wolfman (moving up actually)
Take the Long Way
Buckle Up
Retrograde (cheese)

The first half is more fun, which is hard to come by these days. I keep going back to it. The back half drags. Not giving it as much of a chance yet.

elliseamos wrote:I want more of the retrograde outro.

If ever there was a "reprise" to be included somewhere. Why not this moment? They'd have to retrack it, but allow 3 more minutes later on and we get a tidy, 60 minute album.

This outro is so good. Matt is kicking ass. He might be the best part of the song while also being the worst part of the song in the first half.

Leatherhead wrote:

elliseamos wrote:I want more of the retrograde outro.

If ever there was a "reprise" to be included somewhere. Why not this moment? They'd have to retrack it, but allow 3 more minutes later on and we get a tidy, 60 minute album.

This outro is so good. Matt is kicking ass. He might be the best part of the song while also being the worst part of the song in the first half.

I agree about the beginning. It really seems out of place, but then... THEN!

Gigaton isn't even 3 weeks old yet so ranking it accurately seems impossible. I haven't listened straight through in a few days but I definitely keep coming back to more than a few tracks. It gets a ton of hate around here but "Retrograde" is the big sleeper hit for me. I don't think I'd even have it in the top 5 but I just keep coming back to it. It's haunting. The same effect happened with "Army Reserve."

I was huge into S/T when that came out and it was top 3 PJ for years. Definitely thought it was a big step up from Binaural/Riot Act. As I've gotten older those two albums have really grown on me a lot though (probably as I've hit the age the lads were at when they recorded them). I still like S/T a lot but it's for sure fallen down the list.

I'd still rank all of the 90's output ahead of Gigaton. Vs, No Code, and Yield are my current top 3. NC is the most experimental PJ album to me but Yield, while at times pretty daring is also so much more confident and Gigaton gets closest to that feel so I'd give it an edge over Binaural but damn it's close.

Ok, Im ready for new music.

Gave it 4 more complete listens over the weekend. Still love it. SBWM has grown on me, like hair on the wolfman Ed pays tribute to in the song. Retrograde is slowly but surely sinking its claws into me. I enjoy the bombast after a couple of mellow tunes. The only song that isn't really working for me at all yet is River Cross, but that will probably change with time.

I have given this at least 3 proper listens now but I feel like some of it hasn't sunk in yet. Whoever Said and SBWM are the two songs stuck in my head the most, I suppose because of their catchy choruses. This weekend I think I'll give it another proper front to back listen, in the meantime I have a bunch of other recently added music so it's time for Gigaton to be mixed in with the randomness while I listen while working.

I’ve listened from cover to cover at least 25 times, plus another few dozen times in random order. I sometimes have five day stretches when I’m home alone during the quarantine, and with no live sports to be consumed, it’s been a lot of Gigaton for me. Some days I’ve had the album on for 12 straight hours. That said, I’ve also had days (like yesterday) where I haven’t listened to a single song for the album, so I haven’t at all burned myself out on it. The last Pearl Jam album I could’ve or would’ve done this kind of intense listening without burning myself out would probably have been Yield (maybe Vitalogy). I was a young teen for those releases, now I’ll be 40 in three months. It’s amazing any band could affect me in such a powerful way two and a half decades later. Remarkable.

I've still only listened to this 4 times. I enjoy it a lot. Maybe just trying to not over do it

I should probably rank the songs at some point too. I know that's important

I’m struggling with the second half of the album. WES > Seven O’clock is a fantastic run but the back half isn’t grabbing me. The final 3 songs are a real slog.

I think the album could have done with an injection of energy towards the end.

current ranking

Dance
Superblood Wolfmoon
Who Ever Said
Comes then Goes
Quick Escape
River Cross
Seven Oclock
All Right
Buckle Up
Never Destination
Take the Long Way
Retrograde

1 and 12 seem to be the constants

one thought I had was that it seems to get deeper and more sophisticated, lyrically, sonically and thematically, as it goes; begins quite poppy, ends really quite meditative and sombre