What Is Each Album's Major Flaw? Gigaton

[LetMeSleep]

The flaws on this album are the Ed songs. WES, SBWM, ND and RC are all average. Comes Then Goes is nice enough but drags after a while.

The other 7 tracks are all pretty strong.

[Got Some]

Buckle Up is an interesting song but I agree that it doesn't totally work on the record. Never Destination is a lesser song, in my opinion, but fits better (ditto TTLW). Buckle Up as a b-side or a Stone single would have worked much better. I really wish Stone did the vocals on it, too.

When “get it back” Was released and I was looking to substitute a song off Gigaton for it.

Buckle up was my first choice I have to say. I do love the bridge and Ed on this one but that’s about it.


For those that don’t think Stone has any power in the band. If “buckle up” was a mike/Matt song and not a stone song that he adored. Would it of made the album ??

[Anders]

Sure. Ed picked the song to work on.

And I’ve said it before, it’s one of the best on the album. Wish there were more like it.

[RidiculousHuman]

Buckle Up is an interesting song but I agree that it doesn't totally work on the record. Never Destination is a lesser song, in my opinion, but fits better (ditto TTLW). Buckle Up as a b-side or a Stone single would have worked much better. I really wish Stone did the vocals on it, too.

When “get it back” Was released and I was looking to substitute a song off Gigaton for it.

Buckle up was my first choice I have to say. I do love the bridge and Ed on this one but that’s about it.


For those that don’t think Stone has any power in the band. If “buckle up” was a mike/Matt song and not a stone song that he adored. Would it of made the album ??

It's such a quintessentially "Stone" song that I don't think Matt or especially Mike could have written it, but to answer the thrust of your question, yes, worse Mike songs have made albums before.

[ghost]

Sure. Ed picked the song to work on.

And I’ve said it before, it’s one of the best on the album. Wish there were more like it.

[RockPusher]

The flaws on this album are the Ed songs. WES, SBWM, ND and RC are all average. Comes Then Goes is nice enough but drags after a while.

The other 7 tracks are all pretty strong.

As a staunch defender of people's rights to their opinions, allow me to be a hypocrite for a second and say I will fight anyone who ever says WES is average! That song is a monster!

[E.H. Ruddock]

Ed’s vocals are bad on it though

[RockPusher]

Ed’s vocals are bad on it though

A rubble of nitpickings in the road- step aside!

[E.H. Ruddock]

The flaws on this album are the Ed songs. WES, SBWM, ND and RC are all average. Comes Then Goes is nice enough but drags after a while.

The other 7 tracks are all pretty strong.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. Except I don't lump RC in with the other three, I like it better than them. It is hard to describe, but in WES, SBWM and ND, Ed's vocals are just very 2009-2013ish.

[Monkey_Driven]

The flaws on this album are the Ed songs. WES, SBWM, ND and RC are all average. Comes Then Goes is nice enough but drags after a while.

The other 7 tracks are all pretty strong.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. Except I don't lump RC in with the other three, I like it better than them. It is hard to describe, but in WES, SBWM and ND, Ed's vocals are just very 2009-2013ish.

The phrasing/structure is similar to era but the actual recording of his vocal is much better on Gigaton IMO.

[igotworms]

In terms of the overall flow of the album, Gigaton would benefit from Comes Then Goes being a verse and a chorus shorter. It really slows things down in a back third that's already slow anyway.

But overall, after a year of listening, it's a strong 4* album for me. S/T still my favourite post-Binaural album tho.

[Kevin Davis]

The flaws on this album are the Ed songs. WES, SBWM, ND and RC are all average. Comes Then Goes is nice enough but drags after a while.

The other 7 tracks are all pretty strong.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel. Except I don't lump RC in with the other three, I like it better than them. It is hard to describe, but in WES, SBWM and ND, Ed's vocals are just very 2009-2013ish.

I actually think the EV rockers are kind of the saving grace of the album, which feels weird to say about an album that finally seems so open to the idea of shedding familiar tropes. This is probably my favorite trio of EV-penned rock songs on an album since "Breakerfall," "Insignificance," and "Grievance" -- I feel like each song is compelling in its own way, with its own quirks and surprises, but at the same time are all very much in the same language and illuminate each other such that they're all elevated by each other's company. I can totally hear that they have that same "EV guitar song" vibe to them that informs not only songs like "Lightning Bolt," "GSMF," et al., but also the many scrappy live versions of "Whipping," "Lukin," etc. from the last 15 or so years, but I feel like they're just written and executed at a higher, more complex standard.

They don't make up my top tier of songs on the album (that would be "Dance," "TTLW," and "Buckle Up"), but along with "Quick Escape," they're one rung down.

I don't know that there's one consistent thematic weakness to Gigaton that really bothers me, apart from the fact that there are 4-5 songs on it that I really just don't care for -- "Alright," "Retrograde," and "River Cross" specifically, and "Seven O'Clock" about which I have mixed feelings (love the music and some of the chorus/bridge parts, but the Springsteen-ish verses are dreadful). "Comes Then Goes" is good, but its length and presence in a block of four slow songs do drag it down a bit. So I guess maybe its big weakness for me is that in general the slower, more contemplative material doesn't consistently rise to the level of the uptempo stuff, and the concentration of it at the end of the album causes the flow to fizzle a bit.

[surfndestroy]

Too many syllables. Shit’s never allowed to breath.

Ed in general. Too many words and syllables, and his voice is now the weak link in the band.

[knee tunes]

Too many syllables. Shit’s never allowed to breath.

Ed in general. Too many words and syllables, and his voice is now the weak link in the band.

stfu


*with love

[Got Some]

Buckle Up is an interesting song but I agree that it doesn't totally work on the record. Never Destination is a lesser song, in my opinion, but fits better (ditto TTLW). Buckle Up as a b-side or a Stone single would have worked much better. I really wish Stone did the vocals on it, too.

When “get it back” Was released and I was looking to substitute a song off Gigaton for it.

Buckle up was my first choice I have to say. I do love the bridge and Ed on this one but that’s about it.


For those that don’t think Stone has any power in the band. If “buckle up” was a mike/Matt song and not a stone song that he adored. Would it of made the album ??

It's such a quintessentially "Stone" song that I don't think Matt or especially Mike could have written it, but to answer the thrust of your question, yes, worse Mike songs have made albums before.

Matt could of and if he did I doubt it would of made the album.

Matt obviously loved “get it back” but it didn’t make Gigaton

[Ms Harmless]

Too many syllables. Shit’s never allowed to breath.

Ed in general. Too many words and syllables, and his voice is now the weak link in the band.

stfu


*with love

say what you want about Ed, PJ would be absolutely generic without him; and that's not a complaint about the level of their musicianship

[liebzz]

Too many syllables. Shit’s never allowed to breath.

Ed in general. Too many words and syllables, and his voice is now the weak link in the band.

stfu


*with love

say what you want about Ed, PJ would be absolutely generic without him; and that's not a complaint about the level of their musicianship

Not to go down the alternative history rabbit hole, but if Andrew Wood were fronting this band for 30 years, my guess is they probably wouldn’t be my favorite band, I would probably like them though and not consider them bland. I have no idea what kind of music I would be listening to though without the Pearl Jam we know and love. Really the launchpad into everything I later came to like - even the stuff that sounds nothing at all like them.

[VinylGuy]

I love most of their side projects so im not sure i but that theory... Hell, i loooove Green River and that was before PJ...

[Anders]

If Ed quit the band in the mid 90s, and they decided to continue with Cornell (TOTD, no Audioslave), that would have been just as good.

Who knows what Ed could have done solo.

[Thurman Murman]

Too many syllables. Shit’s never allowed to breath.

Ed in general. Too many words and syllables, and his voice is now the weak link in the band.

stfu


*with love

say what you want about Ed, PJ would be absolutely generic without him; and that's not a complaint about the level of their musicianship

Not to go down the alternative history rabbit hole, but if Andrew Wood were fronting this band for 30 years, my guess is they probably wouldn’t be my favorite band, I would probably like them though and not consider them bland. I have no idea what kind of music I would be listening to though without the Pearl Jam we know and love. Really the launchpad into everything I later came to like - even the stuff that sounds nothing at all like them.

Not only would they not have been my favorite band for 30 years but i doubt they would have even been on my radar.

Andrew Wood may have been a charismatic performer, but he was in no way what i was drawn to 30 years ago.