I’m just not sure what they are trying to accomplish. Some more Pink Floyd psychedelic instrumentation. “River Cross” closes Gigaton and continues the odd experimentation. “Retrograde” isn’t a horrible song as Pearl Jam appears to think outside the box for this one but like “Seven O’Clock” it limps to the finish line with an over the top near convoluted musical jam of sorts. Great solo from Mike McCready.Īcoustic guitar and Vedder’s baritone highlight “Comes Then Goes” a slow and simple but enjoyable track that makes you pause for a bit. “Take the Long Way” keeps the pace up and sounds so garage-y minus the grunge this could be a forgotten first album song. I returned a few days later to listen to the rest of Gigaton and thankfully “Never Destination” begins the second half of the album with some power and melody. Yep, needed some prominent melody and something enjoyable to listen to. Halfway through I turned it off and started listening to… The longest song on Gigaton, “Seven O’Clock” starts off OK then took like molasses to end thus reminded me of where Pearl Jam fails. They pulled “Alright” straight from the 70s with stylish drums and haunting guitar work. This felt something different than typical Pearl Jam. Heavy and hard with lots of gritty guitar. “Quick Escape” followed and again proved I had jumped the pre-judgement gun. “Dance of the Clairvoyants” proved me wrong! A great song and a departure from the usual Pearl Jam fare. Don’t get me wrong, both deliver as good opening tracks but I suppose it just sounded redundant. “Superblood Wolfman” simply added to this notion. I turned it off after halfway through the second track “Superblood Wolfmoon.” The opening track “Who Ever Said” showed promise but a minute in Gigaton was already sounding little different than early Pearl Jam albums. I played Gigaton the day it was released on March 27. So, why do I begin with a quasi-rant prior to the Pearl Jam Gigaton album review? Just to be transparent in the event my dislike for Pearl Jam filters through. I then started to wonder who really had the mental illness. There’s a time and a place and a rock concert is not one for political theater especially with the imagery I drove home with. Singer Eddie Vedder using a quadriplegic as a prop to get his political points across at a rock concert ruined the show and ended any respect I had for this band.ĭo you want to see a wheel-chair bound paralyzed man (I can’t remember if tubes were sticking out of his mouth and neck but probably) dangled on stage with the singer demanding the man be able to kill himself? I more or less gave up on Pearl Jam when I finally got to see these stalwarts live after their Lightning Bolt album which I thoroughly enjoyed. That being said if I had a favorite, I would have chosen Pearl Jam easily over Nirvana. It was the latest and greatest and this too shall pass. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t get caught up in its frenzy. I never fell for the grunge shtick when it took the world by storm so many years ago with Nirvana and Pearl Jam leading the way. Rock music’s most arrogant band released their 11 th studio album a week ago (March 27) and while Pearl Jam does explore some new angles, the 12 song, nearly hour long Gigaton sounds slovenly at times with few peaks and sometimes sounding like everything else the pioneers of grunge rock have made since they came onto the scene 30 years ago.
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