A new Pearl Jam record after 7 whole years! This is the biggest time gap between two studio albums by the legendary band and one can easily reckon that the expectations were high and well justified. And as it happens with every single Pearl Jam album, it takes time and lots of listening sessions in order to fully grasp Vedder’s and the rest of the lads’ vision. “Gigaton” is not of course the exception to this rule thus this review has been written after many careful sessions but at the same time under the prism of certainty that many more things will surface in time. But that’s the way it goes…
“Dance of the Clairvoyants” was the first single and I am sure it caught many fans off guard as it was like listening to…Talking Heads although it was catchy and Vedder had come up with some excellent bunch of lyrics. The opening track “Who ever said” and the follow up “Superblood Wolfmoon” are classic Pearl Jam tunes and quite reminiscent of the atmosphere of the last couple of records. Pure rock with straight up/in your face drums, sharp guitars by McCready and Gossard and catchy as hell choruses. Quite possibly Vedder delivers the memorable lines here: Who ever said “it’s all been said”, gave up on satisfaction! The next highlight is for sure “Never Destination”; a song that could easily be Pearl Jam’s “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” while “Seven O’ Clock” and “Comes Then Goes” reveal once again Springsteen’s and Young’s influence respectively.
Personally, I didn’t expect of “Gigaton” to reach the quality level of the magnificent “Backspacer” (after all, this was the best Pearl Jam record since the “No Code” days) or to even score a similar hit like “Mind Your Manners”. Nevertheless, it’s a great record although I could have done with less ballads for that matter. Again…keep in mind that more things will surface in the future…
Highlight: The composition and recording of the album started in 2017 and was completed in the far end of 2019.
