IN REVIEW: Pearl Jam - "Gigaton"

Let's get one thing straight out of the way: Gigaton isn't the grand return to form some of those glowing pre-release reviews might lead you to believe. I've personally read some critics talk about how this is Pearl Jam's best record in twenty years and, while I can see how it would strike people that way at first blush, I can't in good conscience as a longtime fan look past the inconsistencies in quality that pepper this record. The way I see it, to turn a blind eye to this album's shortcomings is a disservice to myself and anyone who's reading this right now.

Of course, by "shortcomings", I'm not talking about the album itself; at 57 minutes with nary an interlude or hidden track to be heard, Gigaton certainly lives up to its title in terms of relative size; it's Pearl Jam's longest album to date, and they do allow the songs ample room to breathe, with tracks routinely stretching out toward the five minute range or longer. This is undoubtedly one of the album's greatest strengths, as some of these songs benefit from a wider vision; immediate standout Quick Escape gains the most from this approach, taking time to unfold while packing as many grooves as possible into its frame before blossoming into a shimmering Mike McCready climax (though the bass work on this track by Jeff Ament is right up there with that McCready solo). Album opener Who Ever Said uses its space to put its feelers into a few different directions, and while I never thought a Pearl Jam song would ever remind me of '80s hair metallers Dangerous Toys, damn if that chorus wasn't subconsciously taken from that band's 1989 minor hit Scared.

As for the pair of pre-release singles, they've both grown on me considerably since my initial lukewarm reactions; Dance of the Clairvoyants, despite its off-putting drum programming and pulsating synths, gets the job done by virtue of its groove, and there are flatter experiments on Gigaton in the form of the spacey, quiet Alright and the jaunty, off-kilter Buckle Up. Those songs are interesting detours, surely, but I'm not finding much reason to go back to them repeatedly. Superblood Wolfmoon, meanwhile, might be just another standard Pearl Jam garage-punk rocker, but it carries the album's energy early on and, as the energy gets sapped on the album's home stretch, it ends up being the kind of song I wanted a little more of here.

Now, it's certainly no secret that the band's defaults have slowly shifted toward slower, more introspective material over the last twenty years or so, but it's still a little disappointing to get yet another album from Pearl Jam that uses this grey-washed template for about half of the album; the aforementioned Alright is followed by the mediocre ballad Seven O'Clock, which aims for a big payoff at its conclusion but doesn't quite get off the ground. Then, there's the closing cluster of ballads that ensure any energetic impulses are left behind with 21 minutes of run time remaining. This clumping of fast and slow is probably this album's biggest deterrent; four upbeat tracks, two ballads, two upbeat tracks, four ballads is how this thing is sequenced. I'm not sure if switching some tracks around would have resulted in better or worse flow, but when given the choice between some jarring tempo shifts and getting bogged down in the muck for 21 minutes, I think I'll take the former.

It's especially frustrating because at least two of those ballads down the stretch are among the band's finest post-Binaural work; Retrograde, what sounds like a fully fleshed-out evolution of a Vedder track that could have been on Into the Wild, absolutely soars through the clouds as it reaches its conclusion, Vedder's howls getting further and further away as the music swells like storm clouds around him. Just before that is Gigaton's quiet masterpiece, the six-minute acoustic ballad Comes Then Goes; this has to be at least partially written for Chris Cornell, who tragically passed almost three years ago and was close friends with the entire band. It's simple and effective in its execution, and its heartbreaking lyrics mark an emotional high point for the band the likes of which I haven't heard since, say, Thumbing My Way in 2002.

The songs I haven't touched on don't make much of a strong impression either way; Never Destination is another politically charged rocker (and, though I won't be one of those reviewers that make Gigaton sound like "Pearl Jam's anti-Trump record", there are probably more lyrics leaning that way than not here), while Take the Long Way is a Matt Cameron composition and sounds like it with its verse's odd time signature and layered, otherworldly vocals; I wanted to like this one more than I do on first listen, and hopefully it grows on me like the singles did. Album closer River Cross, meanwhile, ends things on a morose note, its pump organ and plucked strings accompanying a Vedder dirge that seems to lack urgency; that said, I think it's more a victim of circumstance than anything, following three other ballads on the record.

In the past, I've been guilty of allowing my fandom to dictate my feelings about new Pearl Jam music; I gushed over Lightning Bolt seven years ago, and now I think it's their worst album. Gigaton is thoroughly, assuredly better than Lightning Bolt, but I'm being very careful to temper my excitement this time out; that said, just as time and repeated spins revealed Lightning Bolt to be the sub-par failed experiment I felt it was, I hope things work in the opposite fashion with Gigaton. After three full listens, there isn't much that jumps out as an obvious highlight, and there are a lot of slow burns to be had.

Perhaps, given more of a chance, some of the songs that failed to stick with me will reveal their charms. Honestly, though, I'd rather talk smack about it and be proven wrong than heap praises on it when it doesn't deserve it. In the here and now, my initial take on Gigaton is that it tries to be massive in scope and message but, through its clumsy sequencing and over-reliance on balladry, just kind of melts away as it goes.

March 27, 2020 • Monkeywrench/Republic
Highlights Who Ever Said • Quick Escape • Comes Then Goes