Global warming. School shootings. An administration that came to rise with the help of fearmongering and fake news. These are all ingredients for a potentially angry Pearl Jam album. And while it’d be very easy for Eddie Vedder and the rest of Pearl Jam to come out fired up with guns blazing, especially during an election year, that’s not exactly what “Gigaton” delivers.
Yes, the band’s anger is present but that’s not the main takeaway on “Gigaton.” Despite all the anger and frustrations, “Gigaton” is a hopeful album. Themes of despair, grief and impending global doom are present, but the band never sounds defeated and isn’t throwing in the towel. In fact, it’s evident they’re intent on doing quite the opposite.
Throughout the record’s 12 tracks the group sounds optimistic, invigorated and ready to fight the good fight. While the current state of global affairs may make it feel like we are all stacking deck chairs on the Titanic, “Gigaton” makes it clear the band plans to fight like hell keep us all afloat and maybe even right the ship.
That intent to fight is clear from the start with the hard-driving album opener “Who Ever Said,” where Vedder sings about “sideways talk poisoning our thoughts” and how he won’t give up until he’s satisfied things have improved. The group’s willingness to battle and desire for a better future are lyrical themes that hold the album together.
Taken as a whole, “Gigaton,” the band’s 11th studio album and first in seven years, sounds like a legacy rock band making a late-career album, as it should. It’s not a bunch of old rockers in their fifties making the same music they made when they were in their twenties. Nobody wants to hear that and Pearl Jam knows it.
That said, there are a few left turns here, most notably the lead single, and third track on the album, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” a song that has drawn comparisons to Talking Heads and 80s-inspired dance rock. But fans concerned the band has gone off the deep end and decided to go all-in on dance music, which might be the grunge analog to Dylan going electric, needn’t worry because “Dance of the Clairvoyants” is the most experimental song on the album.
The song is also one of the strongest tracks on the record and a refreshing example of a band successfully moving outside of its comfort zone. Hopefully, it’s a sign of what’s to come on whatever the band releases after “Gigaton” or there are some choice b-sides released that follow this path. Also, hopefully, whatever the band releases after “Gigaton” doesn’t take more than seven years to see the light of day because this album is a mighty addition to the Pearl Jam canon.
The absence of the band’s longtime collaborator Brendan O’Brien in the producer chair may have allowed for fresh ideas to enter the studio and resulted in a little more experimentation (O’Brien is present on the tracks “Quick Escape” and “Retrograde” where he provides keyboard support.). “Gigaton” is co-produced by Pearl Jam and first-time producer Josh Evans, who has worked closely with the band in other capacities in the past. His involvement seems to have encouraged the group to expand its repertoire by adding things like programmed drums and other adventurous-for-Pearl Jam musical flourishes.
Some minor atypical electronic elements are present outside of “Clairvoyants” and they fit right in, including a killer drum loop by Jeff Ament on “Quick Escape” and some plinky electronic keys on “Alright.” The former is a rocker that rides a nice fuzzy chug and ends with about a minute-and-a-half of ripping guitar work by Mike McCready. It’s a song about leaving the planet to live on Mars due to environmental damage and it’s the only that address the president by name. “Crossed the border to Morocco/ Kashmir then Marakesh/ The lengths we had to go to then/To find a place Trump hadn’t fucked up yet.”
Speaking of politics, Vedder pulls no punches on his thoughts about the current administration. There’s nothing as overtly political as “Riot Act” presidential-basher “Bushleaguer” on the album (if there was it likely would’ve made the band a massive target for a tirade of tweets from the commander-in-chief and plenty of FOX News soundbites) but Vedder gets a couple of jabs in.
Aside from “Quick Escape” there’s “Seven O’Clock,” a slower song with Vedder delivering vocals in a Springsteen-esque cadence. Here, Vedder references Native American leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and then sings “… there’s Sitting Bullshit as our sitting president.”
“Seven O’Clock” is one of the many songs where the band’s determination to fight and rise above the global state of turmoil is present. The band has always been politically active and during its time since the release of 2013’s “Lightning Bolt” its members have been involved with various political campaigns and demonstrations including the annual Women’s March. On the song, Vedder notes that politics is a participatory sport declaring “freedom is a verb” and ends the song saying there is “much to be done,” delivering it as an optimistic closing cadence.
While Vedder may be front and center at all times, Pearl Jam isn’t just Vedder’s vehicle for personal expression. The strongest entries in Pearl Jam’s catalog are albums where the group is heard as the sum of all its parts and “Gigaton” fits that description. The album sees every member of the band except for guitarist Mike McCready writing lyrics. Coincidentally, McCready is also the lone member of the band who has not released a solo album.
Bassist Jeff Ament released his third solo record and an album with his side project RNDM during the seven years since “Lightning Bolt” and drummer Matt Cameron released a solo album, his first, during that time. The Cameron-penned “Take The Long Way,” which strengthens the back half of “Gigaton,” is a spirited, hard-charging song. Cameron wrote the lyrics and music for the song and it is the first Pearl Jam song to feature a credited backing vocalist, with Lemolo’s Megan Crandall providing support.
Ament contributes the words and music to “Alright” a slightly introspective song about being okay with unplugging and being alone with your thoughts and feelings. Vedder sings “It’s alright to be alone/To listen for a heartbeat it’s your own/It’s alright, to quiet up/ To disappear in thin air, it’s your own.”
Elsewhere on the album, the anger and determination to fight continues to appear on “Never Destination,” a song that could pass for something out of The Who’s songbook. Vedder sings “There’s an angry sea/Ocean in my eyes/The waves are rolling/I’m becoming blind” while McCready and guitarist Stone Gossard expertly rein in The Who influence and make it into a Pearl Jam song.
The album winds down with three quieter numbers, which is a bit of harsh comedown for an angry album. The first, “Comes Then Goes,” is a somber song that finds Vedder with an acoustic guitar grieving over a lost relationship and longing for it to return. This is the first album the band has released since the death of their close friend and collaborator Chris Cornell and his death is never referenced on the record. But it’s not much of a stretch to imagine Cornell as one of the inspirations for this song, especially with lyrics “The Queen of Collections took your time/ Sadness comes ’cause some of it was mine.”
Closing track “River Cross” is a song Vedder has been performing during his solo concerts as far back as 2017. It’s the lone song that could pass as a ballad and the full band version on “Gigaton” adds drums, keys and kalimba, a small African instrument that also appears on “Alright.”
Overall, the album is Pearl Jam’s best record in more than a decade. There aren’t many risks taken musically, but the collection of songs on “Gigaton” showcase the group’s versatility and evolution as songwriters. It’s closer to the darkness and anger found on “Riot Act” and “Binaural” than the experimentation of “No Code” or harder edges of “Vs.” and “Vitalogy.” However, it contains elements of all of those albums, as well as the graceful aging the group displayed on “Lightning Bolt,” making it an excellent addition to the Pearl Jam catalog.
Throughout “Gigaton” it’s clear the band knows where its bread is buttered and Pearl Jam plays to its strengths instead of attempting to challenge listeners. While this may be seen as playing it safe, it’s actually quite tactful since the songs address the band’s frustration with the current state of global affairs to its very large, and very loyal, audience. This allows Pearl Jam to do one of the things it has always done best with its music, which is to activate its fanbase around important issues.
So if the ship is indeed sinking, Pearl Jam is getting the lifeboats ready.
“Gigaton” will be released March 27, 2020. The album is currently available for preorder from Monkeywrench Records.
The current administration didn’t come to power with the help of fake news… Trump is the one who labeled the media “fake news”. Very different.