After Some Time to Take In and Digest Gigaton, Where Does it Rank For You?

mshnayder

Peasant Tents said:

mshnayder said:

I can't wrap my head around people who have Ten outside their top 3 let alone those who have it in their bottom 3. I know music is subjective but that's just objectively wrong and feels like a hipster take. 

I get what you're saying - and I kind of agree with you (coming from someone who ranked 10 at 4!).
 I really struggled to do this. My rankings changed between Sunday and Tuesday! Ten swapped with No Code.
 Sometimes I prefer the depth and variation of NC and the overall sound more than Ten.  Then I think, wait, all the songs bar Why Go and Deep (my personal least favourites) are incredible..... 

I feel like maybe some people have heard all the songs on Ten so much (I mean at this point can you call any song on Ten a "deep cut" anymore? MAYBE Garden or Oceans?) as opposed to other albums and it kind of jades your opinion a little bit. Every time I give the album a listen though I try to do so with as fresh ears as possible and just...it always amazes me. Like a lot of people I REALLY love that late 90s/early 00s run they had between Yield to Riot Act. I love the different sounds they eventually came up with...and still are coming up with. And I LOVE Gigaton. This album is beautiful. But I don't know...to me Ten is one of the best albums of all time not just for Pearl Jam but ever. To me it's the only album without a true filler track on there. It's just a musical masterpiece...and I think it's easy to forget why it put them on the map so quick like it did when you've heard the songs a thousand times...but it put them on the map the way it did for a reason. 

And I still get cheers hearing Alive and Release. Especially for a song like Alive that has been played countless times...that's impressive. I don't know just wild for me to think someone could rank Backspacer or Lightning Bolt or even Avacado ahead of an album like that. Not sure an album with Big Wave on it is really better than Ten...

To each their own though! 

mace1229

Definitely better than LB and BS. Not as good as Yield or anything before it. Still trying to figure where on that Binaural/RA/Avocado lineup it falls.

Gern Blansten

Apone said:

tino_11 said:

At the moment, it's coming in 8th out of 11. That sounds a bit negative but it really isn't, it's got tough competition. It may push Binaural to one side and move up to 7th in time.

Its a great album, but  would still rank it below the first 7 albums definietly and possibly below Avacado also.  It's a mile infront of lightning bolt and backspacer.
Saying that. all tracks are still growing on me so could move up the order over time.  To think a band 30 years in can produce music of Gigatons quality and diversity is amazing.

same....definitely above BS and LB but not quite up to Avocado

T-Bone 82

1. Ten
2. Yield
3. Vs.
4. Vitalogy
5. Backspacer
6. Gigaton
7. Pearl Jam
8. No Code
9. Binaural
10. Lightning Bolt
11. Riot Act

I really rank more by groups since some of these are very interchangeable and/or mood-dependent for me. In that case:

Group 1 (Elite) - Ten, Yield, Vs., Vitalogy, Backspacer
Group 2 (Solid) - Gigaton, Pearl Jam, No Code
Group 3 (Haven't stood the test of time but enjoyable in spots) - Binaural, Lightning Bolt, Riot Act

I think Gigaton could swap with Backspacer as time goes on but I'm not ready to make that call yet.

cp3iverson

Legendary 1-4. No order— Ten, VS, No Code, Yield

5. Gigaton
6. Vitalogy
7. Backspacer
8. Riot Act
9. Binaural
10. Lightning Bolt
11. self-titled

5-7 change on a daily basis.  The rest are set.  

Red Mosqito

Niko80 said:

Red Mosqito said:

JBob87 said:

Bottom bucket with LB and Backspacer.

Hate to say it but Ed’s structure and writing is the weak link. Way too much rambling, convoluted writing, and filling musical spaces that don’t need to be filled.

LOL, show me some lyrics and song structures you've written that are better than Ed's...go ahead, I'm waiting.  

Lol. So if you cant do better yourself you better not have an opinion about something?

You can, it'll just be a weak one. (see what I did there)

But in all seriousness, of course you can have your opinion, but I think when you start pinpointing certain things/aspects which you have no real first hand experience or knowledge about yourself on what you're critiquing, is where it becomes a slippery slope. But that's just my opinion.  

TJ25487

Red Mosqito said:

Niko80 said:

Red Mosqito said:

JBob87 said:

Bottom bucket with LB and Backspacer.

Hate to say it but Ed’s structure and writing is the weak link. Way too much rambling, convoluted writing, and filling musical spaces that don’t need to be filled.

LOL, show me some lyrics and song structures you've written that are better than Ed's...go ahead, I'm waiting.  

Lol. So if you cant do better yourself you better not have an opinion about something?

You can, it'll just be a weak one. (see what I did there)

But in all seriousness, of course you can have your opinion, but I think when you start pinpointing certain things/aspects which you have no real first hand experience or knowledge yourself about what you're critiquing, is where it becomes a slippery slope. But that's just my opinion.  

JB, I would just add that the majority of the published reviews have been overwhelmingly positive so if there are fundamental issues with the album we would have heard about it. I get that it may not be your cup of tea but to describe it the way you did seems very naive. 

Red Mosqito

cp3iverson said:

Red Mosqito said:

cp3iverson said:

KN219077 said:

I have a hard time believing so many people are ranking this above Riot Act. 

I like the tour better than the album.  Its still my #8/11 so its not my least favorite.  It just doesnt hit me like GIGATONNNN 

I loved the Riot Act tour and have some fond memories from the shows I attended that year.

Although I've been a fan from the start, I didn't join the fan club until 2002 after some kind folks I met at the 2001 BSB shows let me in on the secret that you got access to better seats as a member, so the 2003 tour was my first ever experience with fan club tickets. And in Las Vegas that year I stayed at the MGM where they were playing and remember telling my wife that morning (probably around 6 or 7am) that I was going to go down and check out the line situation and I'd be right back. Well to my surprise there were only a few people waiting in line to get their tickets at that point (something completely unheard of today) so I hung around and struck up conversation with the others in line. Next thing you know it's 1pm and my wife shows up and she's not up for hanging out in line obviously, I mean we are in Vegas. Luckily I was able to sell her on the idea of doing some shopping to kill a few hours while I wait for the ticket window to open up giving us the rest of the afternoon to explore before the show that night. 

Now this was the year where tickets were being distributed in blocks going by your membership number with tickets for the first and ninth rows being evenly distributed across all membership blocks. After getting to know my fellow line mates a bit, I was able to learn I was the only person in line at that point in my particular membership block (pretty much the last/worst block at that point) and I thought to myself how cool it would be if I scored seats in the ninth row. Imagine my surprise once the ticket windows opened up and I got my tickets only to see I scored front row on Mike's side that night!! I even decided to commemorate the evening by picking up my first ever show poster as we walked into the arena just a few minutes before Pearl Jam took the stage, both of which you could never think of being able to do now. The band was tight that night and the setlist was solid and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did, when Eddie tossed me a tambourine during the encore of RITFW. Man, what a night that was!   

Thats an awesome first 10c show

Well technically it was my third show that tour using 10c tickets, but it was by far the best overall experience out of the shows I attended that year!