Fanviews / reviews

tdawe said:

So I’ve been through it 3.5 times now:

1. Streaming over Sonos Friday morning. Only got through the first four tracks (three of which were previously released) before the kids got up and started bothering me, so the bulk of my listening was on background while I was making breakfasts etc. As a side note, I actually have come to prefer approaching albums this way - listening on background the first time through to get a general feel, the later listening more intently (got that tip from a music critic friend of mine a few years back). 

1.5. Put it on while riding my bike around town on a beautiful afternoon yesterday, dropping off bottles of wine on my friends’ porches. For better or worse, I didn’t make it past the midway point on the album, because “Seven O’Clock” was such a perfect soundtrack for what I was doing that I just repeated it over and over again.

2.5. Headphones again, while grocery shopping this morning. 

3.5. Got some time after lunch to sit down and really get into it, spun the vinyl (2M Blue -> Fluance RT85 -> Mofi Ultraphono -> Sennheiser HD6XX) and followed along through the book. 

Here’s what I’ll say about this album: when it comes to new records from artists that I have a long relationship with, I always try to imagine how I’d react if it was by an artist I wasn’t familiar with. If this was an album by a new (or new to me) band, would I say “yeah this is fine” and never listen to it again, or would I put it on my “best of the year” list, start suggesting it to friends, look up when the band is coming to NYC, etc? If I’m being honest with myself, most new albums by bands I already love fall into the former category (which isn’t to say that I don’t come to love those albums anyway - the fact that I already am committed to the band usually means I’ll give it enough time to sink in). Gigaton is the rare album that I think passes this test for me - if it wasn’t Pearl Jam, I think I’d be penciling this in right at the top of the list for the year, and texting my friends that they need to check this out. It doesn’t hurt that, as a lot of other people here have already noted, the themes of the album are amazingly even more timely and topical today than they were when the album was recorded. 

I said this in another thread but my only quibble with the album is that side C (Buckle Up, Comes Then Goes, Retrograde, River Cross) drags a bit. I think if they’d just flipped Take The Long Way (my least favorite tracks so far) with Buckle Up and/or Comes Then Goes) it would have helped the pacing of the back half just a little bit. 

Also, as noted by several others, the record sounds great on vinyl through a solid set of headphones. This is a very busy record from a production standpoint, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Like my favorite albums of the last five years (Teens of Denial, Go Farther In Lightness), it’s layered without being distracting, so there is a lot to chew on and discover on repeat listenings. I have to say, I think the BoB version of this album wouldn’t be nearly as successful. That’s not a slam on him, but they made a good choice going in another direction for this one. 

MedozK said:

So much better than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt

PJWGIII said:

KN219077 said:

MedozK said:

So much better than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt

Yep, I love certain songs off those albums but they just lacked as a cohesive album. This album  has its weak tracks but holds together well as strong album start to finish.

So true. This is why Josh Evans is the man. Nothing against Brendan (he's a legend), but the band just needed a new force in the room for the machine to start pumping again.

JPPJ84 said:

tbergs said:

I'm really digging Alright. Love the interplay and Jeff's lyrics sung by Eddie. Alright seems to me to be a good show opener much like Pendulum. Comes Then Goes will be great to open Encore 1. Love these 2 songs the most of the slower tempo songs. I could see 7OC dropping like song 7 of first set. Would be a tempo killer much like Sirens was, but a good song that needs to be played.

Alright would be an excellent opener! They could put 7 o’clock very early or in the first encore so it doesn’t kill tempo

MedozK said:

So much better than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt

Spiritual_Chaos said:

MedozK said:

So much better than Backspacer and Lightning Bolt

I have a feeling people are dissing a bit extra on Lightning Bolt these days.