The last band standing from the grunge era of the 1990s, Pearl Jam have never gone away even if the impact of their new music has faded in recent years. One of the great live bands left on the circuit of dwindling big guitar bands, it appeared this would be their future after two disappointing records and nothing for nearly seven years, their longest stretch without new material.
But late last week, Gigaton arrived, the band's 11th studio album and the consensus suggests a return to form. For a band on the go fro 30 years, Eddie Vedder and co have surprised many by making a relevant record that speaks to the times and hits all the Pearl Jam high notes you'd expect.
We've had a look through the best reviews out there so you can work out if the band's latest work is for you.
Rolling Stone: An admirable, inspiring example of grown-up grunge
Rolling Stone gave Gigaton four stars, saying the album blends the band's usual dissatisfaction and anger with a sense of hope.
The record is sequenced with the rockers upfront and slower, more meditative songs at the back, as if the band is exhaling. “Come Then Goes” is a poignant acoustic eulogy for a fallen friend (perhaps the late Chris Cornell), and on “River Cross” Vedder begs us all to “share the light” over his own pump-organ line. Gigaton is a testament to how Pearl Jam’s own deeply held dissatisfaction still burns brighter than ever.
Read the full review here.
The Guardian: The fixation on an uneasy future gives the veteran band currency
Another four star review in The Guardian who suggest there are points in the album when Pearl Jam sound like a band who've been at it for 30 years, but they are few and far between.
Gigaton sounds more vital and unexpected. In the six years since their last studio album, a lot has happened in US politics and it’s tempting to suggest that might have something to do with it. Always good at rabble-rousing and nothing if not politically committed, you get the feeling that a certain urgency about getting their message across might have given Pearl Jam’s music a renewed sense of vigour. The burst of widdly-woo guitar shredding on Superblood Wolfmoon is precisely the kind of thing that would have caused Kurt Cobain to roll his eyes, but the track comes at you with such force that it’s irresistible.
Read their full review here.
FT.com: Invigoratingly alive
Ludovic Hunter-Tilney gave Gigaton another four stars out of five in his review, describing Eddie Vedder and his bandmates as "dissenters from the notion that guitar bands are over."
Gigaton’s first half dashes by with a series of urgent rockers. There is no grandstanding or displays of ego, nor the cosmetic sheen of overproduction to which senior rock bands are prone. Vedder’s earnest bawl rings out, splitting the difference between Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain. Lead guitarist Mike McCready is a sharp, dynamic sideman. There are no displays of ego.
Read their full review here.
Louder: An unexpected album of hope in uncertain times
The folks at Louder loved the album, declaring it "an unexpected album of hope. Welcome back."
And mistakes the human race has made are writ large and discussed throughout, from global warming – the melting icebergs on its sleeve, and references to ‘seas raising’ and ‘oceans rising’ – to political dissatisfaction and rage.
This is the band that had arranged for the Trump baby blimp to be their guest of honour at their O2 show in 2018, after all, so it’s not exactly a surprise that there are some lyrical digs at the current occupier of the White House.
Nowhere is this more explicit than in album mid-point Seven O’Clock, a song that would sit comfortably in Springsteen’s canon, both sonically and lyrically. After references to Native American leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse who ‘forged the north and west’, Vedder reminds us that today we’ve ‘got Sitting Bullshit as our sitting president’.
Read their full review here.
Pitchfork: An artistic rejuvenation that still seems out of reach
A little less gushing is the Pitchfork review which acknowledges stong moments in the album's quieter moments but feel it's ultimately lacking.
After records like 2009’s Backspacer and 2013’s Lightning Bolt combatted their dearth of ideas with low-stakes thrashiness—a throwback to the rowdy garage band that they never actually were—Gigaton attempts to reinstate their ambition. Co-produced by the band and Josh Evans, it’s filled with all the markers of cerebral, studio-born rock music: drum loops and programmed synths, swirling keys and fretless bass, wide dynamics and spacey textures. For the first time in a while, the winning moments are the slower cuts: songs like “Retrograde” and “Seven O’Clock” that evolve patiently into their atmosphere, as opposed to pro-forma ragers like “Never Destination” that never quite find their groove.
Read their full review here.
NME: One of the biggest rock bands in the world return to semi-brilliance
NME are more in the middle. "It won't change your life", but if you're a Pearl Jam fan, you're going to be satisfied. That's more than most bands who've been around this long can muster. This is a return to form after two poor albums.
‘Gigaton’’s saving grace? There’s plenty of malcontent here, even if Vedder leaping from amps might be a thing of youthful memory. Here his well-honed, biting lyrics signal fury at a world that seems to have lost its way entirely. The political climate comes into fire and references to grief and loss abound. A resonating line from ‘Comes And Goes’: ‘It’s all vivisection in the end’. Pearl Jam have, undoubtedly, as pioneers and figures that have shaped rock history, earned the right to make whatever the fuck they like. But the question is whether anyone is still listening any more? With this multi-faceted record, the answer is likely yes. It just won’t change your life.
Read the full review here.
SEE ALSO: There Are More Classic Films On TV This Evening
