'Gigaton'
Pearl Jam
Monkeywrench/Republic Records
Trust Pearl Jam to still surprise us in 2020. The Seattle rock gods have made an album we didn't know we needed.
"Gigaton" is a fascinating and ambitious 12-track collection with a cleaner, crisper sound that is studded with interesting textures, topped by Eddie Vedder's still-indignant voice.
Many songs switch gears and morph into something else before they're done, as if the group was restless to try something else. Bandmates have also switched instruments on this, their 11th studio album and their first in seven years.
"Gigaton" marks the band's first co-production with Josh Evans, who previously worked with Soundgarden and Chris Cornell. He's helped pull out more experimentation, certainly from the messy last studio offering, "Lightning Bolt."
The first single, "Dance of the Clairvoyants," is one of the most exciting Pearl Jam songs in decades, with guitarist Stone Gossard playing chunky bass lines, bassist Jeff Ament offering splintering, chopping guitar riffs and Vedder's voice at its most mercurial, bursting out of the song's outline.
"Alright" is a nifty, spacey, Peter Gabriel-ish tune and "Comes Then Goes" is an acoustic ballad for a lost friend. Gossard sings lead on the terrifically unsettling lullaby "Buckle Up" and drummer Matt Cameron shines on the excellent "Take the Long Way," attacking his kit like a thrash act.
Environmental fears are a frequent motif, with Vedder often singing about oceans rising and an uneasy Earth. "You can't hide the lies/In the rings of a tree," he sings on "Alright." The album's cover captures a Norwegian ice cap gushing and the title "Gigaton" is often used to measure human carbon dioxide emissions.
The band's distaste for current politics is also easily apparent: Vedder sings in one song that the "government thrives on discontent" and on "Never Destination" he mentions "collusion hiding in plain sight."
Donald Trump is directly mentioned once, in "Quick Escape," a rocking ditty about looking for a place, anyplace -- Morocco, Zanzibar, Mars even -- that the president hasn't destroyed yet. He later calls the sitting president an expletive on another track.
But despite the gloom, there's great hope on "Gigaton," too, with Vedder cheerleading the resistance. "Swim sideways from this undertow and do not be deterred," he counsels on "Seven O'Clock" and adds, "This is no time for depression." And on the straightforward rocker "Superblood Wolfmoon," he says: "Don't allow for hopelessness/Focus on your focusness/I've been hoping that our hope dies last."
The album ends with the mournful "River Cross," with the side that is right in a chokehold and outnumbered. Yet they will win: "Share the light/Won't hold us down," Vedder sings, virtually sobbing, like a prayer. As for us, we can thank God they're back.
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'The Universe Inside'
The Dream Syndicate
Anti-Records
Steve Wynn's songs and guitar have been the Dream Syndicate's center since the band began on the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene of the early '80s. But that's not so on "The Universe Inside," their third album since Wynn rebooted the group with new guitarist Jason Victor and keyboardist Chris Cacavas.
The tracks here were carved out of improvisational jam sessions, and the vocals are mostly conspiratorial recitations interspersed within long, driving grooves.
Although the band has explored long songs in the past -- notably the nearly nine-minute "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" from 1984's "Medicine Show" -- they were usually Velvet Underground-meets-Crazy Horse guitar duels. This time Cacavas' keys and guest Marcus Tenney's sax and trumpet often take the lead.
The album's five songs are surprisingly psychedelic and proggy, with echoes of German motorik bands like Neu! and Can (on "Apropos of Nothing" and "Dusting Off the Rust," both about nine minutes long), of jazz fusion albums like Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" (on the 20-minute "The Regulator"), and especially of early Roxy Music (on "The Slowest Rendition," 11 minutes).
Those reference points may come from around a half century ago, but "The Universe Inside" sounds fresh, and trippy.
With no live music to list, this spot will be filled by news and reviews of new albums, both local and from The Associated Press. Send information about your new releases to What's Up! Associate Editor Jocelyn Murphy at [email protected].
NAN What's Up on 05/17/2020