Today is Gigaton day! It’s March 27, 2020. The album’s second single, “Superblood Wolfmoon,” came out over a month ago, on February 18. Between those dates, for much of the world, so much has happened that those two releases might have dropped in different worlds, with the widespread pandemic of COVID-19 the demarcation, though the virus had been sowing fear and sadness in China and elsewhere for months longer. The coronavirus may also make writing about and caring about rock music seem/feel quaint, but while songs can’t save the world, they do have their own power to steel and comfort, to rouse and soothe. Sometimes, albums created well before the fact of a particular crisis end up having eerie prescience when they’re finally released. I’m thinking in particular of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco, written and recorded before 9/11/01 but forever connected to that era with its songs of tall buildings shaking and ashes of American flags.

Gigaton, by virtue of being released in the first couple of weeks of mass shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, will always be connected to this time, even though “Superblood Wolfmoon” and “Dance of the Clairvoyants” dropped in mid-winter. Both songs’ urgency and tenor are just as relevant, as we’re living in a country/world where a megalomaniacal, arguably psychopathic president cares more about controlling his PR machine than he does people’s lives or wellbeing. Even the assault on the world’s environment goes unabated in quarantine. At this time the EPA has stopped enforcing regulations amidst the crisis. The fuckers.

But the world kept on spinnin’

Always felt like it was endin’

And love not withstandin’

We are each of us fucked

Whew.

When the tracklisting for Gigaton was announced back in January, the title “Superblood Wolfmoon” was clearly one of the zaniest and un-Pearl Jam-like titles the band had ever come up with. What would it sound like? What would the rest of the album sound like, after the longest gap between Pearl Jam albums of over 6 years. Would it sound like 2018’s single “Can’t Deny Me,” which at the time was said to be the lead single of a new album. What happened to the rest of that album? Would it sound as distinct and again, new-for-Pearl Jam as the first single, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” with its synths, zooming bassline, and David Byrne-yelps?

It would not! The Vedder-penned SBWM shares DNA with other Vedder compositions. “Sad” in particular comes to mind. Punky, garage-y rockers with spindly, Flamenco-inflected guitar hooks. But if the concern (and I’ve read the concern and belief online) that this means the song isn’t its own thing, I would argue against that conclusion. To me, SBWM feels wildly out-of-control in the best way, partly the result of Vedder cramming an OED’s worth of lyrics over the song structure. Mike McCready’s gonzo Eddie Van Halen fret-tapping solo also contributes, and the whole thing is just breathless fun, the way that even rock songs with serious concerns can be.

Album: Gigaton

Songwriter: Eddie Vedder (music & lyrics)

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