Pearl Jam never had their "left turn" moment. No Kid A. No Achtung Baby. They never seemed all the interested in surprising people. After the dizzying, irreplicable success of their first two albums, the band consciously downsized, leaving the zeitgeist behind for a fiercely loyal, if slightly smaller, fanbase.
They've maintained that audience by delivering reliably written and engineered rock records. There's really not much difference between 1991's Ten 2013's Lightning Bolt stylistically or sonically. So when the gated, processed drums begin on Dance of the Clairvoyants, it feels like a departure for a band not known for them. But the innovation doesn't go much further.
I like Eddie Vedder's stilted, jittery David Byrne impression in the second verse, and the lyrics feel like they're building to something. He sings about time loops and missing time, but the ribbon he ties at the end of the chorus, "I'm in Love with clairvoyants/cuz they're outta this world" is both imprecise and tossed off. The line comes off as cute, whereas his preceding lyrical windup was swimming in murkier and more interesting waters.
The song is from the upcoming Gigaton album. While it's refreshing to hear a band push against their sonic guardrails, I hope they go even further into the unknown on their full-length. It would be nice to hear what a full left turn would sound like from a band that's been on the same course for almost three decades.
Pearl Jam never had their "left turn" moment. No Kid A. No Achtung Baby. They never seemed all the interested in surprising people. After the dizzying, irreplicable success of their first two albums, the band consciously downsized, leaving the zeitgeist behind for a fiercely loyal, if slightly smaller, fanbase.
They've maintained that audience by delivering reliably written and engineered rock records. There's really not much difference between 1991's Ten 2013's Lightning Bolt stylistically or sonically. So when the gated, processed drums begin on Dance of the Clairvoyants, it feels like a departure for a band not known for them. But the innovation doesn't go much further.
I like Eddie Vedder's stilted, jittery David Byrne impression in the second verse, and the lyrics feel like they're building to something. He sings about time loops and missing time, but the ribbon he ties at the end of the chorus, "I'm in Love with clairvoyants/cuz they're outta this world" is both imprecise and tossed off. The line comes off as cute, whereas his preceding lyrical windup was swimming in murkier and more interesting waters.
The song is from the upcoming Gigaton album. While it's refreshing to hear a band push against their sonic guardrails, I hope they go even further into the unknown on their full-length. It would be nice to hear what a full left turn would sound like from a band that's been on the same course for almost three decades.