He discussed the huge, yearly loss of ice from Alaska's glaciers: President Barack Obama famously defined the wordĭuring a 2015 speech about climate change in Alaska and the Arctic. The word is most often used these days in stories related to climate science and environmental destruction. In other words, there is some loud and wild music on Gigaton.īut most reviews agree that Pearl Jam continued to experiment with less traditional rock and roll sounds on the album.īut – back to the name of the album – Gigaton can also mean the weight or mass equal to 1 billion tons. Reviews are filled with words like fury, thunder, and hammering.Įntertainment Weekly calls the music 'a gathering storm of guitars.' Many dictionaries define the word as an explosive force equal to one billion tons of TNT, an industrial explosive.Ĭritics have noted that this new album includes hard rock. That changed Friday when the band dropped its eleventh collection, Gigaton. It has been almost six-and-a-half-years since the American music group Pearl Jam released an album. Website Brings Attention to Lesser Known People in Black History (20/3/5).Nashville Expands Music Offerings to Movies, Video Games (20/3/6).US Botanic Garden Celebrates 200 Years of Plants and Flowers (20/3/13).Billionaire Will Raffle Away Picasso for Charity (20/3/15).Hip Hop Museum to Open in New York (20/3/16).Inside with Coronavirus, Chinese Discover the Joy of Cooking (20/3/20).Musicians Invite Us to Their Living Rooms (20/3/20).Ugandan Poet Taking on Politics With Poetry (20/3/22).

Maryland Musician Holds Daily Concerts During Coronavirus Outbreak (20/3/25).Zimbabwean Artist’s Stone Sculptures Find Worldwide Praise (20/3/27).And avoided this one-way flight.'Ĭaty Weaver wrote this story for VOA Learning English. As Vedder sings in the song, Quick Escape, 'And we think about the old days, of green grass, sky and red wine. Gigaton makes a similar appeal to listeners in every song. cannot be the generation that history will look back upon and wonder, why didn't they do everything humanly possible to solve this biggest of crises in our time.'

Lead singer Eddie Vedder's opening comments were about the environment. Pearl Jam was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. They also invest money in environmental health projects to reduce the group's carbon footprint. The band and its members have won honors for raising money, climate change educational efforts and more. Pearl Jam has been active in environmental causes for most of its 30-year existence. Some climate scientists say it is warming faster than any other place. Svalbard is one of the northern-most human settlements in the world. The album picture shows icefalls in Svalbard, Norway.

That's what Alaska's glaciers alone lose each year.'Īnd climate change issues are at the heart of Pearl Jam's Gigaton. as if it were a solid block that stood almost 700 meters tall. Obama compared the amount to the size of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. He discussed the huge, yearly loss of ice from Alaska's glaciers: '75 gigatons - that's 75 billion tons - of ice each year,' he said. President Barack Obama famously defined the word during a 2015 speech about climate change in Alaska and the Arctic. One of the new songs, Superblood Wolfmoon, has elements of danceable punk rock music of the early 1980s.īut – back to the name of the album – Gigaton can also mean the weight or mass equal to 1 billion tons. But most reviews agree that Pearl Jam continued to experiment with less traditional rock and roll sounds on the album. In other words, there is some loud and wild music on Gigaton. (M onkeywrench Records/Republic Records via AP) This cover image released by M onkeywrench Records/Republic Records shows 'Gigaton' by Pearl Jam. Onkeywrench Records/Republic Records via AP)'>

New pearl jam albums