Despite the adventurous sound of Pearl Jam's new single "Dance of the Clairvoyants," Stone Gossard said their upcoming album Gigaton includes a range of song types.

He also hailed frontman Eddie Vedder's “stunning” lyrics, and shortlisted a set of tracks that represented the range of personalities in the band.

“There’s definitely some really straight-ahead rock songs,” Gossard tells Rolling Stone. “There’s some very spare and very simple ballads. It’s got it all, I think. And it’s really us."

Vedder played a key role the final track listing. “There was a pile of songs, and he sort of took and … in the last two months, mixed and sort of selected the tracks that really were going to be special," Gossard said. "And he did such a great job of bringing everybody’s personalities out. It was probably different than any of us would’ve made individually, but it really captures, I think, the spirit of the band.”

Turning to Vedder’s Gigaton lyrics, Gossard added: “He’s not going to come out and say exactly in sort of very plain language maybe what you might think after reading the newspaper. But I think that his mysticism and his way of using words and art and music is a powerful sort of tonic. I think that underlying it all is going to continue to be a hopeful and beautiful, but at times tragic message.”

Gossard also noted differences in the construction and style of “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” saying it illustrated “the outer edge of something that we haven’t tried before, a new way of configuring our sort of collaborative talents.”

Gigaton will be released on Mar. 27.

 

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