For a simple song (although it’s a deceptive simplicity) Superblood Wolfmoon (SBWM) posses some odd challenges as a second single – and the first ‘traditional single’ far more akin to the typical Pearl Jam song than the surprising and magnificent Dance of the Clairvoyants. It’s not Pearl Jam by numbers, but it is Pearl Jam with much stronger catalog roots. If you placed SBWM in the center of a Venn diagram of Pearl Jam songs you can find overlap with a whole array of songs dating back to No Code. Mankind, Don’t Gimmie No Lip, Habit, Leatherman, U, All Night, Black Red Yellow, Gods Dice, Get Right, Green Disease, Big Wave, Supersonic, Gonna See My Friend, Johnny Guitar, Let the Records Play, Again Today – for a number of reasons Johnny Guitar is probably its closest parallel (and it does feel like a song that could nestle comfortably into Backspacer), but whether it is the playful tone, the propulsive rush, or the higher register, this is well traveled territory. We immediately think we know what this song is.
The problem is that none of the songs mentioned above are singles,
or intended to be singles . These are
the Pearl Jam b-sides, or the album tracks that feel like b-sides. Not a
comment on their quality, per se – I do love a few songs on that list above –
but they usually feel light and disposable.
And even though I just rattled off 16 songs, they’ve always felt like
outliers in the catalog. A lighter moment that the band is entitled to, but
shouldn’t be taking up album real estate. Palette cleansers, or attempts at
having ‘fun’ for a band who, with the exception of the criminally underrated
Backspacer, can even make fun sound like serious business. And while there are a number of good songs on
that list above, it is hardly a murderer’s row of greatest hits.
So it was hard on first listen not be at least somewhat
deflated by Superblood Wolfmoon. Why would they release their fun ‘filler’ song
as the first real hard driving declaration of intent (especially when it has
been made clear, by the band, that DotC is an outlier? The under four minute rocker is a recent Pearl
Jam single staple (World Wide Suicide, The Fixer, Mind Your Manners), but all of
those songs felt like statements in a way SBWM does not – and, to be fair, does
not aspire to be. There’s nothing on
the album with a greater sense of self-importance they could share first? Especially since the last ‘weird’ singles we
had received (Who You Are and Nothing As It Seems) were immediately followed by
Hail Hail and Grievance (live).
And beyond that, this is the second track on the album. That’s an exalted spot, for the most part, in
the Pearl Jam catalog, a collection of thematically resonant musical all-stars. Even Flow, Animal, Spin the Black Circle,
Hail Hail, Faithfull, Save You, World Wide Suicide, Mind Your Manners – all lead
singles or essential album tracks. And the
first little musical snippet we received prior to the single spoke to a song
that felt at least slightly more muscular than what you hear on first listen (in
the same way that the opening moments of Mind Your Manners, the first element
of the song we heard, is not necessarily indicative of the rest of the song). And so
Superblood Wolfmoon immediately draws to mind the lighter songs usually
confined to a b-side or the back half of a record, and compares itself to some
of the most important songs in the catalog.
It stacks the deck against itself on first listen, at least for the long
term fan who will immediately, whether they are aware of it or not, start to compare,
evaluate, and process the song against their internal expectations (here comes
the important ‘classic pearl jam’ song after the DotC detour) the slightly
misleading musical preview, and the immediate connections to the b-side fun
track – no one’s favorite sub-genre of Pearl Jam.
But since I’m not paid by the word, lets actually talk about
the song itself, which, despite an underwhelming first listen, turns out is
pretty good. Superblood Wolfmoon took a
few listens to really unlock itself for me .
I needed some space and time to
rid myself of prior expectations and evaluate the song on its own terms (what
the song is rather than what I was expecting or needed it to be), and because there
is a fair bit of nuance underneath its simple packaging.
Musically it is in the pop/punk vein that is generally the
type of Pearl Jam song I like the least (though I do think this is arguably the
best pure version of this they’ve done). We start with a familiar Matt Cameron intro
(variants of which have been used in Undone and Again Today – to better effect,
I think – this is a song that would probably benefit by diving right in) and a
bouncy guitar part and title statement that immediately makes clear this is not
a dark and serious song (though I wouldn’t mind if they used the heavier tone
we get when this section repeats later on).
It moves right into some fairly standard pop/punk guitar parts, and
Eddie’s vocal melody seemingly floats along in harmony with it. But on early listens there was an odd,
stitched together quality that took a while to unravel (and it was this
unraveling that really helped settle the song for me). Pearl Jam songs, even the more ‘experimental’
ones, tend to follow a fairly similar structure – musical intro, verse, chorus,
verse, chorus, bridge, verse and/or chorus, outro. Superblood Wolfmoon abandons that structure
in interesting ways. The song starts
with what passes for a chorus, it contains a primary verse structure that it
repeats itself throughout, but there are also at least two other recurring
sections of the song that could be bridges, could be alternate choruses, could
be different verse structures. It’s like SBWM can’t decide, or doesn’t think it
matters, or knows but doesn’t feel like telling you. It puts the listener on
edge in an unexpected way, as the song doesn’t seem like it is written to
challenge you (as opposed to songs that clearly intend to be ‘difficult’). It
took a few listens for me to stop trying to force the song into a familiar mold
and accept the Frankenstein approach.
Outside of the standard pop/punk power chords the band does a nice job coloring in the song, especially in the superior second half of the song (thought the best lyrics are in the first half). There are interesting moments happening underneath and outside of the main movements of the song that add emotional intensity and urgency. The high point is arguably the solo, not so much for the solo itself (which is pure Van Halenesuqe guitar wankery) but for everything that is happening around the solo – the way the song doesn’t want to let it escape. The solo has to crawl itself out from underneath Eddie’s growling vocals (strong end of sequence transitions from Eddie throughout the song), and it stays surprisingly lower in the mix as the rest of the band works to cage it in. It’s an interesting effect, especially since Mike’s solos are almost always front and center, and this is a particularly flashy one.
Eddie sounds good – it’s a wordy song but they don’t feel
like they are outpacing him (which has happened on occasion), and while he is
singing it in a higher, brighter register I don’t enjoy nearly as much as his
baritone, he maintains control over it.
More importantly, his performance manages to capture the mix of playful
energy, entitled tantrum, and personal disgust present in the lyrics. It is not an all time performance, and there
is nothing in at as immediately haunting and striking as the back half of Dance
of the Clairvoyants, but it serves the song well – the right choices for the
song.
Lyrically this is heads and shoulders the strongest writing
effort we’ve seen in this kind of song (with the enormous caveat that this is
based on best guess attempts at lyrics).
But Superblood Wolfmoon is a tantrum of a song (which makes me wonder,
given some lyrics in DotC, about the gender politics and themes that may run
below the surface of the album), about a guy (I am presuming) hopelessly in love
who has lost (or maybe never had) the object of his desire. We’ve seen Eddie mine this territory before –
experienced as desperate sadness in I Got Shit or parody in Johnny Guitar – but
this is probably the first time its been presented as judgmental. Although the
song is written with some empathy, we’re not really supposed to feel sorry for
this guy. He is throwing a tantrum. In comes cases there is enough
self-awareness for it to be acknowledged (I’m feeling selfish and I want what’s
right), and in others as petulance (my eyes are swollen/my face is broken/and I’m
hoping that I hurt your fist) or pleading (I ask for forgiveness/I’m begging
myself), with the attendant sense of self-disgust for debasing themselves (feeling
angry/now get off the stage).
But it’s not a #me too inspired rant either. These are real feelings we’ve all
experienced, and while possessiveness can be experienced as gendered, it can
also be experienced as human, and the main character is clearly reeling (I don’t
know anything/I question everything/this life I love is going way too
fast). And of course there is the truly
magnificent line ‘and love not withstanding we are each of us fucked’, which immediately
became an all-timer for me.
We have received about 1/6th of Gigaton so it is
way too early to start reading too much into album themes, but it does seem
like the record may be exploring the lack of certainly and control that defines
our current moment. Dance of the Clairvoyants tries to make peace with it. Superblood Wolfmoon rages against it. But neither song can find it, and I am very
much looking forward to continuing the search,
