Pearl Jam's new album Gigaton entered the Billboard 200 album chart on Sunday night (April 5th) at Number Five, moving the equivalent of 63,000 copies. The band's first disc sold 57,000 physical units, with another 6,000 in either downloads or streams.
Gigaton is Pearl Jam’s 11th studio album and first since 2013's Lightning Bolt. All 11 of those LPs have now reached the Top Five on the chart. The album performed particularly well on vinyl, selling 14,000 copies — the second-largest week on vinyl for a 2020 release.
Regarding the length of time it took to complete the album, singer Eddie Vedder said on the Bill Simmons Podcast, “It grew on its own. It just started different, and it ended different, and everything that happened in the middle was different, and that's what felt great about it. At some point, we had to finish . . . That can be the hard part.”
On eventually returning to the road after their spring tour was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vedder said, “We're kind of reclusive by nature. So, in some ways it feels normal to be away from people . . . but I just keep thinking that first time we'll be in front of people, it's even hard to imagine when or how, it's going to be different. It's not like we didn't appreciate it before, it's just even tenfold.”
Guitarist Stone Gossard told us a while back that the older the members of Pearl Jam have gotten, the more they've enjoyed the road: “I would say, in general, as we get older and a little wiser that our tours have become more enjoyable. Especially now that we do it in moderation.”