Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[stupidmop]

I assume the band has handed it out to a bunch of thier friends really. We just need one of those friends, to have an asshole friend who's stupid enough to put it on the internet

[harmless]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

[stupidmop]

Yeah but then at least we'll know and i can go cry into my binaural CD

[harmless]

Binaural? Nice choice.

[Blenheim Augustine]

I say less, but history is not on my side

Months between records (approximate)...

Ten - Vs. 26
Vs. - Vitalogy 14
Vitalogy - No Code 20
No Code - Yield 17
Yield - Binaural 27
Binaural - Riot Act 30
Riot Act - S/T 41
S/T - Backspacer 40
Backspacer - Lightning Bolt 49

Except for Vs. - Vitalogy, they've never had a turnaround that was significantly shorter than the one that preceded it. At this rate we shouldn't expect another one before 2018.

So 58 months till no. 11. I wonder if they'll start another countdown?

[stupidmop]

Binaural? Nice choice.

The best PJ album to wallow in misery to!

Possibly also the best.

[Lounge Lizard]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

That's not possible. Even their crappiest material comes out better than crap!

[harmless]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

That's not possible. Even their crappiest material comes out better than crap!

Sometimes I believe that, but then I remember Big Wave and Supersonic exist.

[Lounge Lizard]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

That's not possible. Even their crappiest material comes out better than crap!

Sometimes I believe that, but then I remember Big Wave and Supersonic exist.

[stip]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

That's not possible. Even their crappiest material comes out better than crap!

Sometimes I believe that, but then I remember Big Wave and Supersonic exist.

You might get a bad song or too, but basically every band does that on occasion (I can't think of one that doesn't).

The thing is (for me) is that no matter what I am likely to really enjoy the album for a few weeks regardless as I get to know it. If it is amazing I'll keep listening to it all the time. If it isn't there are likely 4-6 songs (MYM is already one) that will remain in my heavy rotation regardless, and the rest of the album will be something I come back to on occasion, enjoy, and then put away until next time. It's a pearl jam album and while they have left more or less satisfied they've never let me down.

[EJ]

Maybe BOB's seeming ambivalence towards the album is a good sign.

[harmless]

Maybe BOB's seeming ambivalence towards the album is a good sign.

I'm really hoping so. It does seem as if it didn't entirely go his way, and that maybe PJ spent so much time away because another Backspacer wasn't exactly what they wanted and they had to figure out where else to go. Or maybe all of that is wishful thinking.

[harmless]

It's a shame I can't just close my eyes and will it to happen.

Jesus, we're going to feel like right idiot fanbois when this thing leaks and it's crap.

That's not possible. Even their crappiest material comes out better than crap!

Sometimes I believe that, but then I remember Big Wave and Supersonic exist.

You might get a bad song or too, but basically every band does that on occasion (I can't think of one that doesn't).

The thing is (for me) is that no matter what I am likely to really enjoy the album for a few weeks regardless as I get to know it. If it is amazing I'll keep listening to it all the time. If it isn't there are likely 4-6 songs (MYM is already one) that will remain in my heavy rotation regardless, and the rest of the album will be something I come back to on occasion, enjoy, and then put away until next time. It's a pearl jam album and while they have left more or less satisfied they've never let me down.

Well, I can't say I wasn't disappointed with S/T and Backspacer but otherwise I agree with you. There is some good stuff on both albums. The overall sense that they could be trying harder but aren't, that's what's become apparent and more disappointing over time. However, as has been mentioned, if Brendan O'Brien is suggesting that they did deliberately spend time away in order to make something quite different, then all might be forgiven. I just want to believe that these two albums were just slight missteps in their career, not that this will be like it is from now on.

[Lounge Lizard]

Don't let nobody get your hopes too high and we'll all be mentally safe around Oct 14th (or whenever this thing leaks)

[stip]

Around the Sun, by FAR the worst REM album to these ears, still produced a few songs a like quite a bit, and I still always liked putting it on every now and then to see what would catch my ear that didn't before. If Around the Sun was the first REM album I ever owned I would not be a fan, but (at least for me) once a band has produced enough stuff I love, as long as there are at least a few songs to draw me back I can make a place for that album in my life. Songs like Electron Blue, Aftermath, Make it All Okay are songs I was indifferent to at first, but now enjoy when they come on as long as I appreciate them for what they are.

You can only really do that for a band you love, but so what. That's what love is, and the band earned it. It's basically the way the rest of the catalog provides an elevating context for the songs. That doesn't make them great, or even good, but it means you can find a space for them.

If REM did nothing but release Around the Sun for the rest of their career I would be a bit let down, and it's not what I wanted, but i'd still be eager to see what was on each album--to find the few songs that stayed with me and the few that every now and then brush me on the shoulder and surprise me, even if it is just for a little bit.
And every now and then they follow Around the Sun with Accelerate.

Now Pearl Jam has never reached that point with me (I would have started to wonder if Riot Act was followed up by another album I ranked towards the bottom) but even if they had that would have been fine. I'll make some people angry but that is often Tom Waits for me (probably my 4th favorite artist) Some tremendous fucking songs, some stuff that is interesting every now and then, and some stuff I never feel the need to hear again.

Spoiler: show

(and this is what I was telling myself in the binaural/riot act era, mind you--not now. My faith was rewarded)

[harmless]

Around the Sun, by FAR the worst REM album to these ears, still produced a few songs a like quite a bit, and I still always liked putting it on every now and then to see what would catch my ear that didn't before. If Around the Sun was the first REM album I ever owned I would not be a fan, but (at least for me) once a band has produced enough stuff I love, as long as there are at least a few songs to draw me back I can make a place for that album in my life. Songs like Electron Blue, Aftermath, Make it All Okay are songs I was indifferent to at first, but now enjoy when they come on as long as I appreciate them for what they are.

You can only really do that for a band you love, but so what. That's what love is, and the band earned it. It's basically the way the rest of the catalog provides an elevating context for the songs. That doesn't make them great, or even good, but it means you can find a space for them.

If REM did nothing but release Around the Sun for the rest of their career I would be a bit let down, and it's not what I wanted, but i'd still be eager to see what was on each album--to find the few songs that stayed with me and the few that every now and then brush me on the shoulder and surprise me, even if it is just for a little bit.
And every now and then they follow Around the Sun with Accelerate.

Now Pearl Jam has never reached that point with me (I would have started to wonder if Riot Act was followed up by another album I ranked towards the bottom) but even if they had that would have been fine. I'll make some people angry but that is often Tom Waits for me (probably my 4th favorite artist) Some tremendous fucking songs, some stuff that is interesting every now and then, and some stuff I never feel the need to hear again.

Aside from the Tom Waits stuff, great post!

[McParadigm]

Around the Sun, by FAR the worst REM album to these ears, still produced a few songs a like quite a bit, and I still always liked putting it on every now and then to see what would catch my ear that didn't before. If Around the Sun was the first REM album I ever owned I would not be a fan, but (at least for me) once a band has produced enough stuff I love, as long as there are at least a few songs to draw me back I can make a place for that album in my life. Songs like Electron Blue, Aftermath, Make it All Okay are songs I was indifferent to at first, but now enjoy when they come on as long as I appreciate them for what they are.

You can only really do that for a band you love, but so what. That's what love is, and the band earned it. It's basically the way the rest of the catalog provides an elevating context for the songs. That doesn't make them great, or even good, but it means you can find a space for them.

you're not a dad until you have two kids.

stip will probably appreciate this, as it sounds like the kind of gibberish Michael Stipe would sing.

These signs of separation keep calling away,
But little pig, little pig, the red brick can stay.
Cities will bend, the old trees all know,
Until you have two kids,
You can't go. You can't go.

The whisper came down from the top of the bottom.
"Meeting at eleven.
Be happy. Be solemn."
I've been a still frame. Yeah, I've been so shallow.
"Meeting at eleven,"
they call from the bottom.

Do I make good coffee?

[stip]

that first verse seems more tom waits than michael stipe, but I think you nailed him in the second verse

I wish I could write lyrics.

[McParadigm]

The best skills are the ones with virtually no applicability.

[stip]

Around the Sun, by FAR the worst REM album to these ears, still produced a few songs a like quite a bit, and I still always liked putting it on every now and then to see what would catch my ear that didn't before. If Around the Sun was the first REM album I ever owned I would not be a fan, but (at least for me) once a band has produced enough stuff I love, as long as there are at least a few songs to draw me back I can make a place for that album in my life. Songs like Electron Blue, Aftermath, Make it All Okay are songs I was indifferent to at first, but now enjoy when they come on as long as I appreciate them for what they are.

You can only really do that for a band you love, but so what. That's what love is, and the band earned it. It's basically the way the rest of the catalog provides an elevating context for the songs. That doesn't make them great, or even good, but it means you can find a space for them.

If REM did nothing but release Around the Sun for the rest of their career I would be a bit let down, and it's not what I wanted, but i'd still be eager to see what was on each album--to find the few songs that stayed with me and the few that every now and then brush me on the shoulder and surprise me, even if it is just for a little bit.
And every now and then they follow Around the Sun with Accelerate.

Now Pearl Jam has never reached that point with me (I would have started to wonder if Riot Act was followed up by another album I ranked towards the bottom) but even if they had that would have been fine. I'll make some people angry but that is often Tom Waits for me (probably my 4th favorite artist) Some tremendous fucking songs, some stuff that is interesting every now and then, and some stuff I never feel the need to hear again.

Aside from the Tom Waits stuff, great post!

basically Pearl Jam is one of those bands (Tom Waits and Mark Lanegan are others) where this is such a critical body of excellent work that my baseline is just a few songs that I can add to it. if I get more (and I am expecting more with LB), than great. But it's all I need. Tom Waits has produced two album in 9 years (excluding orphans, but that is a big exclusion). Neither are among my favorites (Bad as Me especially would rank towards the bottom of the post 70s work), but both produced a few songs I love. And so Bad as Me gave me Chicago, Tell Me, New Years Eve, and Hell Broke Luce. If I never listen to those other songs again (and I will on occasion) I'm still better off for the album existing. I would PREFER Blood Money or Bone Machine or Rain Dogs, but I'll take a Bad as Me as often as I can get it until the day he dies.

That's why some of the angst that some people feel about this stuff rolls off me a bit. I WANT the album to be great. I am expecting it to be good. But as long as it gives me something I'll be fine.