Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[stip]

The best skills are the ones with virtually no applicability.

they are, but I still wish that when I have friends fix my computer I had more to offer them than politics and philosophy

[McParadigm]

Friends?

Sounds more like a collection of ungrateful assholes, if you ask me.

[Tuolumne]

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.

Totally agree, people wetting the bed over each new album gets a little tiring. I listen to enough other music to know that, against other music, PJ releases have always maintained a certain level of satisfaction for me. If I don't like the whole hting outright, there will be something that grabs me initially, and then there will be something I can go back to over a year later.

I'm sure there will be something that clicks with me on LB and something that won't. Sometimes it's the stuff that doesn't hit me right away that stays with me longer. They've done this for 10 records (I always include Lost Dogs) and they'll likely do it for their next ones. Even if I don't like any of it initially, I know I can just put it aside until something creeps into my head and I'll want to put it on and hear it.

[stip]

Friends?

Sounds more like a collection of ungrateful assholes, if you ask me.

yeah, but you go to war with the army you have...

[southp]

I think it's our love for the artist/band that makes us keep coming back and ultimately liking newer/lesser quality albums. Like someone said earlier, if Riot Act was the first PJ album I don't know if they would've kept me coming back for more.

There is a certain percentage of each new album that I like instantly, a few more than I like within the following weeks of release, and then some that fade or will never grow on me. Then you get some that come back and get you like 10 years after... those are special.

[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.

Totally agree, people wetting the bed over each new album gets a little tiring. I listen to enough other music to know that, against other music, PJ releases have always maintained a certain level of satisfaction for me. If I don't like the whole hting outright, there will be something that grabs me initially, and then there will be something I can go back to over a year later.

I'm sure there will be something that clicks with me on LB and something that won't. Sometimes it's the stuff that doesn't hit me right away that stays with me longer. They've done this for 10 records (I always include Lost Dogs) and they'll likely do it for their next ones. Even if I don't like any of it initially, I know I can just put it aside until something creeps into my head and I'll want to put it on and hear it.

I get the anxiety. I experienced it. I'm just past it at this point--I went through it much earlier than most of the people here, it seems, given the lower esteem I give to no code, binaural,and Riot act

[WaitingForBluey]

Speaking of Tom Waits...
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... w-20130731

[stip]

I think it's our love for the artist/band that makes us keep coming back and ultimately liking newer/lesser quality albums. Like someone said earlier, if Riot Act was the first PJ album I don't know if they would've kept me coming back for more.

I would not have either, but those always seemed like kinda silly counterfactuals to me. Your experience of all music is altered (for better or worse) by the larger context (or lack thereof) that you hear it in.

[Thejambi]

I'll be honest, there is no amount of suck this album could contain to where I won't love it for the first few weeks. I'm ok with that.

[southp]

I'll be honest, there is no amount of suck this album could contain to where I won't love it for the first few weeks. I'm ok with that.

Agreed 100%. I'm going to listen to this album constantly for months, and only after that will I know how it shakes out with the rest of the catalog.

[epilogue]

I'm already willing to put Mind Your Manners above anything on Backspacer. If the rest of the album is even on par with Backspacer, I'll call it a win. And I'll have a handful of songs that I'll always turn to when spinning Pearl Jam.

[stip]

mind your manners was/is really good. I don't know that it tops everything on backspacer, but it could hold its own with any similar song on any PJ album

[epilogue]

Admittedly, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with MYM. But right now, and ever since I first heard the song a few weeks ago, I'm enjoying this thing more than any individual song on Backspacer. But, yeah, it's still early. It took four years for Backspacer to lose some of its luster for me.

[southp]

I'm already willing to put Mind Your Manners above anything on Backspacer. If the rest of the album is even on par with Backspacer, I'll call it a win. And I'll have a handful of songs that I'll always turn to when spinning Pearl Jam.

There's certainly nothing on Backspacer with the same bite as MYM, so it wins in that weight class. If I had to be objective it could be argued that Unthought, or The End or Just Breathe are more widely received as better songs (speaking as someone with a girlfriend who considers those some of her favorite PJ songs)

I agree if the overall album quality (song-for-song) is on par then I'm happy.

[epilogue]

I'm already willing to put Mind Your Manners above anything on Backspacer. If the rest of the album is even on par with Backspacer, I'll call it a win. And I'll have a handful of songs that I'll always turn to when spinning Pearl Jam.

There's certainly nothing on Backspacer with the same bite as MYM, so it wins in that weight class. If I had to be objective it could be argued that Unthought, or The End or Just Breathe are more widely received as better songs (speaking as someone with a girlfriend who considers those some of her favorite PJ songs)

I agree if the overall album quality (song-for-song) is on par then I'm happy.

Oh, I'm a soupy sap. I think Just Breathe is a great song. It's one of my favorites on Backspacer. The End, too. When I think about whether or not MYM is better it's Just Breathe, Amongst The Waves and The End that put up the biggest fight for me. And I could easily see any of (or all of) those three winning out once I've heard MYM as many times as I've heard those guys.

[Tuolumne]

I think there's such a thing as over-listening. Some of you sound like you will beat this album to death. I keep PJ mixed in with alot of other music, that keeps it fresh for me and it also gives me perspective on what I'm listening to. Listening ton album several hundred times and then writing a thousand posts about it on a message board to me seems like a recipe for hating the thing in end no matter the quality.

[stip]

I still love backspacer. Every pearl jam album gets played to death for me. My top albums are the ones where there are either a bunch of songs I seem to never get tired of, or they are the records that are the easiest to return to after a break

[Lounge Lizard]

I'm already willing to put Mind Your Manners above anything on Backspacer. If the rest of the album is even on par with Backspacer, I'll call it a win. And I'll have a handful of songs that I'll always turn to when spinning Pearl Jam.

There's certainly nothing on Backspacer with the same bite as MYM, so it wins in that weight class. If I had to be objective it could be argued that Unthought, or The End or Just Breathe are more widely received as better songs (speaking as someone with a girlfriend who considers those some of her favorite PJ songs)

I agree if the overall album quality (song-for-song) is on par then I'm happy.

if you could somehow delete the piano from Unthought it would tie with Faithful

[cippociappo]

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)

I have to agree 100%.
I don't think Backspacer is the best Pearl Jam album, but for sure it produced a few songs that I'll always go back to.

AND it's the only Pearl Jam album worth listening while cooking, when kids make noise, while you're doing other things.
It's the only PJ album that I can listen to "easily", the others need too much attention.
I guess it filled a spot that was somewhat "free", pearl jam speaking.

[Lounge Lizard]

ATW is a very good song but theres something wrong with the rythm part during the verses. Its weak. The rest is top notch though.