Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[EJ]

[Blenheim Augustine]

Some new stuff in the goods section.

[harmless]

Plus, there many elitist pearl jam fans who are just real assholes.

No fucking way. Where?

[KurtLeon]

[stip]

My friend and I were talking last night. He's seen about 50 Pj shows or so from 95 onwards and he was saying how he hates that the gigs have become a celebration vibe.
I would agree that the mood/vibe that used to be there in Pj shows is gone somehow, there used to be all this energy and atmosphere created and based on set lists but now it's gone.
We were wondering how the writing in the new songs will reflect that. Are they gonna be writing from the content/peaceful place they seem to be at?
Will they still try to have something to rail against and how successful will this be if they're all blissed out?

All these questions. October is so far away

contentment is stagnation

Is it true all the best art is borne of pain?

None of those things are true

Isn't this an age long debate? I think you do have to suffer for your art. Not for it to be good but sometimes, yeah.

it is, but art does not require suffering in the slightest. What art requires is imagination and empathy--the ability to imagine something true about the world and the way people experience it, and the ability to express it in a way that seems true to others that they could not have articulated themselves. Great art requires suffering only if you are limited to writing from your own experience.

to say nothing of the fact that something being true has nothing at all to do with it being painful or dark.

[WaitingForBluey]

Hey stip, get outta here and get to the tourney thread... we're waiting for you! (patiently, of course...)

[harmless]

My friend and I were talking last night. He's seen about 50 Pj shows or so from 95 onwards and he was saying how he hates that the gigs have become a celebration vibe.
I would agree that the mood/vibe that used to be there in Pj shows is gone somehow, there used to be all this energy and atmosphere created and based on set lists but now it's gone.
We were wondering how the writing in the new songs will reflect that. Are they gonna be writing from the content/peaceful place they seem to be at?
Will they still try to have something to rail against and how successful will this be if they're all blissed out?

All these questions. October is so far away

contentment is stagnation

Is it true all the best art is borne of pain?

None of those things are true

Isn't this an age long debate? I think you do have to suffer for your art. Not for it to be good but sometimes, yeah.

it is, but art does not require suffering in the slightest. What art requires is imagination and empathy--the ability to imagine something true about the world and the way people experience it, and the ability to express it in a way that seems true to others that they could not have articulated themselves. Great art requires suffering only if you are limited to writing from your own experience.

to say nothing of the fact that something being true has nothing at all to do with it being painful or dark.

Absolutely. The 'suffering artist' is just a romantic cliche invented by people who enjoy the idea of creative personas. Artists are generally just normal people; some suffer, some don't. That's life.

[McParadigm]

art does not require suffering in the slightest.

True.

What art requires is imagination and empathy.

Oh, super no.

[harmless]

I don't know about empathy; but yeah, to create good art, imagination helps.

[stip]

Requires may be too strong a word

[stip]

Or maybe not. Explain yourself mcp

[McParadigm]

Towards empathy, it absolutely is too strong a word.

Creativity? I'm not totally sure. Most of the time creativity produces art, but occasionally I think art produces creativity.

[McParadigm]

But enough talk about art. Let's talk about Lightning Bolt!

[harmless]

I really have to tip my hat at the 10C for creating what has been a delightfully exciting run-up campaign.

[McParadigm]

[harmless]

[dimejinky99]

My friend and I were talking last night. He's seen about 50 Pj shows or so from 95 onwards and he was saying how he hates that the gigs have become a celebration vibe.
I would agree that the mood/vibe that used to be there in Pj shows is gone somehow, there used to be all this energy and atmosphere created and based on set lists but now it's gone.
We were wondering how the writing in the new songs will reflect that. Are they gonna be writing from the content/peaceful place they seem to be at?
Will they still try to have something to rail against and how successful will this be if they're all blissed out?

All these questions. October is so far away

contentment is stagnation

Is it true all the best art is borne of pain?

None of those things are true

Isn't this an age long debate? I think you do have to suffer for your art. Not for it to be good but sometimes, yeah.

it is, but art does not require suffering in the slightest. What art requires is imagination and empathy--the ability to imagine something true about the world and the way people experience it, and the ability to express it in a way that seems true to others that they could not have articulated themselves. Great art requires suffering only if you are limited to writing from your own experience.

to say nothing of the fact that something being true has nothing at all to do with it being painful or dark.

I think that's where ed has been failing a bit here and there on the last few releases.
He used to be great at writing in the third person (daughter, even given to fly) sort of character based songs, but then something like Unemployable(nothing to do with me not liking the song) comes across as phoney. And in the first person, something like Gone, or even the end, can be seen as heavy handed and flawed.

He can still write a great tune and maybe he's working on bettering things he's not so strong at, but it sometimes feels like its at the expense of those he is good at.
Maybe I just don't feel he's connecting to his subjects anymore? I dunno.

[harmless]

His problem is just that he hasn't got any new subjects to cling onto. The closest we've come to one is Johnny Guitar. Anyone would run out of stuff to say about the same subjects after this long.

[dimejinky99]

Maybe. Guess we'll find out In October.

[stip]

My friend and I were talking last night. He's seen about 50 Pj shows or so from 95 onwards and he was saying how he hates that the gigs have become a celebration vibe.
I would agree that the mood/vibe that used to be there in Pj shows is gone somehow, there used to be all this energy and atmosphere created and based on set lists but now it's gone.
We were wondering how the writing in the new songs will reflect that. Are they gonna be writing from the content/peaceful place they seem to be at?
Will they still try to have something to rail against and how successful will this be if they're all blissed out?

All these questions. October is so far away

contentment is stagnation

Is it true all the best art is borne of pain?

None of those things are true

Isn't this an age long debate? I think you do have to suffer for your art. Not for it to be good but sometimes, yeah.

it is, but art does not require suffering in the slightest. What art requires is imagination and empathy--the ability to imagine something true about the world and the way people experience it, and the ability to express it in a way that seems true to others that they could not have articulated themselves. Great art requires suffering only if you are limited to writing from your own experience.

to say nothing of the fact that something being true has nothing at all to do with it being painful or dark.

I think that's where ed has been failing a bit here and there on the last few releases.
He used to be great at writing in the third person (daughter, even given to fly) sort of character based songs, but then something like Unemployable(nothing to do with me not liking the song) comes across as phoney. And in the first person, something like Gone, or even the end, can be seen as heavy handed and flawed.

He can still write a great tune and maybe he's working on bettering things he's not so strong at, but it sometimes feels like its at the expense of those he is good at.
Maybe I just don't feel he's connecting to his subjects anymore? I dunno.

writing that 'decline of the american dream' stuff is VERY hard to do well. Springsteen is one of the only people I can think of who can do it well most of the time