Lightning Bolt -- guess the tracks!

[warehouse]

Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

[WtOB?]

oh. i wish they were both "always".

[WtOB?]

oh. i wish they were both "always".

this is how i feel.

[McParadigm]

To be fair, the reason I like great lyrics from PJ is that the vocals are so good. When the vocal and delivery is great but the lyrics aren't, it's pretty jarring. (And vice versa.)

Part of writing great lyrics is fitting word and phrase to the context and delivery. I think when people talk about whether or not they care about lyrics, they're talking about lyrics the way you might think of a poem...as an artfully crafted expression of thought that uses form and phrase to attempt something beyond the simple profundity of normal written communication.

The problem with this is that lyrics exist within the confines of the music...they're made to order for that purpose....and they either feed the performance or they deter from it.

Sometimes being a strong lyrical writer just means knowing that, within the context you and the band have already created, if you're going to slide your vocals down the scale a bit just before a transition into a big chorus in the hopes of "selling" that transition, a headshake of a phrase like "someone who takes the rope, and just lets go" is an affecting fit for the emotion inherent to that delivery. Or that, as the first drops of watery piano starts sprinkling over the ominous but driving bedrock already laid down, "Hurricane has the trade winds blowin'" is the kind of phrase that works to enhance that growing sense of danger. Then, with that moment laid down and a need to spike upwards lest the vocal melody become mundane, "gale force" is a wonderful phrase to yelp out for what will ultimately feel like a semi-panicky cry within the song.

At the end of the day, saying the vocal melody and performance matter but lyrics don't doesn't add up, because the lyrical construction is there to enhance both those entities. Although if I'm wrong, please say so and we can start a sign campaign on the new tour for a lyrical reworking of Even Flow into a song called "I Really Really, Really Really, Really Miss You...

Spoiler: show

....Adolf Hitler."

Nobody besides us and the band would even notice.

I'd be all for it if Ed could actually make it sound great.

[harmless]

Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

Yup. There's definitely a lot of posturing now. Maybe that's just Old Rockstar Syndrome.

[WtOB?]

Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

Yup. There's definitely a lot of posturing now. Maybe that's just Old Rockstar Syndrome.

there's also not much "feel" going on with any of the band members.

[harmless]

Let's be honest. These aren't great lyrics:

"I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you all day.
I miss you already, yeah.
I miss you always."

But the superb delivery makes them work.

we could make an entire thread of so-so lyrics that sound awesome when eddie vedder sings them

Indeed. So maybe all this moaning about lyrics (on my part) is a red herring. His delivery used to be so powerful, and the problem might just be that he doesn't 'act' songs right anymore. There's a certain amount of method acting in reading poetry, and I'm sure that's true of songs as well.

honestly, i think he "acts" too much now adays w/ the hand gestures and posturing and whatnot. just sing the song and "act" how it makes you feel.

Yup. There's definitely a lot of posturing now. Maybe that's just Old Rockstar Syndrome.

there's also not much "feel" going on with any of the band members.

Also true, the band members need more feel. I kind of think the MYM video looked a bit cooler because the bandmembers weren't so into it, though. It kind of helped temper the impact of Ed's stupid dance moves.

[stupidmop]

I thought it was pretty strange. It made it look like ed was way more into the song than the rest of the band. Though I think some of that was the wonky editing . At least back in the day when ed was rolling round on the floor the rest of the band was flying around too. Though I think I think eds kind of reverted to 91 goofy ed, if he had it in him/ wasn't worried about killing himself I'm sure he'd be climbing all over shit again.

[WtOB?]

ed's a dick

[harmless]

There's something endearing and funny about the rest of the band being all like "WTF is he doing now?" (Was it the Even Flow video when the band looked up at him climbing?) This video carried a bit of that embarrassment. I don't mind if the songs are cool. If the songs are bad that kind of thing looks much worse. Maybe the rest of the band felt that if they act all crazy to MYM it'd be too over the top.

[evenslow]

Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

[keeponjammin89]

Hey guys any chances you think they will put out another single before the albums put out or no?

[harmless]

Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

What's the Zapruder film?

[evenslow]

Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

What's the Zapruder film?

It has to do with the brain of JFK.

[McParadigm]

Guys, this isn't the Zapruder film.

What's the Zapruder film?

It has to do with the brain of JFK.

Great, but what's it mean to us now?

[Lounge Lizard]

Hey guys any chances you think they will put out another single before the albums put out or no?

Future Days

[McParadigm]

Hey guys any chances you think they will put out another single before the albums put out or no?

Future Days

[keeponjammin89]

ANYBODY THINK THEY WILL RELEASE ANOTHER SINGLE BEFORE THE ALBUM COMES OUT?

[harmless]

I hope they do play us Future Days before the album's out, so that I can acclimatise myself to it.

[keeponjammin89]

No chances of Lightning Bolt for the new single?