Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

General Pearl Jam discussion.

Rank Lightning Bolt

5 stars
1
1%
4 stars
4
5%
3 stars
29
37%
2 stars
30
38%
1 star
14
18%
 
Total votes: 78

digster
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by digster »

Mind Your Manners, My Father's Son, Pendulum and Yellow Moon are the ones that stuck with me, and I enjoy Lightning Bolt as well, though maybe not at their level.
Last edited by digster on Wed November 15, 2017 3:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Strat
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Strat »

PHATJ wrote:
KurtLeon wrote:Getaway is a good song hidden in a terrible mix.
Mind Your Manners is ok
My Fathers's Son could be good with a better delivery from Ed and a less wordy lyrics
Sirens is ok, deserved a better delivery too.
Lightning Bolt is alright.
Infalible has an awesome vers, a cool bridge, an awesome instrumental with a terrible chorus
Pendulum is GOOD.
Swalloed Whole is awful.
Let The Records Play is fun, and I love the main riff and the instrumental.
Sleeping By Myself is awful.
Yellow moon is GREAT
Future Days is terrible.

Still my least favorite album, the closer I have to be a bad album.
I’m on board with almost all of this. :thumbsup:

more like....on bored! amirite?!
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Strat
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Strat »

I just dont crave to listen to this album. I love Mind Your Manners, sleeping by myself, Yellow Moon, my fathers son, and infallible.

I still dont seek those songs out.

Theyre just kind of there and im not sure why. Is it the production? Is it because they just aren't that good? Is it because they have done similar songs better before?
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evenslow
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by evenslow »

Strat wrote:I just dont crave to listen to this album.
me too.

and i've listened to backspacer a few times in the past year.
Strat wrote:Alas, we are RM
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bodysnatcher
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by bodysnatcher »

i think it's worth noting that the last two album artworks are cartoon-themed, which is what PJ appears to have become
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epilogue
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by epilogue »

Maybe Burt should do the artwork for the next one.
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MissYouAllDay
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by MissYouAllDay »

Maybe they should just quit.
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by epilogue »

NEVER STOP
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by bune »

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KurtLeon
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by KurtLeon »

durdencommatyler wrote:Maybe Burt should do the artwork for the next one.
If he wont, I will.
bodysnatcher wrote:Someone ban KurtLeon please
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Leatherhead
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Leatherhead »

KurtLeon wrote:Getaway is a good song hidden in a terrible mix. Agreed
Mind Your Manners is ok. Better than ok, it's pretty good.
My Fathers's Son could be good with a better delivery from Ed and a less wordy lyrics. Disagree, MFS can't get much better, lyrics are fine and Ed's delivery is great.
Sirens is ok, deserved a better delivery too. Agreed, though the delivery's not bad.
Lightning Bolt is alright. Agreed, but could be great with a better mix/production.
Infalible has an awesome vers, a cool bridge, an awesome instrumental with a terrible chorus Yea, pretty much, though I wouldn't call it a terrible chorus, just not as good as the rest of the song.
Pendulum is GOOD. Ehh, the 2nd half of the song is good.
Swalloed Whole is awful. Ed bothers me on this one, I wouldn't say awful though. Issues with delivery should be on this song, not MFS or Sirens.
Let The Records Play is fun, and I love the main riff and the instrumental. Pretty good bridge on this one, could've been a great song.
Sleeping By Myself is awful. Awful?? No, it's not bad.
Yellow moon is GREAT Well, not great, but pretty good.
Future Days is terrible. Take out the piano and it's not so terrible. Thought it was terrible upon first listens, but I've warmed up to it some.

Still my least favorite album, the closer I have to be a bad album. I'm not sure, I go back and forth between LB and BS as their worst.
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by coptheriotact »

I'm Listening to lightning bolt for the first time since i got the vinyl in 2014 and realized it sounded worse/as bad than the mp3 and gave up on the album completely. The album competes with backspacer for the worst pearl jam album.

Its even more processed sounding than backspacer, but the bass has more room to shine, as everything else sounds thinner. I cant decide which album is worse, the performances vary from song to song, but i would probably prefer to listen to the backspacer album in full. I think Lightning bolt has some better ideas and some tracks are better.
The best songs are:

Getaway
Fathers Son
Pendulum is good but by this point in the album its too late.
Swallowed Whole (Sounds soo bad compared to into the wild, couldve been great)

If pearl jam want to make a great album again, they have to start from scratch, everything sounds so comfortable and overproducing the tracks while trying to maintain a ragged sound is just not working.
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by B »

Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by lowlight79 »

I haven't listen to this record in a while, but looking back, the only tracks now that appeal to me are

Getaway
Mind You Manners
Swallowed Whole
Pendulum
Yellow Moon and Future Days.

The last two, well, future days I ended up like a year or two later when Ed played it at a festival with a electric guitar and it sounded great. Yellow Moon, I just wasn't a fan of, but I find myself listening to it more now than I did when the record came out.
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Strat »

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mikejasond
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by mikejasond »

I've been banished to this thread :(

What if I wanted to have 12 simultaneous conversations?!?!!?! :cry:
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Strat »

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mikejasond
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by mikejasond »

Lightning Bolt is fun on the album but its by far the best contribution of this album to their live show and the only one that I hope never goes away. It works even in the encores. Its really fun and McCready goes wild. It's a highlight of many of their modern shows.

Overall My Father's Son -> Sirens -> Lightning Bolt is a nice run after an awful start.

I enjoy it on the album too but it undoubtedly shines live
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by mikejasond »

(But seriously why didn't they let McCready have a crazy solo on the album version. So weird)
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Strat
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Re: Lightning Bolt: How Harmless killed some time...

Post by Strat »

mikejasond wrote:Lightning Bolt is fun on the album but its by far the best contribution of this album to their live show and the only one that I hope never goes away. It works even in the encores. Its really fun and McCready goes wild. It's a highlight of many of their modern shows.

Overall My Father's Son -> Sirens -> Lightning Bolt is a nice run after an awful start.

I enjoy it on the album too but it undoubtedly shines live
I love the little post first chorus solo that mccready does.

I think Lighting BOlt, the track, is actually really great. It takes a few twists and turns that i find really interesting as far as song structure goes.
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