Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[evenslow]

Can anyone tell me whether we have received any new reviews this morning? The AN review was the last one I read. I'm about to post a link to a summary file that I put together (of all the listening party reviews so far) and I didn't want to miss anything.

Piggybacking on that, do we know anyone at the London party today? Paging Dime?

[digster]

I don't think there have been any since alt. nation.

[Strat]

I think the biggest problem with backspacer, and maybe PJ, is the time between albums these days. They dont release records on a regular basis for them to make left turns, or right turns, or U turns, or chineese firedrills etc...

It sounds like they dipped their toes in some murky water but also kept their footing on familiar ground. I guess im fine with that but they would probably feel much more freedom to take chances if they put out more records on a regular basis.

[gems and rhinestones]

I think they still probably write some stranger songs but I feel Ed is the one scared to actually release them and put them on records. As he will not be able to "yea yea yea" all concert long. That whole feeling obligated to the people in the rafters in an arena show...

They're even restraining themselves from making songs too complex or long because they wouldn't fit in setlists then.
" It was funny, because I told the guys when we were working on some arrangements, for better or worse, when we're talking about how many times to play the bridge or how many bars to add, I'm actually thinking about the set list. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but seriously, I'm thinking, if we double the bridge, this might end up being a song we play once a month, as opposed to three times a week. So, what do you think? How many times do you want to play this song? Is this song going to put wind in our sails, or will it be one we have to row through? At one of our gigs, without flashpots and electricity (laughs), there's only so much room for those more difficult listening songs. That was one example of how we kept the arrangements lean. The songs come off more like sparkling water than pea soup, and I think that's good for our group right now." - Ed

I've always hated that line of quotes. Its really offputting.

I never heard that comment from Eddie. Here is what I think of it though

[harmless]

Can anyone tell me whether we have received any new reviews this morning? The AN review was the last one I read. I'm about to post a link to a summary file that I put together (of all the listening party reviews so far) and I didn't want to miss anything.

Piggybacking on that, do we know anyone at the London party today? Paging Dime?

Na, me and Dime both said we don't know anyone going.

[evenslow]

Can anyone tell me whether we have received any new reviews this morning? The AN review was the last one I read. I'm about to post a link to a summary file that I put together (of all the listening party reviews so far) and I didn't want to miss anything.

Piggybacking on that, do we know anyone at the London party today? Paging Dime?

Na, me and Dime both said we don't know anyone going.

Anyway, you guys can pull together an "Oceans 2" on short notice?

[harmless]

Can anyone tell me whether we have received any new reviews this morning? The AN review was the last one I read. I'm about to post a link to a summary file that I put together (of all the listening party reviews so far) and I didn't want to miss anything.

Piggybacking on that, do we know anyone at the London party today? Paging Dime?

Na, me and Dime both said we don't know anyone going.

Anyway, you guys can pull together an "Oceans 2" on short notice?

I can't even pull myself together, sorry dude. But there are sure to be things written somewhere eventually. English people don't know how to shut up about their opinions.

[WaitingForBluey]

Well, even if/when there are new listening party reviews that make our way to us I will try my best to add them to this file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/330 ... mmary.docx

This was my best attempt to pull together all the reviews in a more reader-friendly, track by track format. I took the liberty to make some grammatical corrections for our European friends so that it's a bit easier to read. Hopefully some of you will find this helpful.

[Strat]

Well, even if/when there are new listening party reviews that make our way to us I will try my best to add them to this file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/330 ... mmary.docx

This was my best attempt to pull together all the reviews in a more reader-friendly, track by track format. I took the liberty to make some grammatical corrections for our European friends so that it's a bit easier to read. Hopefully some of you will find this helpful.

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtop ... =15&t=1992

[WaitingForBluey]

Well, even if/when there are new listening party reviews that make our way to us I will try my best to add them to this file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/330 ... mmary.docx

This was my best attempt to pull together all the reviews in a more reader-friendly, track by track format. I took the liberty to make some grammatical corrections for our European friends so that it's a bit easier to read. Hopefully some of you will find this helpful.

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtop ... =15&t=1992

Sure, I see that. But mine might be a little easier to digest for some.

Also, in case some of you have problems opening a .docx file, here's a link to a .doc version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/330 ... ummary.doc

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I can't wait for the EP in 6 months.

They will probably start the countdown as soon as the current one ends

[harmless]

The whole thing about Stone saying "It's going to alienate people, like No Code did" in the first session, and then saying "It sounds like Pearl Jam" in the second, doesn't have to be explained by a move from freaky awesomeness to Backspacer 2, by the way. It could just be that he was told to reign it in, don't say our new album will alienate, you'll put everyone off, etc. It doesn't necessarily indicate what kind of music he was referring to, just that the later quote was less revealing in its info. If anything, if this album is any move away from Backspacer at all, he may have felt the need to warn the pop fans about it. You know, all those people who have got on board since Backspacer...

[dimejinky99]

The only thing I heard about that London playback was on the pit. Haven't seen it mentioned since. A friend did some research and found its in a private members club.
Don't know if its even happening but it is unlikely they'd skip London,

That said, the Q editor has had the record for a while so no reason the other big magazines wouldn't too.

[EJ]

all those people who have got on board since Backspacer...

those suburban housewives are going to be outraged then.

[Jaeti]

My latest musings, now that I'm caught up on the reviews:

Getaway -- Sounds like it'll be fine at worst.

My Father's Son -- Really interested to hear this one.

Sirens -- Cautiously optimistic that this will be done "right", even though I don't know exactly what I mean by that. I agree with whoever said, "At least it's a long song." The reports have said it's fairly slow, right? So I don't think we have FoN II on our hands. I like FoN, by the way, aside from the intro/outro guitar, but it sounds like this is a different kind of song.

Lightning Bolt -- I'm not excited about this, per se, but I've only listened to the Wrigley version twice, and I'm encouraged by comments that it's better on the album. Whereas I had been underwhelmed by the Wrigley performance, now I think I could be pleasantly surprised by this one.

Infallible/Pendulum -- Their best back-to-back since god knows when.

Swallowed Whole -- Perplexed as to how the title/artwork jive with the reports of the music/lyrics. Curious if it can stand its ground if the two previous songs are as good as expected.

Let the Records Play -- Sounds like it'll be fine, too. Didn't one report even say "dark lyrics"? Interested.

Sleeping By Myself -- I never got into Ed's uke album, so I'm hopeful that its presence here won't irk me too much.

Yellow Moon -- There was an NAIS comparison, at least as far as a solo goes, yeah? High hopes for this.

Future Days -- Nervous that this will be the low point of the album and a disappointment closer, especially if Yellow Moon is good-to-great.

[dimejinky99]

The whole thing about Stone saying "It's going to alienate people, like No Code did" in the first session, and then saying "It sounds like Pearl Jam" in the second, doesn't have to be explained by a move from freaky awesomeness to Backspacer 2, by the way. It could just be that he was told to reign it in, don't say our new album will alienate, you'll put everyone off, etc. It doesn't necessarily indicate what kind of music he was referring to, just that the later quote was less revealing in its info. If anything, if this album is any move away from Backspacer at all, he may have felt the need to warn the pop fans about it. You know, all those people who have got on board since Backspacer...

In fairness a severe left turn artistically was predicted and expected after the last one.
I'm not buying the logical extension argument at all apart from that one song being a left over.

Sometimes songs don't find their place til later. Pj have demonstrated this often in the past.

[harmless]

all those people who have got on board since Backspacer...

those suburban housewives are going to be outraged then.

I wouldn't want to be there when that shit hits that fan.

[Lounge Lizard]

Stip, your new thread is incomplete without DaveVedders and the German guys demos

[Hypnos]

RANK THE REVIEWS!

[evenslow]

The whole thing about Stone saying "It's going to alienate people, like No Code did" in the first session, and then saying "It sounds like Pearl Jam" in the second, doesn't have to be explained by a move from freaky awesomeness to Backspacer 2, by the way. It could just be that he was told to reign it in, don't say our new album will alienate, you'll put everyone off, etc.

No one tells the Bossman to reign it in.

He could have been pissy that day. Or bored. Or just fucking with us.

Like God.