Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Lightning Bolt

[liebzz]

I was listening to the 4/16/16 Greenville, SC show (Vs. show) today and that version of Let the Records Play is phenomenal. If you are still a detractor after listening to that performance then you will never enjoy that song.

[dimejinky99]

I was listening to the 4/16/16 Greenville, SC show (Vs. show) today and that version of Let the Records Play is phenomenal. If you are still a detractor after listening to that performance then you will never enjoy that song.

Go and write some new music ed.
Your input is worthless here.

[wease]

Ruddo and I were at that show. Not together, tho. It was Record Store Day and they played STBC with LTRP. It was a great performance of a mid-tier tune.

[liebzz]

I was not there and moved by that performance on headphones. Awesome.

[bodysnatcher]

just listened to it, and yeah, i wouldn't be sad to hear that live.

mike's solos were good. i'd love to hear him do something more bluesy that fit into the feel of the song, versus his seemingly-go-to rapid fire, machine gun technique.

[Monkey_Driven]

That was a good performance. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Bammer]

I was listening to the 4/16/16 Greenville, SC show (Vs. show) today and that version of Let the Records Play is phenomenal. If you are still a detractor after listening to that performance then you will never enjoy that song.

Go and write some new music ed.
Your input is worthless here.

[tyweed]

I was listening to the 4/16/16 Greenville, SC show (Vs. show) today and that version of Let the Records Play is phenomenal. If you are still a detractor after listening to that performance then you will never enjoy that song.

I was at that show, and that is indeed an excellent version of LTRP.

Also notable is an absolutely monster version of Present Tense from that night. All personal bias aside, I'm not sure I've heard a better performance of that song.

[liebzz]

There was also a great version of Lightning Bolt in this show.

[VinylGuy]

Listening to this one, first time in a while.....I still love the first 4 tracks. Even if Getaway´s guitars sound is so thin, i still like this studio version.
My Father Son is favorite..i just love Jeff here, and specially Ed. I also looove Sirens, sorry guys.

Then Lightning Bolt comes..and wtf. They were exited with this song?? I get that live it could be a different thing, but this studio take....the guitars are so down in the mix, i hear the piano more than them. Ed´s delivery is just all over the place, and that fade is horrible....This is when the album takes a deep dive and from here on, its just Pendulum and Yellow Moon for me.

[VinylGuy]

SW´s production is horrible....that acoustic guitar sounds so so bad. Cant believe Jeff or Stone liked this take...I like Mike´s solo and thats it.

Let The Records Play is not good at all. I love the guitars...but the chorus is so boring. And another fade out in what it seems the best part of the song.

[VinylGuy]

For fuck´s sake...Future Days is more horrible than i thought....How can they let Ed put this song? As a closer??? The piano is just so fucking awful...ed´s acoustic sounds so fucking awful....those strings? And the bridge? embarrassing.

Brendan really tried to get them as close as vanilla as possible.

I cant believe this thing appeared on an official PJ album.

[stip]

you've inspired me to give this a go. It's probably been close to two years since I've given this a full listen.

[stip]

Getaway starts out promising, and has that great chunky bass line, but the overall song is a bit overwritten, and there's an antiseptic quality to it. The characters in particular have no character to them, and Eddie is singing in that register that always founds a bit artificial to me. The bridge is kinda boring. I wish the guitars had the sharpness they do in the 'science says' part of the songs, and the outro, which I really like.

This is a great example of Pearl Jam by numbers. I don't think it's a bad song by any means, but it brings almost nothing to the table. It exists because a track needs to be here.

[stip]

I get why L-Bolt doesn't do it for this some people. Why this isn't a huge hit among the fanbase continues to just baffle me.

The intro is great. The verse guitars are generic punk, but Eddie has a great vocal melody and a wonderfully sneering performance in the verses that sound rough and angry without the screachinesss of similar number on S/T. And he sounds so good on the repeated bridge/chorus. The guitar part that leads into the bridge is cool, and this is just a showcase bag of tricks solo for Mike where everything lands.

And these lyrics are great - really smart without being too obvious (Comatose is similar in that way).

And a fantastic outro. This is a near perfect song.

[ABNorman]

I listened to this the other day, and I feel about the same way: I find it more enjoyable than Backspacer, and I enjoy it quite a lot till Pendulum is over. I really like Sleeping By Myself, but that's about it for the second half.

But it does sound a bit thin, and it still feels a bit like a band trying to cover themselves.

[DWFB]

For fuck´s sake...Future Days is more horrible than i thought....How can they let Ed put this song? As a closer??? The piano is just so fucking awful...ed´s acoustic sounds so fucking awful....those strings? And the bridge? embarrassing.

Brendan really tried to get them as close as vanilla as possible.

I cant believe this thing appeared on an official PJ album.

But rest assured, it makes a great wedding song!

[ABNorman]

I don't hate Future Days as much as most, but that piano is egregious.

[stip]

I actually forgot about how My Father's Son sounded, to be honest. I really don't like these lyrics, or Eddie's performance (same Getaway elements I don't like). The bass is nice and meaty, and it drives the song, letting the guitars provide a little color. I do dig the bridge. But the featureless production holds it back (I can just copy and paste that across every song).

This was actually better than I remembered. It's a pretty good song if I can remember to ignore the lyrics.

[VinylGuy]

I get why L-Bolt doesn't do it for this some people. Why this isn't a huge hit among the fanbase continues to just baffle me.

The intro is great. The verse guitars are generic punk, but Eddie has a great vocal melody and a wonderfully sneering performance in the verses that sound rough and angry without the screachinesss of similar number on S/T. And he sounds so good on the repeated bridge/chorus. The guitar part that leads into the bridge is cool, and this is just a showcase bag of tricks solo for Mike where everything lands.

And these lyrics are great - really smart without being too obvious (Comatose is similar in that way).

And a fantastic outro. This is a near perfect song.

Maaaybe i can enjoy the outtro live...but this studio take? its so thin...the guitars are so fucking thin and weak, the whole thing is driven by a piano.

And i do hate the intro. This band already did that intro with so much better results they could have work something else for this one...specially having Unthought Known released in the previous album.