Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[Lounge Lizard]

Jeff is very audible on all the leaked songs. That's great, I've been missing that quite often

[harmless]

Haha, I don't want to promise I won't listen to a leak. That was pretty stupid. But I definitely want to listen to the rest in a better quality. They'll be the ones worth paying a lot of attention to.

[Lounge Lizard]

Upon a few listens, my ranking of the 5 studio tracks, with some very low detail remarks, are:

1. Getaway - That bassline. Fuck. Yes.
2. Mind Your Manners - Rockin'
3. Let the Records Play - Sounds like fun sex between The Black Keys and lullabies era Queens of the Stone Age
4. Lightning Bolt - Rockin'
5. Swallowed Whole - Not a big fan of this one. Sounds like FoN fucking Unthought Known in the ass. I hate both those songs, but this is a little better.

In general, the feeling I have about these songs is that this is (for the most part) the light hearted Pearl Jam that made Backspacer, but not lame. That's the best I can do. These are good songs that I enjoy overall.

This is very close to how I feel.
Backspacer that lost it's lame but kept its shine.
Some bits reminded me of the sound on Yield. Mostly Mike.

[harmless]

Mike's 'pattern' at the end of LB (which doesn't go on long enough) is really, really pretty. I'm almost as in love with it as I am with the equivalent part in Kings of Leon's 'Arizona'.

[Lounge Lizard]

Haha, I don't want to promise I won't listen to a leak. That was pretty stupid. But I definitely want to listen to the rest in a better quality. They'll be the ones worth paying a lot of attention to.

About the "better quality" thing...
Either I have a really crappy rip of MYM, or...
In short I I've been playing them all back to back in my AKG's and I really doubt there's a difference in terms of quality between these leaks and MYM.
And that means we shouldn't expect a big improvement once we have our disks.

[harmless]

Haha, I don't want to promise I won't listen to a leak. That was pretty stupid. But I definitely want to listen to the rest in a better quality. They'll be the ones worth paying a lot of attention to.

About the "better quality" thing...
Either I have a really crappy rip of MYM, or...
In short I I've been playing them all back to back in my AKG's and I really doubt there's a difference in terms of quality between these leaks and MYM.
And that means we shouldn't expect a big improvement once we have our disks.

These songs aren't lossless. They are much fuzzier than MYM, and if you listen carefully enough, they will be brighter, more detailed and cleaner on CD. Obviously they're superficially similar to MYM and they don't sound bad at all, but they're not top quality either.

[HardTI]

Haha, I don't want to promise I won't listen to a leak. That was pretty stupid. But I definitely want to listen to the rest in a better quality. They'll be the ones worth paying a lot of attention to.

About the "better quality" thing...
Either I have a really crappy rip of MYM, or...
In short I I've been playing them all back to back in my AKG's and I really doubt there's a difference in terms of quality between these leaks and MYM.
And that means we shouldn't expect a big improvement once we have our disks.

I think you have a bad rip of MYM if it sounds like these leaks. These new 4 are a really low bitrate. I think there is a lossless copy of MYM, but I listen to a 256kbps version. Huge difference even between that and these 4 new ones.

[Lounge Lizard]

Haha, I don't want to promise I won't listen to a leak. That was pretty stupid. But I definitely want to listen to the rest in a better quality. They'll be the ones worth paying a lot of attention to.

About the "better quality" thing...
Either I have a really crappy rip of MYM, or...
In short I I've been playing them all back to back in my AKG's and I really doubt there's a difference in terms of quality between these leaks and MYM.
And that means we shouldn't expect a big improvement once we have our disks.

I think you have a bad rip of MYM if it sounds like these leaks. These new 4 are a really low bitrate. I think there is a lossless copy of MYM, but I listen to a 256kbps version. Huge difference even between that and these 4 new ones.

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[Lounge Lizard]

Just saw this and thought it's a real missed opportunity:



Would have made a great part of a song cover

[Chris_H_2]

Swallowed Whole is the clear winner for me.

And I must say, I much prefer Pearl Jam's attempts at mimicking REM than its attempts at trying to mimic Pearl Jam over the past decade or so.

[harmless]

To be fair, a lot of Lightning Bolt is REM-like as well. The chorus wouldn't seem half as silly sung by Michael Stipe.

[bada]

Betterman (live) makes me laugh every time I see it.

[HardTI]

Swallowed Whole is the clear winner for me.

And I must say, I much prefer Pearl Jam's attempts at mimicking REM than its attempts at trying to mimic Pearl Jam over the past decade or so.

[Kevin Davis]

A big thank you to the kind soul who sent these to me.

First impression is that, while none of these songs are without their minor virtues, there's probably not much depth or potential for surprise in them either. In a lot of respects the songs just feel...I don't know, unremarkable, competent but unimpressive pieces of obligatory product from a group of people who just don't have that much to offer each other anymore. I think that's maybe the most disappointing thing for me about these songs (and probably "Backspacer" too), the way the individualized voices of the band members seem to be lost in this nonspecific wash of readymade blandness, the sound of five people whose creative paths have long since diverged reverting to a "mode." They've become like old college friends who used to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, driving wherever the road took them, enraptured in each others' company, having deep conversations about the meaning of life; now they meet up once a year at Panera and talk about their office jobs and where to get the best deals on homeowner's insurance, which lasts for about 30 minutes before giving way to a deafening, awkward silence.

I'll hold my final judgment until the album drops, but at the very least I don't think these songs travel well. The remaining tracks have some heavy lifting to do.

[dimejinky99]

Upon a few listens, my ranking of the 5 studio tracks, with some very low detail remarks, are:

1. Getaway - That bassline. Fuck. Yes.
2. Mind Your Manners - Rockin'
3. Let the Records Play - Sounds like fun sex between The Black Keys and lullabies era Queens of the Stone Age
4. Lightning Bolt - Rockin'
5. Swallowed Whole - Not a big fan of this one. Sounds like FoN fucking Unthought Known in the ass. I hate both those songs, but this is a little better.

In general, the feeling I have about these songs is that this is (for the most part) the light hearted Pearl Jam that made Backspacer, but not lame. That's the best I can do. These are good songs that I enjoy overall.

This is very close to how I feel.
Backspacer that lost it's lame but kept its shine.
Some bits reminded me of the sound on Yield. Mostly Mike.

I thought 'shine' was Backspacers big problem? Or am I on the wrong forum?

[Lounge Lizard]

Upon a few listens, my ranking of the 5 studio tracks, with some very low detail remarks, are:

1. Getaway - That bassline. Fuck. Yes.
2. Mind Your Manners - Rockin'
3. Let the Records Play - Sounds like fun sex between The Black Keys and lullabies era Queens of the Stone Age
4. Lightning Bolt - Rockin'
5. Swallowed Whole - Not a big fan of this one. Sounds like FoN fucking Unthought Known in the ass. I hate both those songs, but this is a little better.

In general, the feeling I have about these songs is that this is (for the most part) the light hearted Pearl Jam that made Backspacer, but not lame. That's the best I can do. These are good songs that I enjoy overall.

This is very close to how I feel.
Backspacer that lost it's lame but kept its shine.
Some bits reminded me of the sound on Yield. Mostly Mike.

I thought 'shine' was Backspacers big problem? Or am I on the wrong forum?

Not with me

[dimejinky99]

I think I like all these more than MYM (except LB) but they grabbed me quicker than MYM which is a little worrying.

[harmless]

These are the filler tracks, I'm sure of it (apart from possibly SBM and FD). Other stuff will be more worth thinking about.

[stip]

Thing is I could always make excuses for PJ tracks I didn't like. I can't this time around. I should say that Getaway and SW are quite enjoyable.

don't bother. This is a shitty leak without album context. Maybe you'll like them when you hear them the way you're supposed to (like them more, anymore). If not, skip em. Come back to em some day and maybe something will have changed. we all have those songs.

I like these, but pearl jam songs I don't like have never bothered me much. Either I'll like them someday or I won't. There's other stuff for me to enjoy

[harmless]

Thing is I could always make excuses for PJ tracks I didn't like. I can't this time around. I should say that Getaway and SW are quite enjoyable.

don't bother. This is a shitty leak without album context. Maybe you'll like them when you hear them the way you're supposed to (like them more, anymore). If not, skip em. Come back to em some day and maybe something will have changed. we all have those songs.

I like these, but pearl jam songs I don't like have never bothered me much. Either I'll like them someday or I won't. There's other stuff for me to enjoy