Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[harmless]

I don't care if PJ is "just a rock band" or not experimental enough for some of you. I never went to PJ to play a style of music unfamiliar to me. I went to PJ because they played music I grew up with and loved. Every album was more than satisfying to me. Most of their albums have been amongst my favorites of all time. Backspacer was their first release that I didn't love. And I did get a bit down on the band for that. But after 20 years and 9 albums and about 200 songs, how upset should I really be? Not very in my estimation.

Now we finally get new music. And after four years, people's expectations are through the roof. They have their personal vision for what PJ has to be and inevitably those expectations can never be met. I have expectations too. I expect this album to be Pearl Jam. Whatever they are now. And I expect to really love most of it. After all they are 8/9 so far in delivering albums that I really love. So the odds are pretty good.

Lastly, I could not possibly care less what anyone else thinks of PJ or this new album. If I love it, I'll love it. If I like it, then fine. If I hate it, my loss. But my opinions will be mine. No message board post from someone I don't know on the other side of the world is going to dictate my feelings for the music I hear.

So far, I think Lightning Bolt has a chance to be a wonderful album. I have already really loved three of the six new songs we've heard. I also enjoy two of the remaining three to varying degrees. This leaves me very optimistic for the songs we have yet to hear. And what is better then sitting on the verge of a new album release that we've waited years for, all the while listening to new songs that make you excited and full of anticipation? For me, not much is better.

Mods, can we sticky this?

[stip]

MC is in Pj 15 years and he's still the new guy. That's weird.

5 times as long as anyone else and with more than twice the output of any other drummer. Half of the records...

[stip]

I don't care if PJ is "just a rock band" or not experimental enough for some of you. I never went to PJ to play a style of music unfamiliar to me. I went to PJ because they played music I grew up with and loved. Every album was more than satisfying to me. Most of their albums have been amongst my favorites of all time. Backspacer was their first release that I didn't love. And I did get a bit down on the band for that. But after 20 years and 9 albums and about 200 songs, how upset should I really be? Not very in my estimation.

Now we finally get new music. And after four years, people's expectations are through the roof. They have their personal vision for what PJ has to be and inevitably those expectations can never be met. I have expectations too. I expect this album to be Pearl Jam. Whatever they are now. And I expect to really love most of it. After all they are 8/9 so far in delivering albums that I really love. So the odds are pretty good.

Lastly, I could not possibly care less what anyone else thinks of PJ or this new album. If I love it, I'll love it. If I like it, then fine. If I hate it, my loss. But my opinions will be mine. No message board post from someone I don't know on the other side of the world is going to dictate my feelings for the music I hear.

So far, I think Lightning Bolt has a chance to be a wonderful album. I have already really loved three of the six new songs we've heard. I also enjoy two of the remaining three to varying degrees. This leaves me very optimistic for the songs we have yet to hear. And what is better then sitting on the verge of a new album release that we've waited years for, all the while listening to new songs that make you excited and full of anticipation? For me, not much is better.

Mods, can we sticky this?

nope but it is a nice quote to post

[harmless]

I'm struggling to see Getaway and MYM together. But that's because the production values are so different. MYM sounds thinner and less substantial than all four songs on the leak.

I've been thinking this, too.

I've just remembered that one of the reviews said that MYM sounded 'different' to the others. Although I don't know what it meant by that.

[harmless]

I don't care if PJ is "just a rock band" or not experimental enough for some of you. I never went to PJ to play a style of music unfamiliar to me. I went to PJ because they played music I grew up with and loved. Every album was more than satisfying to me. Most of their albums have been amongst my favorites of all time. Backspacer was their first release that I didn't love. And I did get a bit down on the band for that. But after 20 years and 9 albums and about 200 songs, how upset should I really be? Not very in my estimation.

Now we finally get new music. And after four years, people's expectations are through the roof. They have their personal vision for what PJ has to be and inevitably those expectations can never be met. I have expectations too. I expect this album to be Pearl Jam. Whatever they are now. And I expect to really love most of it. After all they are 8/9 so far in delivering albums that I really love. So the odds are pretty good.

Lastly, I could not possibly care less what anyone else thinks of PJ or this new album. If I love it, I'll love it. If I like it, then fine. If I hate it, my loss. But my opinions will be mine. No message board post from someone I don't know on the other side of the world is going to dictate my feelings for the music I hear.

So far, I think Lightning Bolt has a chance to be a wonderful album. I have already really loved three of the six new songs we've heard. I also enjoy two of the remaining three to varying degrees. This leaves me very optimistic for the songs we have yet to hear. And what is better then sitting on the verge of a new album release that we've waited years for, all the while listening to new songs that make you excited and full of anticipation? For me, not much is better.

Mods, can we sticky this?

nope but it is a nice quote to post

Joke. It was just a little fuck yeah that's all.

[stip]

You guys are on drugs.

One Vitamin D3 tablet taken twice daily, and 2 Clindamycin antibiotics taken four times daily.

vitamin D is my favourite vitamin. followed by the ol classic C.

I had a blood test taken and it came back with depleted vitamin D. So more sunshine, tablets and hopefully a SAD lamp coming at some point. But yes, vitamin C and citrus. Who doesn't like that??

I can recommend the Solgar 25 μg (1000 IU). Very good, although not vegetarian.

thanks Mirella For 741 pages we had a tightly focused discussion of Lightning Bolt with absolutely no digressions, side tracks, or off topic posts, and you have to ruin it with this post.

We might as well just make this a thread to talk about anything now.

741 pages

Thanks Mirella

[stip]

I don't care if PJ is "just a rock band" or not experimental enough for some of you. I never went to PJ to play a style of music unfamiliar to me. I went to PJ because they played music I grew up with and loved. Every album was more than satisfying to me. Most of their albums have been amongst my favorites of all time. Backspacer was their first release that I didn't love. And I did get a bit down on the band for that. But after 20 years and 9 albums and about 200 songs, how upset should I really be? Not very in my estimation.

Now we finally get new music. And after four years, people's expectations are through the roof. They have their personal vision for what PJ has to be and inevitably those expectations can never be met. I have expectations too. I expect this album to be Pearl Jam. Whatever they are now. And I expect to really love most of it. After all they are 8/9 so far in delivering albums that I really love. So the odds are pretty good.

Lastly, I could not possibly care less what anyone else thinks of PJ or this new album. If I love it, I'll love it. If I like it, then fine. If I hate it, my loss. But my opinions will be mine. No message board post from someone I don't know on the other side of the world is going to dictate my feelings for the music I hear.

So far, I think Lightning Bolt has a chance to be a wonderful album. I have already really loved three of the six new songs we've heard. I also enjoy two of the remaining three to varying degrees. This leaves me very optimistic for the songs we have yet to hear. And what is better then sitting on the verge of a new album release that we've waited years for, all the while listening to new songs that make you excited and full of anticipation? For me, not much is better.

Mods, can we sticky this?

nope but it is a nice quote to post

Joke. It was just a little fuck yeah that's all.

I know

[Juvenal]

Nicely put, Phat

[Birds in Hell]

MC is in Pj 15 years and he's still the new guy. That's weird.

5 times as long as anyone else and with more than twice the output of any other drummer. Half of the records...

None of the good ones, however.

I don't think it's weird at all.

[Dugg]

I'm struggling to see Getaway and MYM together. But that's because the production values are so different. MYM sounds thinner and less substantial than all four songs on the leak.

I've been thinking this, too.

I just had a stupid thought that the key to the album is My Father's Son...

As in?

As in it was a stupid thought but I like an album I can leave on for 6-8 songs before skipping... I mean, no matter your opinion on Backspacer, Fixer into Johnny Guitar into Just Breathe is a mess of an early track list...

[harmless]

I'm struggling to see Getaway and MYM together. But that's because the production values are so different. MYM sounds thinner and less substantial than all four songs on the leak.

I've been thinking this, too.

I just had a stupid thought that the key to the album is My Father's Son...

As in?

As in it was a stupid thought but I like an album I can leave on for 6-8 songs before skipping... I mean, no matter your opinion on Backspacer, Fixer into Johnny Guitar into Just Breathe is a mess of an early track list...

Not sure I agree about those Backspacer songs, but I agree with your point. Sounds like we may have a strong run of songs if Sirens and MFS don't fail.

[Mirella]

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

It is. I recall disliking all of Riot Act when I first heard the album, but then it turned out to be much better later. I hope the instant liking will not lead to the songs losing their shine fast. So far, I am only liking them all more and more, but it's only days, or weeks.

groetjes,
Mirella

[digster]

All the tracks have these strange, but cool sounding reverb on Ed's voice; a little bit like slapback or something (you can hear it most prominently on Getaway, but it's there in the other ones a little bit). I hope it's a part of the record and not just a symptom of the shoddy quality of the leak. I wasn't really into Backspacer's vocals, where it seemed like it was either synthetically treated or bone-dry.

[Mirella]

My son asked me to draw a sketch that he could use to paint his skateboard, I was listening to LB and doodled this:



All her problems they won't die with you

[Dugg]

All the tracks have these strange, but cool sounding reverb on Ed's voice; a little bit like slapback or something (you can hear it most prominently on Getaway, but it's there in the other ones a little bit). I hope it's a part of the record and not just a symptom of the shoddy quality of the leak. I wasn't really into Backspacer's vocals, where it seemed like it was either synthetically treated or bone-dry.

Ed seems to be busting his ass to make these sound good with the limits of his current voice. To me he sounds roughest during the verses of SW. But he seems more committed than the last album if that makes sense...

[Mirella]

it's pretty shallow if you can't see through a bad bit rate. if i heard sleight of hand in a 120kbps mp3 i'd still know it was a good fuckin' song.

[digster]

I think he sounds pretty similar to Backspacer, vocally, with maybe a bit more of an attempt to stay in certain ranges. I think that part is just how he sings now, but that reverb gives it a bit of presence and weight.

[Mirella]

Getaway aside, I'm having trouble placing any of these in the context of a pj live set list.

And btw, they all become much more fun if you just imagine ed dancing along to them.
Or scary depending on your view of his moves

That is how my bf judges it: very danceable.

groetjes,
Mirella

[verb_to_trust]

'Just a rock band' isn't an insult unless you take it as one. They were absolutely a rock band, but they were a rock band we fucking loved and effectively sold our souls to.

Maybe people just don't like these songs. Maybe there's not this weird bias that's coloring their approach to new material. Sometimes the easiest explanation is the right one.

Right, so it would be really nice if people were saying that, rather than saying "Obviously if poster X,Y and Z aren't liking the songs, I won't fucking them either. Look at the schmucks who like the songs, I mean PJ have lost it, why can't these idiots see that?" Is this the easiest explanation, that PJ has just finished and everyone else who likes their stuff is just a twat?

I don't want to go down a long road on this, so all I'll say is that while talking PJ's music is interesting, talking about the biases that stop people from liking new PJ stuff, whether it's not like pop music or not liking the band at all or thinking they're experimental when they never were, or any of that, sounds boring. It's come up a lot here in the past few years and it's way more annoying that someone feeling negative about new material, to me at least. And this is coming from someone who finds a lot to like in the new stuff.

It is (and I'm certainly guilty of starting some of those conversations). But as someone who does like the majority of newer era stuff it is also frustrating to talk about it on a forum where there is an aggressive and persistent block of posters who spend a lot of time disliking songs and trying to establish that people who do like them are stupid, have shitty tastes, are too easily pleased, etc. It shifts a conversation away from the pros and cons of the music (and discussions about WHY you don't like something are almost always interesting and entertaining and enlightening) and make it about the listener instead. So it's not uprising that people get defensive when an opinion about music becomes an attack on someone's character.

The negavitiy you speak of is even more exaggerated this time than it usually is. Come on it's normal that if I heard a song before you, and I loved it, knowing our taste don't overlap much you'd be less enthusiastic than if it were, I don't know, whoever has a taste that matches yours better. No one said you were stupid for liking these songs, stop using that argument.

I think if you're looking for a literal use of that phrase you're not going to find it. That doesn't mean it isn't being said, and you've always tried really hard to deny that this sort of stuff even happens. When enough people keep bringing it up over and over again it might be time to concede that something is there.

I don't know that it's any more overblown now than it is before. I haven't started (I don't think) any of these arguments this time, other than a few pissy responses to some of VtoT's obnoxious posts.

You may not start the arguments but you eat up troll bait like its your job. I don't know, maybe its just the baby....

[harmless]

I think he sounds pretty similar to Backspacer, vocally, with maybe a bit more of an attempt to stay in certain ranges. I think that part is just how he sings now, but that reverb gives it a bit of presence and weight.

There's quite a bit more bass in the mic recording as well, I think. It reminds me of a more energised Riot Act.