Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[LetMeSleep]

I am 1-7 on this album so far. Those next 5 tracks better be good. I am master of denial.

Sirens has apparently burrowed into your brains and turned 99% of you into weirdly emotional pearl jam zombies.

I like 3 of the 7or8 so far. The remaining 4 will be interesting, especially as 3 are from the 1st sessions.

[stupidmop]

FD is included in the 7.

MFS, SBM, infallible, yellow moon, pendulum. You're right about SBM though, fuckers. 4 then.

Getaways the one I like, even that's hovering at 3 stars ish though it could go up once we hear a clean version I guess.

[harmless]

I can't wait to hear Infallible as I'm pretty much in love with the version in my head from the soundcheck. I've mentally fixed it a bit, taken off some reverb, it's a good song.

[harmless]

Isn't Infallible another longer tune? That should be a very interesting contrast with Sirens.

[stupidmop]

I can't wait to hear Infallible as I'm pretty much in love with the version in my head from the soundcheck. I've mentally fixed it a bit, taken off some reverb, it's a good song.

I'm worried about the production being all shiny and piano-y and strings-y. But we shall see.

[dimejinky99]

There's 7 or 8 out there?
Thought there was only 5

Infallible is really having a lot put onto it

[harmless]

I can't wait to hear Infallible as I'm pretty much in love with the version in my head from the soundcheck. I've mentally fixed it a bit, taken off some reverb, it's a good song.

I'm worried about the production being all shiny and piano-y and strings-y. But we shall see.

Me too.... I'm hoping a background of Matt and Jeff saves it. But there's going to be a bit more of that gloss than I originally wanted.

[LetMeSleep]

There's 7 or 8 out there?
Thought there was only 5

Infallible is really having a lot put onto it

We have 6 studio plus a live FD, a uke SBM and the soundcheck Infallible (which I'm not counting in my 7or8)

[harmless]

There's 7 or 8 out there?
Thought there was only 5

There are five left to hear: YM, Pendulum, SBM, FD and Infallible.

People who think they love Infallible (like me) have heard a very echoey soundcheck version.

[stip]

I am 1-7 on this album so far. Those next 5 tracks better be good. I am master of denial.

Sirens has apparently burrowed into your brains and turned 99% of you into weirdly emotional pearl jam zombies.

I like 3 of the 7or8 so far. The remaining 4 will be interesting, especially as 3 are from the 1st sessions.

what are the three?

If you're not including FD or SB there I suppose there is always the chance the studio version could win you over. I liked lightning bolt live and the studio version really shot it up for me.

[dimejinky99]

Wow.

I'm gonna hold off on everything else til I get the record.
Be nice to have it all in one place.

[stip]

so far I like or love everything except FD, but I suspect the album version will win me over a bit. Not favorite song win me over, but 3 stars at least. This is going to be a consistently good to great record with the possibility of a few 5 star songs to anchor it.

[dimejinky99]

And agency goddammit.

[stip]

well, obviously.

[LetMeSleep]

I am 1-7 on this album so far. Those next 5 tracks better be good. I am master of denial.

Sirens has apparently burrowed into your brains and turned 99% of you into weirdly emotional pearl jam zombies.

I like 3 of the 7or8 so far. The remaining 4 will be interesting, especially as 3 are from the 1st sessions.

what are the three?

If you're not including FD or SB there I suppose there is always the chance the studio version could win you over. I liked lightning bolt live and the studio version really shot it up for me.

Sirens 3.5*
Getaway and Swallowed Whole 3*

MYM 2* gets an extra star since hearing Getaway but skippable mostly.

LB, LTRP and presumably FD. 1* or less.

[stip]

wow. I give a one star to a song I just revile. For band whose catalog we're all deeply invested in it always surprises me that people are so quick to hate songs. There are so few pearl jam songs I just flat out hate since there is almost always something in everything that reminds me of what I like about them. I don't give a lot of 5s, but hardly any 1s.

Thus far (and I am trying to control for the newness factor--I'd rather here almost all these songs than my favorites right now just because they're new)

Getaway: 3.5 -could stay there, could go up, could go down.
MYM: 4.5. Not comatose good, but this really was a strong song.
Sirens: 3 (live version 3.5--still can't easily visualize the story/recall the lyrics so it is still settling in)
Lightning Bolt: 4.5 the studio version might make this a 5.
Swallowed Whole: 4. a good song with some great moments but I haven't had a 'I need to listen to swallowed whole' moment yet
LTRP: 3.5 As I said elsewhere i like every part of this song and love no part


I would probably give the live FD a 2 and the uke sleeping by myself a 4 so we'll see where they go.

Pendulum is the song I have most wanted to hear off the record. I am in love with that little piece from the tour video. And from all accounts infallible should be really good. Yellow moon and MFS we'll see about. I don't have particular expectations one way or the other.

Obviously clean versions of these songs and the context of the album can help a lot too.

[harmless]

All these songs are basically about Ed's mortality, a counterpoint to immortality. The "I could be the sun..." etc. lyrics of Swallowed Whole are basically pantheistic, the earth and evolution itself as divine. They are a counterpoint to God and religion.

[stip]

All these songs are basically about Ed's mortality, a counterpoint to immortality. The "I could be the sun..." etc. lyrics of Swallowed Whole are basically pantheistic, the earth and evolution itself as divine. They are a counterpoint to God and religion.

yeah, that's probably true. I was mostly picking up on the mortality in the love songs, since backspacer primed for that, but I can see it is a subcurrent running through other songs.

[harmless]

All these songs are basically about Ed's mortality, a counterpoint to immortality. The "I could be the sun..." etc. lyrics of Swallowed Whole are basically pantheistic, the earth and evolution itself as divine. They are a counterpoint to God and religion.

yeah, that's probably true. I was mostly picking up on the mortality in the love songs, since backspacer primed for that, but I can see it is a subcurrent running through other songs.

I think this album is an expansion ("logical extension") of that theme from Backspacer. Because I thought it was kind of dulled with lighter songs like Johnny Guitar... I mean, musically I find JG to be the best thing on Backspacer, but thematically I'm into the deeper stuff so it frustrated me that the "deeper" songs weren't my favourites and seemed thrown into a generally lighter album. If that makes sense. More and more, I don't find this album light.

[LetMeSleep]

These are on a strictly PJ 1-5 star basis. I like most of what they do and if PJ did the same song as Band X, then I would almost always prefer the PJ version. However, those 2 tracks (LB, LTRP) make me jump for the skip button. There's very little in there that appeals to me and LB just sounds rushed and forced. I can't really put into words how it pisses me off. One day I'll try.

Edit: Mankind would be a 1 star and there have rarely been more than 1 or 2 on an album. LB is breaking records in my house.