Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[stip]

they just released what is almost certainly a better album than most of that list.
Of course it's early yet. Once upon a time I thought I loved Binaural, too

[stip]

"Yellow Moon" might be one of my favorite songs on this record when all is said and done (especially love the solo on this)...even if the intro is virtually a clone of "Lowlight."

i wasn't expecting to like that one as much as I did

[nyquillyn]

Yeah Yeah Yeah


Joined: Tue March 12, 2013 10:21 am
Posts: 76
Production stinks to high heaven.

Infallible is top notch.

Pendulum and Records get a pass. Getaway maybe growing a little bit.

Rest is pure shite.

There have been a lot of comments about The production being shit with no rationale behind them. Not defending, just pointing that out. And a lot of posts like that providing no further analysis but to say that they hate the album or sirens or fd or bob. Alan Sepinwall wrote a cogent critique of Breaking Bad's finale. I love the finale but his piece is well-thought out and has clear criticisms. These posts do not. You're right that someone just hashing out praise isn't interesting or thoughtful either but I challenge someone to write a response to just one of stip's paragraphs about lb or it's songs that's as analytical and thoughtful.

Just off the top of my head...
KD
McP
Jorge
Lament
Harmless

[Norah]

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

I'm not looking for the angst of Ten and Vs. at all actually. I'd be happy with the creative, mature band that crafted such classics as No Code, Yield and Binaural. What happened to that band?

Exactly. They have no purpose anymore. It's like watching an old dinosaur band awkwardly go though their awful "80's" phase. You see it happening again and you can't stop it. But goddamnit, we can complain about it!

[C4lukin]

Some people want the angst of Versus and ten. But this band is now fifty, they are not going to relate to your 13 to 18 year old self. They are adults now, and drop the fucking leashh is very far behind them. So if you want a teenage point of view from 50 year olds who dickS are struggling to work, maybe look elsewhere.

Can you link me to the post where someone said they didn't like the material because it didn't relate to their 13-18 year old self? Or is this a response to an imaginary criticism that no one has actually made on this board?

Yeah I will start working on that. It is very important to me to prove this point. I will start with the numerous scientific studies related to the age of Pearl Jam fans. Then I will dig deeper. There is a well known study of infants being exposed to early PJ albums, and infants who were exposed to No Code and the next couple of albums. It turns out that babies who listened to early Pearl Jam were more likely to murder and enjoy terrible food. I would go deeper into my studies, but I am involved with a scientific study of the Grunge, and we have to keep our shit on the down low.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

I just want them to have a purpose again. They seem to be at their best when they're uncomfortable. Even the band members themselves can't be trusted about what albums are good. I think No Code and Binaural are excellent albums, but what the fuck do I know? In the press, they made Lightning Bolt out to be "OMG best album ever" like they always do and this time it turned out to be complete bullshit. When they put out "No Code" it was almost like they were embarrassed by it. Like they were doing something wrong.

[darthvedder81]

Some people want the angst of Versus and ten. But this band is now fifty, they are not going to relate to your 13 to 18 year old self. They are adults now, and drop the fucking leashh is very far behind them. So if you want a teenage point of view from 50 year olds who dickS are struggling to work, maybe look elsewhere.

Can you link me to the post where someone said they didn't like the material because it didn't relate to their 13-18 year old self? Or is this a response to an imaginary criticism that no one has actually made on this board?

Yeah I will start working on that. It is very important to me to prove this point. I will start with the numerous scientific studies related to the age of Pearl Jam fans. Then I will dig deeper. There is a well known study of infants being exposed to early PJ albums, and infants who were exposed to No Code and the next couple of albums. It turns out that babies who listened to early Pearl Jam were more likely to murder and enjoy terrible food. I would go deeper into my studies, but I am involved with a scientific study of the Grunge, and we have to keep our shit on the down low.

LOL

Thank God everyone on this board is so creative and hilarious. I'd never be able to cope with the massive letdown of LB without all you good folks (seriously, no sarcasm here at all).

[Lounge Lizard]

Pretty pissed I missed the whole thing.
And the gmail acc is locked down.

Pissed.

[whygodeep]

Favorite tracks so far: "Yellow Moon" (agree with others that this should have been the closer), "Lightning Bolt" (easily one of the best straight-up anthems they written since "Yield"), "Infallible" (love the clunky groove in this, and it's got a pretty catchy melody/chorus to match), and "Sirens" (yeah it's a tad sappy, but it's still a well-written power ballad that just gets stuck in my head).

Disappointments: "Getaway (after reading a review where it followed in the footsteps of "Brain of J" and "Breakerfall," I was expecting this song to come roaring of the gate and was bummed when it didn't, and it still hasn't really grabbed me yet), "My Father's Son" (kind of weak and all over the place imo, especially when it comes to the tropicalia-esque bridge; some of Eddie's lyrics are pretty cringe-inducing, as well), "Pendulum (some nice atmospherics, but it doesn't really go anywhere for me melodically), and "Future Days" (now THIS is excessively polished...makes "Just Breathe" sound like "Thumbing My Way," production-wise).

Also, I really like how "Sleeping By Myself" came out; however, I agree that it doesn't really fit at all on this album.

[Lounge Lizard]

Judging by the reviews I should really love MFS

But I'm needing a helping hand here

[Birds in Hell]

I swear, 95% of the complaints about the "negativity" on this board are based around vague ideas about things that have never actually been said on here. It's like there's some weird imaginary enemy people come here to fight against, and rather than stop when they realize said enemy doesn't actually exist, they just keep throwing punches into the wind.

Absolutely.

The "I'm the rare person who actually likes Pearl Jam on this Pearl Jam message board" schtick is more tired than a Sgt. Crackpot gif of chud posting dog pictures while Ruddo stands in the background getting pissed off at a thread where someone makes a joke about stip liking The Fixer.

Get off of the fucking cross people.

I'm a new member so if I'm retreading that line, I didn't mean to. I'm just a bit frustrated that some people seem to not want to give the material a chance and it seems to me that shitting all over Future Days and Sirens is getting tired too. They may or may not be the greatest songs in the PJ catalog but they don't deserve endless bashing.

Why don't they deserve endless bashing? There are as many if not more well-written, articulate criticisms of these songs than there are praises. I think a well-thought out, well-explained criticism of ANYTHING is preferable to mindless rah rah-ing of whatever material is in question. Why is "THIS SONG IS GREAT!" with nothing adding to it any less stupid than "THIS SONG SUCKS" without any context? I'll never get "tired" of somebody giving a thoughtful explanation of their feelings on a song/album, positive or negative. I don't think the problem is people liking or disliking anything; The only problem is people who can't add something intelligent/interesting/funny/clever to their assessment. That's the line that needs to be drawn in here at this point, people who are capable of posting something that is worthwhile in ANY terms whatsoever versus those who can't.

lament, in fairness, most of the criticism is hardly well written and articulate. please point some out to me if you see it

the vast majority of the last 15 pages I read was people slagging on the new material, and with no dogs to offset it.

Note I'm not saying they shouldn't do that, but I also understand why, when you feel like celebrating a new record, it is discouraging within HOURS of the release.

I didn't join in until I posted that dog a few pages back, and only scrolled back to bask in the glory of chud's immaculate run, so I apologize if the amount of well-written praises greatly outnumber the well-written criticisms, but based on (limited) history alone, I would imagine the majority of this is still meaningless ranting on both sides of the spectrum.

no doubt. But it's the first day. It's the first few hours. It's okay to tone it down a little bit so people can enjoy themselves. We have four years to destroy this thing


(I don't personally care. I know who is ripping the album apart and it is precisely who I expected)

Oh stip, don't be such a goober.

Why should any of the posters here feel like they should moderate their opinions? If people like the songs, I'd hope that their sense of satisfaction isn't so fragile that reading a Wendy Carlos's Twin post won't send them to the floor shaking and crying.

I don't think "this song rules!" has inherently more worth as an opinion than "this song is garbage!" and I don't see why criticism of the album should be held to any higher standard than praise.

I mean, honestly, who cares?

[Fuzzcharger]

This isn't as bad as thought it would be. LTRP feels like a bad cut and paste job with two unrelated song segments though. I don't mind the quieter songs so much. Getaway and Pendulum are my favs in what is mostly a batch of MOR rock with fairly sterile production.

[Lounge Lizard]

Holy fuck MFS is QUALITY

wow fucking wow

[Fuzzcharger]

Holy fuck MFS is QUALITY

wow fucking wow

Yeah, I think it is pretty good too

[Heathen]

Which rip has Betterman (live)?

[Lounge Lizard]

Infallible is very good
it's got staying power
in loads

[fishbob]

The most disappointing thing about this album is that it CLEARLY could have been an amazing return to form after Backspacer, and in many ways it is: there are some killer tracks on this album that I'll end up really liking. But the bad songs are so cringeworthingly self-parodying that it makes the good songs seem like a joke.

[Lounge Lizard]

Pendulum is sending goosebumps across my back
this is really great
shit i need to little to be happy -- just some good songs from PJ and Tool
and my family of course

[Lounge Lizard]

however a little 'present tense' riffing wouldn't hurt Pendulum at the end