Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[Thejambi]

Interesting tidbit from the npr story about the interview

The band's not doing any other press to promote Lightning Bolt.

Sell Outs

[E.H. Ruddock]

Interesting tidbit from the npr story about the interview

The band's not doing any other press to promote Lightning Bolt.

Sell Outs

Thanks for bottom paging me!

[Thejambi]

Interesting tidbit from the npr story about the interview

The band's not doing any other press to promote Lightning Bolt.

Sell Outs

Thanks for bottom paging me!

If I only knew now what I knew then.

[stip]

OK, I'm going to weigh in here. As a "typical" RM user (I generally don't like anything Backspacer, but S/T has grown on me quite a bit) here's my likes/dislikes after maybe 3 listens.

Getaway - Solid opener. I like the song a lot but these guys have had some great openers (BoJ and Go are my tops), so this isn't the best opener or the worst, but it should be really good live. 3 stars

MYM - for me, meh. Not that I don't like it, but I don't think the punk style is one they can maintain. A few songs are fine but to me it just sounds forced. 2 stars

My Father's Son - Really, really like the music in this, but the vocals are something that will have to grow on me. 3 stars

Sirens - I'm in the minority I believe, but I really like this song. Maybe it is because my teenage years were in the 80's and I don't mind its' "power ballad" undertones. 4 stars

Lightning Bolt - Same as My Father's Son, I really like the music in this but not sold on the vocals. 3 stars

Infalliable - Love it. Great rocker, love the music and the vocals are fine. 4 stars

Pendulum - Let me start out by saying I don't throw 5 stars around like crazy (stip), but this song is easily 5 stars for me. Mostly because this is my favorite style of PJ at the moment, the 'moody' stuff. 5 stars

Swallowed Whole - Good rocker in the middle of the record. Nothing stands out for me about it, but I don't hate it. 3 stars

Let The Records Play - Ugh. Hate it. And whoever put that Shania Twain reference in my head, eff you. This just isn't a good sound for them, imo. 1 star

Sleeping By Myself - While I like the song and the full band ensemble well enough, I'm irritated they wasted a spot on the album with this. Could have been a good Christmas single or something. 3 stars for the song but overall 2 stars for laziness.

Yellow Moon - Really like it. Just very catchy to me. I'll listen to this one a lot. 4 stars

Future Days - Ugh, I got enough of this on Backspacer. 1 star

could you rank these for me?

[wilkins]

Interesting tidbit from the npr story about the interview

The band's not doing any other press to promote Lightning Bolt.

I think this was revealed a long time ago with the news that Gleason was doing one of them. Everything in-house.

[bloodyrodgers]

This is their weakest album to date. No offense to anyone who enjoys it...continue telling yourself that it's okay and it just might be.
So MOR and devoid of personality. WTF with Sirens? Sounds like recap "special moments" music for some sporting event. Atrocious.
I couldn't see the day coming when I could compare PJ to Richard Marx. Haha, the moment has presented itself. Thankfully there are still fans who think PJ can offer relevant music.

[Revelator]

Went out at lunch time to crank a few of the gems once more. I really hope someone makes a proper rip of this when it's release Friday so I can listen to a clean version this weekend. I'm grateful to at least have the iTunes rip, but man it sounds so fucking shitty compared to the clean versions I have of MYM and Sirens.

Really wish we would have had a proper leak instead of the usual itunes bullshit, but I guess beggars can't be choosey....

[Tuolumne]

The full Apatow interview with the band is here.

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/08/225471645 ... udd-apatow

Its 50 minutes long.

Wow, GREAT interview.

[Thejambi]

No offense to anyone who enjoys it...continue telling yourself that it's okay and it just might be.

Does not compute

[scrub12]

Ha, Stone loves the movie Year One...

[sward]

This is their weakest album to date. No offense to anyone who enjoys it...continue telling yourself that it's okay and it just might be.
So MOR and devoid of personality. WTF with Sirens? Sounds like recap "special moments" music for some sporting event. Atrocious.
I couldn't see the day coming when I could compare PJ to Richard Marx. Haha, the moment has presented itself. Thankfully there are still fans who think PJ can offer relevant music.

I always like these kind of statements. No offense..but you're a bunch of fucking idiots! hahha

I don't think that those who DO like it need to take any extra steps to convince themselves...no??

You think it isn't. I think it is. Not sure the extra effort here to try to convince me that I should not enjoy it

[harmless]

bloodyrogers has spoken, close down the forum!

[nomorecrackpipes]

Honest question: are any of you female? If so, how do you feel about the album?

I have personal experience that females like a side of PJ that dudes can only tolerate. I'd like like to hear how the ladies like the record, I bet they hate what all of you are bananas about.

[Jorge]

I'm half female (from my mother's side) and I half like the album.

[malice]

bloodyrogers has spoken, close down the forum!

can we wait for IlluminEddie to call you a hipster first?

[Mine]

bloodyrogers has spoken, close down the forum!

It was as much of a reality check for you as it was for me?

[Vindicator]

I'm sitting on my porch while it rains, so perfect time to sit and really take in this full bodied Vedder of an album.

Getaway is a good,solid ,catchy song, but not a great opener IMO. MYM would have been better, as it can stand up to BoJ and Go as an opener. My Fathers Son could have been fantastic if they fleshed it out with some solos. I'm left wanting more from it. Sirens is a superb song. It's not favorite style of PJ, but they nailed every aspect of it. Stone's guitar elevates the song to top tier status. Lightning Bolt is a fun song . It's good, not great for me.

Infallible...crushes my heart. The chorus shits on the entire song , I don't think it will ever grow on me. A Shame cause I love the music in the verses, and the solo is beautiful with the vocal harmonies. This should have been the best song on the album, but they neutered it to oblivion worse than Gone. Should have been great.

Pendulum is nice and moody. I really like it, especially the guitar part and the Ah Ah Ah part. But the verses aren't that strong. I kind of think the song pales in comparison to something like Strangest Tribe or Sleight of Hand, but I'd still put it on a playlist with those songs.

Swallowed Whole really grows on you. It absolutely soars once you give it a chance. I'd want to go sky diving to this song or something. It starts off slow but it gets great with a fantastic solo and great chorus and bridge. Still , this isn't my favorite style of PJ, it's more Ed style but I'll take it.

LTRP I hated at first. Yesterday it kind of clicked with me. I was happy to hear it. I think it will be a blast live if the crowd gets into it and claps along. Still not what I wanted , but it's decent.

SBM turned out great. Love the arrangement. Still not what I wanted, but it's nice.

Yellow Moon is dissapointing. Very slow mid tempo, boring in the chorus. It's grown on me a little bit, but overall , it's whatever . Reminds me of Hard Sun but nowhere near as powerful or good. Not what I wanted again.

And Future Days just kinda sucks. I tried to like it, it has some nice things , but yeah no thanks .

Overall feeling pretty negative about the whole album, the first time ever for me , I have liked every album even Backspacer. It's just not the album I wanted I guess, it does have a few great songs , but overall it's a feeling of dissapointment.

[William Bloke]

Up until today I'd only heard MYM and the video version of Sirens and it was fair to say that I was underwhelmed. I wasn't ever expecting a late career masterpiece but those 2 tracks had me worried that perhaps EV and PJ as a unit just didn't have the ability to create stuff that I was really particularly interested in anymore. The thing was I really wanted to love this record but the signs weren't good. In fairness I did love Cold Confession and Let it Ride so I'm no doubt a bit guilty of jumping the gun a tad with my initial assessment, but fuck man, this is PJ, I don't apologise for holding them to a high standard.

There is so much great music out there being released all the time, and this year has been a corker. And the fact the PJ aren't just releasing new stuff more regularly, for me anyway, means that the wait creates increased expectation. Like I said, I really wanted to like this thing, but man, Sirens?? What was that all about?

I wasn't sure if I was going to listen to the album until I picked up the CD on Friday but Spenno's irresistible logic in the 'No Leak Club' thread convinced me.

This isn't a leak.

Go nuts, you oddballs!

So, I took my good headphones to the office today and shut the door, let's see what you're made of Lightning Bolt. Getaway is a solid opener, I'm actually really relieved they got away to a good start here. I'm a fan, I don't mind a straight ahead rock song and PJ do them well. The drums sound great, guitars where it should be, Ed sounds good (real glad about that - not a fan at all of the vocals I'd heard on Sirens) and no keys to be heard.

Like I said before I wasn't a big fan of Mind Your Manners as a single, but as an album track I like it. It flows on well from Getaway and deserves its spot at #2. I admit to singing along a tad at this point. I should know better than to pay much attention to PJ singles. And I'm beginning to love the outro of this tune.

My Father's Son is...unusual. Not sold on this yet, but I can't say that I particularly dislike it. I appreciate that PJ have gone down a different path here, and that's not something I will ever bag them for. I love the 'psychopath' line though. The jury is still out.

Into Sirens and I must say that the song is less grating than I rememberred it. I really dislike the bombast in the opening, and I don't think I will ever enjoy Ed's singing when he's changing the pitch on every syllable of a sentence, and as far as first impressions go for me this song was like stepping in a fresh dog turd. But...I do like the middle 3rd of this thing, in parts very much. I also seem to find myself humming it at random times, which is quite disconcerting. I don't like this song but at least I don't hate it anymore anyways. When I first heard Wonderwall I couldn't understand why the DJ was raving so much about it - boring Beatles rip off I thought. Crap. But I 'got it' a few years later, great tune. And yeah, it is a Beatles rip off, but it's a bloody good one. I doubt Sirens will ever get there in the same way for me, but I could imagine it becoming a bit of a 'guilty secret', at least from my wife - she fucking hates it. Which is funny because Just Breathe is one of her favourite songs ever. Talking top 5 here. I like JB too, I think its sweet and simple and awesome. I can't see it as in the same bucket as Sirens though. Of the other songs that I've seen compared to Sirens I can't stand Parachutes, and I've always thought that Wishlist was a drag. Light Years is OK.

I really like Lightning Bolt as another uptempo rocker. Would have prefered this as the 2nd single. At this point I've played both the songs I'd already heard and hated and yet the album is actually going along pretty nicely I must say. Expectations are in danger of being met here. I find myself drumming along on the desk - that's gotta be a good sign.

Infallible is great. I really like the groove and the music changes. Is that a touch of brass I hear? This is a good song. There are some interesting music choices on this album. That will sometimes work and sometimes not I guess. I like it here though.

Onto Pendulum which is the track I've been most interested in hearing. This is quite lovely. I love the drums coming in. "Pendulum throws" is fine, I actually like the bit of twist in the phrase - I'm gonna think that he's talking about the shadow the pendulum throws. The "Ah-a-a-a-a-aah"s are actually kinda cool - I like hooks like that sometimes. Great ending too.

At this point I'm really happy with the album and it has certainly far better than I was expecting it to be, and I gotta say that I'm actually feeling a huge amount of relief about that. Did I really care that much whether the album was gonna suck? I guess I must have. Swallowed Whole is OK, not bad at all. Feels a bit more stock standard to me but that's OK. Not on the same level as the previous 3 tracks.

Looking at the few song ranking lists I saw I was expecting total crap when Let the Records Play came on, but from the first notes I loved it. I'm partial to some bar room R'n'B and this is done just fine for me. A song with some groove always gets extra brownie points from me. This could be my favourite thing about this album.

I wish Sleeping by Myself wasn't on here. I've actually never heard the Uke Songs version so had no preconcieved notions, but this to me just doesn't belong. Cold Confession perhaps? Let it Ride?

Yellow Moon is another kinda different sounding tune, at least it starts out that way. I like that I'm hearing some different and unexpected stuff on this album. Forget Sirens, Mike's guitar solo is without doubt the most full-on 80's thing on this album. This is OK but I doubt I'll seek it out in future days.

I'm fine with a simple ballad, both musically and lyrically. I actually quite like Future Days as a song but don't know about its place on LB. Would have made a fine Xmas Single.

So that's it and I'm kinda amazed. My expectations have been exceeded, which is an awesome surprise. Admitedly I'm quite easy to impress - I tend to listen to music with my gut as much as my ears. This album just feels good to me on a basic level - my gut likes it. Great job PJ - I didn't think you had it in you.

[bloodyrodgers]

Impossible to be a hipster! I have all their releases! This one...I just can't do it anymore. PJ diehards are like lobotomized hyenas ready to strike if there's an iota of criticism. Get over yourselves!

[malice]

Honest question: are any of you female? If so, how do you feel about the album?

I have personal experience that females like a side of PJ that dudes can only tolerate. I'd like like to hear how the ladies like the record, I bet they hate what all of you are bananas about.