Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[McParadigm]

It was a version of Lightning Bolt with the shaker turned up in the mix so you can really HEAR it.

In general, though, the production is largely inoffensive. Robotic and controlled, yeah, but there's nothing about the music on this record that doesn't fit that motif. A lot of keyboards, but again....nothing about these tracks repels that particular instrument or its contributions (decrying the sappy cheap-sounding keyboards on sappy cheap-sounding Future Days is hilarious...that acoustic guitar sounds like it was purchased for $19 at Walmart). There are even some minor creaks and cracks in there...especially on the acoustic guitars for Sleeping By Myself and some of Ed's vocals (there's even a little squeaking whoops under his attempt to sound big at one point in Infallible...I forget where, but it's not during a chorus...and a noisy breath moment on Pendulum).

Right now, Brendan O'Brien is not the lowest ranked member of this band for me.

[Blenheim Augustine]

The review was pretty good overall. I think he missed the mark on the lyrical content though.

Am I the only one who hears snippets of Pink Floyd's Dogs in Sirens? Especially coming out of the chorus into the strummed guitar.

[Blenheim Augustine]

What did the exclusive digital content end up being?

Need to get off this page.

[HardTI]

Guys, are you sure the shaker is loud enough in the chorus of LB?

Fuck.

That has always bothered me, as well. The damn tambourine, too. It takes away from the song. I'm sure that wasn't Matt's idea

Put me in that camp too (regarding the shaker). If fucking hurts my hears.

[harmless]

It was a version of Lightning Bolt with the shaker turned up in the mix so you can really HEAR it.

In general, though, the production is largely inoffensive. Robotic and controlled, yeah, but there's nothing about the music on this record that doesn't fit that motif. A lot of keyboards, but again....nothing about these tracks repels that particular instrument or its contributions (decrying the sappy cheap-sounding keyboards on sappy cheap-sounding Future Days is hilarious...that acoustic guitar sounds like it was purchased for $19 at Walmart). There are even some minor creaks and cracks in there...especially on the acoustic guitars for Sleeping By Myself and some of Ed's vocals (there's even a little squeaking whoops under his attempt to sound big at one point in Infallible...I forget where, but it's not during a chorus...and a noisy breath moment on Pendulum).

Right now, Brendan O'Brien is not the lowest ranked member of this band for me.

For all that FD isn't clever, I think it's ludicrous to say the keyboard doesn't ruin whatever charm the song might've had without it. You don't have to like the song to admit that some people really might have, without those keyboard parts.

[harmless]

Guys, are you sure the shaker is loud enough in the chorus of LB?

Fuck.

That has always bothered me, as well. The damn tambourine, too. It takes away from the song. I'm sure that wasn't Matt's idea

Put me in that camp too (regarding the shaker). If fucking hurts my hears.

I like the shaker and tambourine, personally.

[Mike]

Of course, you'll find examples of songs which do have good melodies in the middle period albums. It's not the rule though, rather the exception. On LB, I think FD is the one which really fails to latch onto a memorable melody. But it's the exception on this album. Those songs listed are not all melodies I'd consider memorable. I am Mine, LBC and Grievance are the ones I'd really get behind. The other three are ok but I find LB to be much more engaging for me as a listener. Ed's vocals and delivery have a lot to do with it. His vocals/the way they are recorded on most of Binaural and Riot Act suck the life out of the songs. On Binaural, it's the production too. On Riot Act, it's mostly just Ed.

Just out of interest, what is a memorable melody for you? Is it a melody thats so good that it's worth remembering or a memory that just stays in your head because it's so easy to remember? Or a little bit of both? For me, Cropduster for example has a memorable memory in the sense that I think it's great and worth remembering but it doesn't stick in my head at all after hearing it.

[Blenheim Augustine]

This bit was good too:

And “My Father’s Son” is the rare latter-day Pearl Jam rave-up to put the spotlight on bassist Jeff Ament, whose sense of groove—once the cornerstone of the band’s sound—has been deemphasized by band’s ever-growing propensity for straight-ahead, chug-a-lug rockers.

Yeah, absolutely. Great comment. Firing Dave A. was another step towards that lack of groove this reviewer is referring to.

This is a spot-on comment - I've endured criticism for saying they lost their 'groove' before, but I stand by it - Vs is dominated by tight groovy riffs, by No Code they had gone.

[harmless]

One thing I never understand is people's hate for Pearl Jam's best choruses. A chorus is the part of the song which is supposed to be most melodic. Something that get's imprinted into the listener's head. You don't cram the most difficult words into a chorus or try to make it musically 'complex'. When you do, you end up with forgettable songs.

I suppose some people hate Pearl Jam's "best choruses" because they don't think they're Pearl Jam's best choruses. I love a good pop chorus, but I don't think Pearl Jam are particularly good pop songwriters. Save for a few notable exceptions ("Betterman" being the first one that comes to mind), I think their most outright pop songs fall flat. "Infallible" is a song with a very ordinary chorus melody. It's not about darkness or complexity. It's just kind of hackneyed.

Furthermore, why do you approach songs like TV adverts? A chorus isn't a sales pitch. It doesn't have to be the most melodic part of a song, it just often is. Shooting for earworm usually results in lightweight dreck, and that's not what interests me about Pearl Jam. Their strengths are elsewhere.

I think they are great songwriters and the albums I love all have great pop songwriting. Like this one. I am not a fan of when they stepped away from this and tried to be 'difficult'. I love Infallible. It's in my top ten ever PJ songs so I just disagree with your assessment. A chorus isn't a sales pitch if it's melodic. It's just good. I don't like sonic torture ala Binaural and Riot Act. Good songwriting for me is all about the melodies. PJ's strengths are their marrying of great melodies with non-pop themes and Ed's vocals. LB has this and that's why I feel it's a great PJ album.

My biggest problem with "Infallible" at this point is not the chorus, but the part where the chorus fizzles out and you just have Ed going yeah yeah yeah over it. The song is two slow, the rhythm too sluggish, to yeah yeah yeah; there's too much space left. I feel as if they need another chorus, almost like the "Ben, the two of us..." refrain of Rats. At this point the song is good, but not great, because that chorus isn't quite getting up there with the rest of the song.

I think the outro is classic PJ/Ed and actually makes the song jump from very good to great. It's like the culmination of everything the song was building up to. Without it, I would have a feeling of being left high and dry. I've always loved Ed's vocalisations and yeah yeahs.

The "Infallible" chorus sounds like a squashed version of Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale". It's a decent enough chorus but it was better when it was called WSOP. That's my main beef with it; good enough, but derivative. I don't think that any reasons you could find to praise this vocal melody would take away from that, nor the fact that the chorus melody and the verses just do not gel well together.

[stupidmop]

It was a version of Lightning Bolt with the shaker turned up in the mix so you can really HEAR it.

In general, though, the production is largely inoffensive. Robotic and controlled, yeah, but there's nothing about the music on this record that doesn't fit that motif. A lot of keyboards, but again....nothing about these tracks repels that particular instrument or its contributions (decrying the sappy cheap-sounding keyboards on sappy cheap-sounding Future Days is hilarious...that acoustic guitar sounds like it was purchased for $19 at Walmart). There are even some minor creaks and cracks in there...especially on the acoustic guitars for Sleeping By Myself and some of Ed's vocals (there's even a little squeaking whoops under his attempt to sound big at one point in Infallible...I forget where, but it's not during a chorus...and a noisy breath moment on Pendulum).

Right now, Brendan O'Brien is not the lowest ranked member of this band for me.

Now I gotta know who's the lowest. Is it mike? I bet its mike.

I loathe the keyboards or whatever they are on yellow moon.

Digital content was the flacs and the mym video from what I can tell.

[HardTI]

Guys, are you sure the shaker is loud enough in the chorus of LB?

Fuck.

That has always bothered me, as well. The damn tambourine, too. It takes away from the song. I'm sure that wasn't Matt's idea

Put me in that camp too (regarding the shaker). If fucking hurts my hears.

I like the shaker and tambourine, personally.

I like the tambourine a lot. It's just that the shaker really is sooooo loud. I was wondering wtf was going on when that MLB leaked version. It was just a wall of dense sound that I could barely hear through. I can hear it all properly now it's just that is so loud it becomes distracting. I only notice it when I'm using headphones though.

[McParadigm]

I think it's ludicrous to say the keyboard doesn't ruin whatever charm the song might've had without it.

I think it's ludicrous to say that thing that you just said

[McParadigm]

SHHYouSHHgottaSHHknowSHHyou'llSHHnevSHHerSHHletSHHherSHHgo

[stupidmop]

You know the answer to this. I bet bob played all the shaker on the album. He played HARD.

Actually, do we know what song he plays guitar on?

[McParadigm]

You know the answer to this. I bet bob played all the shaker on the album. He played HARD.

Actually, do we know what song he plays guitar on?

My Farting Son.

[harmless]

Fun fact: I would rather have all the layered percussion on this album (shakers, tambourines, giant echoey floor toms, bongos and all) than just blandly-played drum kit. I also think that the chorus of Lightning Bolt desperately needs the groove added by that percussion.

[stip]

This may have been brought up already, but this is a pic from the uke songs promo. See the name on the paddleboard?

Ugh, you guys probably already pointed it out on page 10 of that speculation thread.

Everything is always surfing.

Why is it called lightning bolt ? Surfing

Why is ltrp on the album? Surfing

Why does bob suck? Surfing

Why can't the band tell bob sucks? Surfing

Why sirens? Surfing

Who-? Surfing

W-? Surfing

can you surf in sweat pants?

[Release_Me]

Of course, you'll find examples of songs which do have good melodies in the middle period albums. It's not the rule though, rather the exception. On LB, I think FD is the one which really fails to latch onto a memorable melody. But it's the exception on this album. Those songs listed are not all melodies I'd consider memorable. I am Mine, LBC and Grievance are the ones I'd really get behind. The other three are ok but I find LB to be much more engaging for me as a listener. Ed's vocals and delivery have a lot to do with it. His vocals/the way they are recorded on most of Binaural and Riot Act suck the life out of the songs. On Binaural, it's the production too. On Riot Act, it's mostly just Ed.

Just out of interest, what is a memorable melody for you? Is it a melody thats so good that it's worth remembering or a memory that just stays in your head because it's so easy to remember? Or a little bit of both? For me, Cropduster for example has a memorable memory in the sense that I think it's great and worth remembering but it doesn't stick in my head at all after hearing it.

A bit of both. Using this album as an example, Getaway is the one which immediately caught me as memorable. It doesn't get old with repeated listens either. On the other end of the spectrum is probably Yellow Moon and Sirens which took time but eventually ended up getting imprinted in my memory. When I forget how a song sounds like after not listening to it for a while, I'd say it's less than memorable. No matter how long I go without listening to the Ten songs for example, I never forget them. Cropduster isn't a bad one at all, but Ed's almost disinterested vocal take puts me off it.

[stupidmop]

You know the answer to this. I bet bob played all the shaker on the album. He played HARD.

Actually, do we know what song he plays guitar on?

My Farting Son.

I don't think I've heard that one yet.

It's for the best, Eds mined his childhood flatulence turmoil too many times for it to be interesting anymore.

[harmless]

If I had to rely on my memory skills to judge music as a success, my musical-listening history would be reduced by at least half.