Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[Release_Me]

Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.

Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.

The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.

I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.

Any of those are representative.

It seems you are pigeon-holing all songs you don't care much for into one easy category. Because they all have choruses. Stylistically, it is all over the place. Possibly moreso than No Code. No two songs in that list are stylistically similar really. One's a power ballad-esque number, one's a mid-tempo rock anthem, one's a groove dominated song that builds to an anthemic finish and one's a very subdued mid-tempo number. The common aspect between them seems to be that you don't like them, which is fine but not very helpful if you're reviewing the album.

[Jaeti]

Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.

Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.

The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.

I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.

Any of those are representative.

[Jaeti]

Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?

What kind of shit, exactly?

[Lament]

It's too bad they don't make albums frequently enough to say "Hey, let's go into the studio and cut a record solely comprised of songs we write the bones of with everyone together in a room" or something like that.

[BurtReynolds]

Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.

Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.

The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.

I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.

Any of those are representative.

So these songs are unified (and thus "representative of the album") because of an inherent flaw: the choruses?

For one, yes. I can't imagine these sitcom choruses are a coincidence at this point. Surely is some kind of perverse theme, right?

[harmless]

pearl jam can't really operate that way because it's 5 guys, and 5 songwriters to boot. If nothing else they need to figure out a way to navigate each other

I agree with this. We're getting such inconsistent records (stylistically and in terms of quality) because there are 4 guys (5, on a good day - Matt) all writing their own songs, then bringing them to the studio for Ed and BoB to play around with. So all the songs are sounding like 5 different voices. That used to be their strength; I'm not sure it is anymore.

That struck me when I listened to the album, some of these songs are such messes, they're not just exploring genres over the album, they're turning songs into chimeras

I like musical chimeras. A lot of bands do them very well. Pearl Jam do sometimes. But there's nothing inherently wrong with smashing two disparate styles together. If anything, it's a hallmark of an experimental band that isn't being matched by similar idiosyncrasies in lyrical content, production style or general band aesthetic. So people are saying "Man, why are these two styles being smashed together when all I want is a good song?" They wouldn't be asking that, in my opinion, if Pearl Jam were *all about* experimentation right now.

[Heathen]

Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?

What kind of shit, exactly?

immaculate poop

[Birds in Hell]

Volcom midnight deal here in NY was a shit show. I can't even articulate my disgust right now.

How about now?

Let's hear it.

Okay. I’ve had some time to mellow. But I’m still left pretty sour and disgusted at what I took part in and witnessed last night.

So, I read about the midnight sale, and figured, Why not go down? It’ll get me excited for the record and shouldn’t take too long, in and out, home in an hour or two tops. I drive down, find good parking and walk to the store. There’s a line around the block, I figure it must a be a nightclub or something, no way are people lined up like this for a pearl jam record. Boy was I wrong.

I get in line, surrounded by nice, friendly fans and we wait. And wait. And wait. The store is only allowing ten or so people in at a time to have a crack at tour shirts, the Brooklyn posters, and the album itself. About three hours later we gain entry to this bourgeois Hot Topic, only to find another line snaking around the perimeter of the store. It’s packed in here. Two registers going, a handful of useless employees standing around gazing at the hoard of doughy geeks fishing for the last 2XL Volcom exclusive shirt.

I grab the LP and get in line. By this time, its 230 and I’m pretty ticked. I start slagging the record as boring and predictable. People are starting to look and chuckle. Not For You is playing over the stereo and it kind of hit me, this isn’t the same band that tried to avoid ticketmaster and mtv. This isn’t the same band tried to be self-contained and subversive while walking the major label tightrope. What they are now is a red cunt hair away from Rolling Stones territory. Milking a devoted fanbase dry for more shirts in exclusive colors. I was disgusted not only at this feeding frenzy of blind consumerism but that I was part of it. Figuring I’ve waited this long, I might as well stick it out and get the bloody record. But I was comforted that it re affirmed by believes as a music fan and consumer. Keep it small, do it yourself, and stay in control of your art. Oh, just use mail order. Keep it simple.

Anyway, the record is okay. I was surprised they threw in a download code with the vinyl, I was sure they were going to make some other poor sap of a fan plunk down another twelve bucks for a limited edition of 5000 book bound copy of the CD.

Oh and Pendulm is a snoozefest.

It's no Cold Confession, that's for sure.

Man, that sounds brutal.

[Lament]

Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?

No. But some people see the drop in quality as being simultaneous with the decline in "challenge."

I think some of us would be more forgiving of a "challenging" album that missed the mark, though.

Like Backspacer?

Yes, a challenging record like the one that almost literally begged for the chance to suck you off.

Got some if you need it.

[Thejambi]

Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?

No. But some people see the drop in quality as being simultaneous with the decline in "challenge."

I think some of us would be more forgiving of a "challenging" album that missed the mark, though.

Like Backspacer?

Yes, a challenging record like the one that almost literally begged for the chance to suck you off.

I find Backspacer very challenging in reference to the rest of the Pearl Jam catalog. So as long as the band is making music that is weird, of kilter and not widely appealing it is consideted challenging. got it .

[harmless]

Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.

Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.

The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.

I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.

Any of those are representative.

So these songs are unified (and thus "representative of the album") because of an inherent flaw: the choruses?

For one, yes. I can't imagine these sitcom choruses are a coincidence at this point. Surely is some kind of perverse theme, right?

No, I see what you're saying, and I think you have a valid criticism. I just LOL'd because your "songs representing the album" are songs representing its failure, not its sound.

[McParadigm]

I find Backspacer very challenging in reference to the rest of the Pearl Jam catalog. So as long as the band is making music that is weird, of kilter and not widely appealing it is consideted challenging. got it .

Well a LOT less of it was about death than usual. So that was weird.

[BurtReynolds]

Most of these reviews insist on summarizing PJ's entire career and then fitting LB into that, not just Pitchfork. I don't get it either, but few music critics are very good at their jobs, IMO.

Though in their defense, saying an album as a whole is "more of the same" while ignoring the few outliers isn't that bad (that's why they are outliers). The majority of the album is more of the same. You wouldn't claim My Father's Son is representative of the album.

The problem is, no one song on LB is representative of the album.

I don't think this album is as all over the place as people think. Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, and Yellow Moon are fairly similar, and many of the others are dragged into their orbit with similar sheen and ...those choruses.

Any of those are representative.

It seems you are pigeon-holing all songs you don't care much for into one easy category. Because they all have choruses. Stylistically, it is all over the place. Possibly moreso than No Code. No two songs in that list are stylistically similar really. One's a power ballad-esque number, one's a mid-tempo rock anthem, one's a groove dominated song that builds to an anthemic finish and one's a very subdued mid-tempo number. The common aspect between them seems to be that you don't like them, which is fine but not very helpful if you're reviewing the album.

I like Yellow Moon and dont have a strong opinion of Infallible at all, so thats not it. They all have a very calculated, polished and big (IMO overwrought) sound. Most of the other songs share some of those same qualities.

And there isn't a great deal of difference between a power ballad, anthem, half anthem and mid-tempo song. They aren't hugely different at all.

[Tuolumne]

Le Noise was rather unexpected

It was. The point with pushing yourself isn't to completely redefine, but that record took Neil into some pretty wild places that were noticeably outside of his previous work. Parts of the album cut of Walk With Me are almost Foxymophandlemama-ish.

I just wonder how much of Neil Young is mythology

This seems like a really weird thing to speculate about an artist you admit to not knowing.

true believers usually don't see their mythology as mythology. I was wondering if this was the case. I have only heard scattered songs here and there, but for someone credited for always following his muse no matter where it leads, they all sounded of a piece to me. But maybe I just get fed the introductory material.

We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam. I know I could subject REM or Tom Waits or Mark Lanegan or another one of my sacred cows to the kind of nitpicky micro criticisms (and the macro ones) that we do here (myself included), but we don't. We tend to focus on what we love and ignore what we don't. And so the way someone like Neil Young gets used here could reflect an idealized Neil Young more than the reality.

But maybe not. that's why I asked.

Fuckin A man, I agree. First, people compare them to Neil, which is totally unfair cause it's a solo artist vs a band, apples and oranges, and then they go, "why can't they be adventuruous like that"? Well, they could, but there's also a very strong possibility that you'd hate it and you'd ditch them. Neil Young has about as many crappy albums as he does good ones. I mean, there is some really terrible stuff in his catalogue, but he gets this pass cause he's Neil Fuckin Young and he follows the muse.

As for the reviews, writers try to peg it as something and I'm not convinced they've ever known (collectively) what they're doing. They've always been wrong about them, they crapped on the middle years tagging them as irrelevant and useless, and now they've come around saying the middle period is relevant b/c of the fanbase that's been built around the deep cuts and live shows.

The media is always the last to come around. That goes for Rolling Stone, NYT, and Pitchfork. Only in retrospect do they make the correction. Same will probably go with LB.

[Thejambi]

I find Backspacer very challenging in reference to the rest of the Pearl Jam catalog. So as long as the band is making music that is weird, of kilter and not widely appealing it is consideted challenging. got it .

Well a LOT less of it was about death than usual. So that was weird.

[McParadigm]

I find Backspacer very challenging in reference to the rest of the Pearl Jam catalog. So as long as the band is making music that is weird, of kilter and not widely appealing it is consideted challenging. got it .

Well a LOT less of it was about death than usual. So that was weird.

You're always saying that there's something wrong.
To be honest I don't give a shit,
anymore.
Death came around,
that's all I write about now.
It's like selling love songs to a
post-millennial cuh-rowd.

[BurtReynolds]

I'd prefer a samey awesome album over a shitty experimental one, if anyone gives a shit.

[southp]

I haven't. But I generally like Springsteen. I don't love him, but I love some of the songs. He's usually not someone who can hold my attention for a whole record.

Wrecking Ball was easily my favourite album of 2012, and is still in heavy rotation.

can you compare it to another record in his catalog. I haven't heard anything since magic.

I would say no. You get a few retreads (We Take Care of Our Own), and there are songs that are quite different (see: Death to my Hometown)
Same can be said for LB. You get some familiar ground (MYM, FD) and then you get stuff that's entirely different (Infallible, Pendulum).

That's the mix i tend to prefer on albums from my long-standing favourite artists.

[Jaeti]

Would anyone really be any happier if they released a "challenging" album that they still thought sounded like shit?

What kind of shit, exactly?

immaculate poop

In that case, I think I'd have to go with "yes."

[Thejambi]

I'd prefer a samey awesome album over a shitty experimental one, if anyone gives a shit.

I give more shit than you will ever know.