Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[harmless]

I think experiment may soon join cringe in the upper ranks of words I'm sick of hearing

Spend more time with the new Arcade Fire record and you realise it doesn't mean much in PJ world.

[harmless]

Wait, that should've just read 'Spend more time with the new Arcade Fire record.'

[stip]

I think experiment may soon join cringe in the upper ranks of words I'm sick of hearing

Spend more time with the new Arcade Fire record and you realise it doesn't mean much in PJ world.

I know it doesn't. I also think if pearl jam truly 'experimented' I'd probably not really be a fan.

[stip]

I'm downloading the arcade fire record now. Maybe I'll get a chance to listen this weekend.

[warehouse]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

[harmless]

Stip, the leak download doesn't have every song on it, just to warn you. I mean the one I downloaded didn't, you might have a better quality one. When I watched the stream, it was longer with some more stuff going on. I'm not sure how much but yeah.

[VinylGuy]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

[harmless]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

All of these songs are written within a very basic rock framework; playing around with arrangements and different instrumentation isn't experiment, it's fairly bog-standard "what good bands do". Anthems: Getaway, MYM, Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, Yellow Moon, Future Days (a cheesy shlock cookie-cutter "lighters out" type song). The only song I would find it difficult to argue was an anthem is Pendulum, though I could probably argue for that one too. Look at how they've begun every show with it this tour.

[digster]

I think I'd argue that there are a few things on here that don't really sound like anything PJ has done before. It may not be as treading quite as much new ground as some of their past records, but there's still some unexpected stuff here.

[harmless]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

(Pssst... MFS has six-string bass and Pendulum bowed guitars, hence the reference)

[harmless]

I think I'd argue that there are a few things on here that don't really sound like anything PJ has done before. It may not be as treading quite as much new ground as some of their past records, but there's still some unexpected stuff here.

I agree. I wasn't saying this is the same old, same old, not at all. A lot of the difficulties people are having is that PJ are sounding very new in a lot of ways people don't like. But in the wider context of experimentation, it's... not really. But we have admittedly had this conversation to death.

[VinylGuy]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

(Pssst... MFS has six-string bass and Pendulum bowed guitars, hence the reference)

Yeah i know and both of them are the " experimental " tracks i was talking about. More songs in that direction...MFS is heavy enough for me, i would like a whole album with that idea.

[warehouse]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

MYM and getaway are just typical pearl jam rock songs to me. one is more punkish, the other is more new wave-ish, but i dont think either are an 'anthem' in the way that 'alive' or LB is.

YM is a cool direction for pj at this point in their career. same with swallowed whole. really, the whole 2nd half of the record has a folk influenced feel to it. i think they've ventured in this direction before, but i dont think they've gone in as far.

pendulum is one of the best songs they've ever made. ever.

[digster]

I agree. I wasn't saying this is the same old, same old, not at all. A lot of the difficulties people are having is that PJ are sounding very new in a lot of ways people don't like. But in the wider context of experimentation, it's... not really. But we have admittedly had this conversation to death.

Well, I don't think all experimentation is created equal. The Fixer may have been an experiment with writing a radio-friendly pop anthem; that doesn't mean it was a good idea, per se.

[harmless]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

(Pssst... MFS has six-string bass and Pendulum bowed guitars, hence the reference)

Yeah i know and both of them are the " experimental " tracks i was talking about. More songs in that direction...MFS is heavy enough for me, i would like a whole album with that idea.

I keep thinking wouldn't it be cool if, after they've done all this pop stuff and got it out of their systems, they either did a sit-down acoustic record or a massively loud and aggressive one.

[warehouse]

I think I'd argue that there are a few things on here that don't really sound like anything PJ has done before. It may not be as treading quite as much new ground as some of their past records, but there's still some unexpected stuff here.

I agree. I wasn't saying this is the same old, same old, not at all. A lot of the difficulties people are having is that PJ are sounding very new in a lot of ways people don't like. But in the wider context of experimentation, it's... not really. But we have admittedly had this conversation to death.

no one is talking about the "wider context of experimentation" we're talking about pearl jam.

[harmless]

I agree. I wasn't saying this is the same old, same old, not at all. A lot of the difficulties people are having is that PJ are sounding very new in a lot of ways people don't like. But in the wider context of experimentation, it's... not really. But we have admittedly had this conversation to death.

Well, I don't think all experimentation is created equal. The Fixer may have been an experiment with writing a radio-friendly pop anthem; that doesn't mean it was a good idea, per se.

Agreed. The reason we can spend pages and pages discussing whether PJ is experimental is that there isn't a single consensus definition.

[harmless]

I think I'd argue that there are a few things on here that don't really sound like anything PJ has done before. It may not be as treading quite as much new ground as some of their past records, but there's still some unexpected stuff here.

I agree. I wasn't saying this is the same old, same old, not at all. A lot of the difficulties people are having is that PJ are sounding very new in a lot of ways people don't like. But in the wider context of experimentation, it's... not really. But we have admittedly had this conversation to death.

no one is talking about the "wider context of experimentation" we're talking about pearl jam.

OK. But which songs truly break out of PJ's sound though? And I'm not talking production bells-and-whistles.

[Thejambi]

I just would like to see them calm the fuck down.

[VinylGuy]

Oh shit, PJ and Lanegan are so different....even the Trees are very different from PJ.
Im glad i have both, but Blues Funeral might be a better album just because its trying more than LB.

And yes, Alain Johannes is a great producer/musician.

They are very different. I guess thinking about the No Code era along with Jeff and Stone solo work, I could see PJ doing this music very successfully. I do enjoy Lightning Bolt but I may be getting a little fatigued on the urgency and anthem-ed nature of modern PJ. Which I admit is a little unfair considering that is Pearl Jam''s m.o.

Hearing an album like Blues Funeral just reminds me of the side of Pearl Jam that hasn't been followed as extensive.

Agreed. I really would love them to eventually get past this reaching for an anthem, grab four bar stools and just hammer out a low-key record with lots of low register from Ed. Also, more twelve-string acoustic. God it's making my ears happy.

yes, it would be nice to see them experimenting again. Leave the anthem thing a little behind and sit down and make a weird album...they could even rock out more. Hell who knows!

how many anthems are on this album?

and what kinda experimenting are you looking for? 6 string bass? bowed guitars?

i would say Sirens and LB...then maybe MYM, Getaway...what about YM?

I would like to see more acoustic stuff, more dark stuff..Pendulum is a good direction...and yea 6 string bass could be awesome...make a very heavy rhythm/groovy type of album. Like Clockwork maybe....

(Pssst... MFS has six-string bass and Pendulum bowed guitars, hence the reference)

Yeah i know and both of them are the " experimental " tracks i was talking about. More songs in that direction...MFS is heavy enough for me, i would like a whole album with that idea.

I keep thinking wouldn't it be cool if, after they've done all this pop stuff and got it out of their systems, they either did a sit-down acoustic record or a massively loud and aggressive one.

Yeah, i really want an aggressive one. And i dont mean it in a heavy VS type of album...i want a badass collection of songs.
Like The Dead Weather first album or QOTSA´S Like Clockwork. Those albums.

Of couse no Future Days there.