Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[digster]

But with a group I love, love enough to be on a message board devoted to them at 9:00 on a Thursday night? I'm going to give their new song a few spins. I'm going to listen to that new album multiple times to see what strikes me at different points.

Sure, if MYM wasn't Pearl Jam I might just listen to the iTunes clip and not even make it through the full 90 seconds. Or maybe it would suck me in. I don't know. I'm aware enough of my biases to know I can't honestly tell you how it would be, because the first time I heard any of the song I knew it was Pearl Jam. I was already invested at an entirely different level.

I think this is really what it comes down to, expressed very well. There is zero doubt that many people here, possibly myself, are willing to put in some amount of effort and give some room to Pearl Jam to try this song that they may not offer another band. A part of their brain may even approach it differently, leading to one band or version to be inherently more pleasing than the other. That's just the nature of being a favorite band; you nurture illogical connections to the music that can't really be quantified.

[Strat]

I cant stop fucking singing Jake Buggs lightning bolt. Geezes shit.

[evenslow]

This platypus gangbang is a lotta fun.

[epilogue]

My preference for a particular artist or musician will earn them goodwill and I'll be willing to follow them paths I wouldn't normally take, but that's where it stops for me. Saying "this piece of music is inherently more enjoyable because it's this guy whose records I buy all the time" is strange to me.

So you don't prefer like Sinatra's version of The Way You Look Tonight to Tony Bennett's?

[LostDog1079]

The title is greatly improved with the addition of the word 'fuckin'
Fuckin' Lightning Bolt
Lightning Fuckin' Bolt
Lightning Bolt Fuckin'

That one is still my favorite. I chuckle every time I see it.

[Jorge]

My preference for a particular artist or musician will earn them goodwill and I'll be willing to follow them paths I wouldn't normally take, but that's where it stops for me. Saying "this piece of music is inherently more enjoyable because it's this guy whose records I buy all the time" is strange to me.

So you don't prefer like Sinatra's version of The Way You Look Tonight to Tony Bennett's?

Maybe I would because I think it's a better version. What does it have to do with anything?

[epilogue]

My preference for a particular artist or musician will earn them goodwill and I'll be willing to follow them paths I wouldn't normally take, but that's where it stops for me. Saying "this piece of music is inherently more enjoyable because it's this guy whose records I buy all the time" is strange to me.

So you don't prefer like Sinatra's version of The Way You Look Tonight to Tony Bennett's?

Maybe I would because I think it's a better version. What does it have to do with anything?

I just mean, they aren't all that different. And maybe one prefers the way Sinatra sings/phrases the song. Same principle, I think. Maybe I don't always like punk music. But maybe I really like the way Pearl Jam does punk music. I guess, I don't see why that's invalid.

[digster]

There's also no telling how people will feel about this song weeks and months from now (obviously, I suppose). S/T and Backspacer both had relatively positive reactions initially, at least in comparison to how they came to be perceived after the dust had settled. Though this can be a critical lot, there's definitely a 'new PJ glow' that accompanies new releases.

[Farmer John]

My preference for a particular artist or musician will earn them goodwill and I'll be willing to follow them paths I wouldn't normally take, but that's where it stops for me. Saying "this piece of music is inherently more enjoyable because it's this guy whose records I buy all the time" is strange to me.

So you don't prefer like Sinatra's version of The Way You Look Tonight to Tony Bennett's?

Maybe I would because I think it's a better version. What does it have to do with anything?

Don't you have favourite singers who you like to hear sing?

[Jorge]

Listen to Rod Stewart sing Downtown Train.

That's what we're talking about.

I don't think this is a good comparison, because 1) Tom Waits wrote "Downtown Train"-- I don't prefer his version just due to some sentimental attachment to his voice, and 2) even if RS was the original songwriter, the production and performance are different enough that it's perfectly reasonable to pick a preference based on aesthetics alone. My original point was, if this song came out as is, with a different singer's voice slapped on top, I don't believe most people here would give it a second thought. Even if everything else about it was the same. And this feels weird to me. When people do that, it feels like an unearned love for a song, based on some sort of perceived personal connection with the band.

Even if you're right, what's wrong with that?

It's not a bad thing, but it evinces some kind of failure in critical thinking. The idea that a song is made inherently better or more enjoyable just because it's being played by this particular group of people, performance or songwriting themselves notwithstanding.

I stand by this opinion I expressed earlier.

[stip]

But with a group I love, love enough to be on a message board devoted to them at 9:00 on a Thursday night? I'm going to give their new song a few spins. I'm going to listen to that new album multiple times to see what strikes me at different points.

Sure, if MYM wasn't Pearl Jam I might just listen to the iTunes clip and not even make it through the full 90 seconds. Or maybe it would suck me in. I don't know. I'm aware enough of my biases to know I can't honestly tell you how it would be, because the first time I heard any of the song I knew it was Pearl Jam. I was already invested at an entirely different level.

I think this is really what it comes down to, expressed very well. There is zero doubt that many people here, possibly myself, are willing to put in some amount of effort and give some room to Pearl Jam to try this song that they may not offer another band. A part of their brain may even approach it differently, leading to one band or version to be inherently more pleasing than the other. That's just the nature of being a favorite band; you nurture illogical connections to the music that can't really be quantified.

I think this is the critical thing. But I've been reading a lot of political psychology and stuff on how the brain processes questions of value and worth this summer, so this is on my mind.

[evenslow]

There's also no telling how people will feel about this song weeks and months from now (obviously, I suppose). S/T and Backspacer both had relatively positive reactions initially, at least in comparison to how they came to be perceived after the dust had settled. Though this can be a critical lot, there's definitely a 'new PJ glow' that accompanies new releases.

Not for the Fixer there wasn't.

[stip]

There's also no telling how people will feel about this song weeks and months from now (obviously, I suppose). S/T and Backspacer both had relatively positive reactions initially, at least in comparison to how they came to be perceived after the dust had settled. Though this can be a critical lot, there's definitely a 'new PJ glow' that accompanies new releases.

most definitely. I should dig up those first listen reviews I wrote for S/T and Backspacer. I wonder how much I'd stand by today.

[epilogue]

There's also no telling how people will feel about this song weeks and months from now (obviously, I suppose). S/T and Backspacer both had relatively positive reactions initially, at least in comparison to how they came to be perceived after the dust had settled. Though this can be a critical lot, there's definitely a 'new PJ glow' that accompanies new releases.

As I recall, there was a lot of disinterest in Riot Act initially, though. That one seems to have aged pretty well and grown on people. So it works both ways.

It would be foolish to deny a "new PJ glow." Of course fans are excited to have something new. But Turning Mist was new once too. And nobody gave a good tin shit about that thing.

[TheDapperGent]

Welp I like Mind Your Manners. 2013 is shaping up to be the best year musically in a while.

[stip]

There's also no telling how people will feel about this song weeks and months from now (obviously, I suppose). S/T and Backspacer both had relatively positive reactions initially, at least in comparison to how they came to be perceived after the dust had settled. Though this can be a critical lot, there's definitely a 'new PJ glow' that accompanies new releases.

As I recall, there was a lot of disinterest in Riot Act initially, though. That one seems to have aged pretty well and grown on people. So it works both ways.

It would be foolish to deny a "new PJ glow." Of course fans are excited to have something new. But Turning Mist was new once too. And nobody gave a good tin shit about that thing.

I think the turning mist corollary is assumed.

[Norah]

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY JUST CALM DOWN

[Birds in Hell]

Listen to Rod Stewart sing Downtown Train.

That's what we're talking about.

I don't think this is a good comparison, because 1) Tom Waits wrote "Downtown Train"-- I don't prefer his version just due to some sentimental attachment to his voice, and 2) even if RS was the original songwriter, the production and performance are different enough that it's perfectly reasonable to pick a preference based on aesthetics alone. My original point was, if this song came out as is, with a different singer's voice slapped on top, I don't believe most people here would give it a second thought. Even if everything else about it was the same. And this feels weird to me. When people do that, it feels like an unearned love for a song, based on some sort of perceived personal connection with the band.

Even if you're right, what's wrong with that?

It's not a bad thing, but it evinces some kind of failure in critical thinking. The idea that a song is made inherently better or more enjoyable just because it's being played by this particular group of people, performance or songwriting themselves notwithstanding.

I stand by this opinion I expressed earlier.

Like stip earlier, I have no doubt you genuinely believe that.

[Jorge]

My preference for a particular artist or musician will earn them goodwill and I'll be willing to follow them paths I wouldn't normally take, but that's where it stops for me. Saying "this piece of music is inherently more enjoyable because it's this guy whose records I buy all the time" is strange to me.

So you don't prefer like Sinatra's version of The Way You Look Tonight to Tony Bennett's?

Maybe I would because I think it's a better version. What does it have to do with anything?

Don't you have favourite singers who you like to hear sing?

Of course I do. And if what you're getting at is "I like Eddie's voice, so I like hearing him sing this punk music", fuckin A. That's great. What I'm a bit bothered by is people who are saying "this is a great song, PJ is back" who wouldn't give this sort of music a second thought otherwise. And then folks who said, earlier in the thread, "of course I'll enjoy a song more if it's Pearl Jam". It rubs me the wrong way, it feels inauthentic.
McP put it very well earlier in the thread:

I think the real point is that there is literally nothing that this song is doing that is not a part of what those bands/people spent decades perfecting. If you had played this for me and said "Check out this Bad Religion cover that Pearl Jam did for a tribute record," I'd go "Huh...yeah, wow. Where is that song from? I don't remember it." And understand that I realize the enormous overlap that exists in rock music, and how little real stylistic variation there is out there...but this song draws in on its influences with an exactness that goes beyond even the most sycophantic homage. It doesn't do anything that makes it not be a song by those bands, except have a different name on the artwork.

That's fine, I suppose. Like I've said, I think the right context could make this song really work. I'll have to wait and see. But it seems silly to have such fervent support for a song on a board that rarely mentions all those acts that have spent many years doing the EXACT SAME thing, often better.

[doug rr]

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY JUST CALM DOWN