Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[Thejambi]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

Lightning Bolt sounds like the child of Amongst the Waves/Unthought Known/Undone
Future Days is hopefully not an album track.

This is one of the few times I will say Matt is killing A song (LB). With a jack irons groove we might have something. If a crowd is clapping in unison through the whole song of a song they never heard I'd say the rhythm needs some work.

There are parts of eds delivery that are ok but the verses are poor and he is just doing nonsense towards the end.

It might be better than my first impression here and it's late.

One of the few times? You and I are not on the same page, sir.

We are not.

[Thejambi]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

Lightning Bolt sounds like the child of Amongst the Waves/Unthought Known/Undone
Future Days is hopefully not an album track.

This is one of the few times I will say Matt is killing A song (LB). With a jack irons groove we might have something. If a crowd is clapping in unison through the whole song of a song they never heard I'd say the rhythm needs some work.

There are parts of eds delivery that are ok but the verses are poor and he is just doing nonsense towards the end.

It might be better than my first impression here and it's late.

Also, he's probably 'doing nonsense at the end' because this is live and he's always doing nonsense at the end.

That's the spirit! Optimism!

[harmless]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus. Then I started thinking "Why the fuck can PJ not write choruses anymore?" They've been almost universally shit since Riot Act. But, well, Lightning Bolt is horrible. I'm just hoping that on the album version (or a better recording than this) the chorus doesn't ruin the song like the chorus ruined Supersonic. I mean, that chorus shits all over that song... and not in a good way. Real, non-metaphorical shit.

Future Days was a nice song. I liked it. But it's more likely to be part of the film soundtrack, or at least, I hope it is. It doesn't fit my idea of what this album is going to sound like. Having said that, they always throw on the album irrelevant songs which don't add anything to the overall theme so meh. Also, Boom's electric piano sounds like being in church.

[harmless]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

Lightning Bolt sounds like the child of Amongst the Waves/Unthought Known/Undone
Future Days is hopefully not an album track.

This is one of the few times I will say Matt is killing A song (LB). With a jack irons groove we might have something. If a crowd is clapping in unison through the whole song of a song they never heard I'd say the rhythm needs some work.

There are parts of eds delivery that are ok but the verses are poor and he is just doing nonsense towards the end.

It might be better than my first impression here and it's late.

Also, he's probably 'doing nonsense at the end' because this is live and he's always doing nonsense at the end.

That's the spirit! Optimism!

It's true though. Ed's ability to ad-lib live is not fantastic and hasn't been for a long time. Having said that, this might be reflective of what we have on the studio version, in which case I'll be worried.

Man, that chorus is horrible. What kind of headspace do you have to occupy to think that "Lightning Bolt" is not only a good title for an album, but also for the title song and its chorus, in which the phrase is repeated over and over again? I mean, can you imagine sitting at your laptop and singing to this one?

[Thejambi]

I don't know . I'm going back to bed.

[WtOB?]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

Lightning Bolt sounds like the child of Amongst the Waves/Unthought Known/Undone
Future Days is hopefully not an album track.

This is one of the few times I will say Matt is killing A song (LB). With a jack irons groove we might have something. If a crowd is clapping in unison through the whole song of a song they never heard I'd say the rhythm needs some work.

There are parts of eds delivery that are ok but the verses are poor and he is just doing nonsense towards the end.

It might be better than my first impression here and it's late.

Also, he's probably 'doing nonsense at the end' because this is live and he's always doing nonsense at the end.

That's the spirit! Optimism!

It's true though. Ed's ability to ad-lib live is not fantastic and hasn't been for a long time. Having said that, this might be reflective of what we have on the studio version, in which case I'll be worried.

Man, that chorus is horrible. What kind of headspace do you have to occupy to think that "Lightning Bolt" is not only a good title for an album, but also for the title song and its chorus, in which the phrase is repeated over and over again? I mean, can you imagine sitting at your laptop and singing to this one?

And it's coming from a guy who used to write some really awesome lyrics.

[stupidmop]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

I mentioned backspacer cause it kinda has an 80s vibe to me...but not the good part of the 80s. And it kinda reminded me of amongst the waves and force of nature, but I haven't heard those in forever so I may be way off. But that 80s poppy cheeseball...Idk I don't like that whole sound and I wish they'd stop playing with it. It sounds like they're going for a specific style instead of just writing music, I'm sure they did that on the older albums too but apparently the.music they were inspired by was better. Maybe this is just thier sound now Idk. I bet this is a mike or ed song

As for the bolded part, please baby please baby please. They can't have just stopped knowing how to write interesting music,maybe they're just weeding all the good shit out cause ed thinks thats what it takes to write a catchy song I dunno. Either way

We still have soundcheck song! I think! Let's hope they don't fuck that up. I'm not too optimistic about that right now.

[Lament]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

[harmless]

RIP the Pearl Jams.

I want a better recording of these before I write them off completely but then I'll probably write them off completely.

[WtOB?]

And that soundchecked song sounded so cool..

[harmless]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

I don't even mind that the end jam seemed like a whole lot of nothing, because it was a terrible recording so it could be... something else. We'll only know it was nothing by listening to the studio version's end jam. Which hopefully isn't the piano part of Unthought Known for 2 minutes.

[stupidmop]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

It could be cool if it has that all night style layers vocals thing ed does some times going on.

But it won't, cause that would be interesting.

[harmless]

And that soundchecked song sounded so cool..

I don't know. I thought it had potential to be cool but I kept reminding you fuckers that there was a lot of echo in the room, so take all that off and you might just have a FON / ATW crossover.

I don't know. We have more of Mike's guitar work, we obviously have some thought to an album that takes itself slightly more seriously than Backspacer (even if it fails at it), and we won't have the shiny pop production of Backspacer. I don't think all is lost yet.

[Lament]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

I don't even mind that the end jam seemed like a whole lot of nothing, because it was a terrible recording so it could be... something else. We'll only know it was nothing by listening to the studio version's end jam. Which hopefully isn't the piano part of Unthought Known for 2 minutes.

I was there, and the ending jam definitely never took off like you could tell they expected it to. Hopefully it was just a product of playing it live for the first time and not an indication of an album version that meanders.

[WtOB?]

And that soundchecked song sounded so cool..

I don't know. I thought it had potential to be cool but I kept reminding you fuckers that there was a lot of echo in the room, so take all that off and you might just have a FON / ATW crossover.

I don't know. We have more of Mike's guitar work, we obviously have some thought to an album that takes itself slightly more seriously than Backspacer (even if it fails at it), and we won't have the shiny pop production of Backspacer. I don't think all is lost yet.

I definitely don't expect this to be anywhere near as bad as Backspacer, but it really isn't shaping up to be anything special either. MYM might end up being the best song on the record.

[harmless]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

It could be cool if it has that all night style layers vocals thing ed does some times going on.

But it won't, cause that would be interesting.

Well, MYM has some interesting vocal layering so why not?

Also, I'm trying to think of PJ songs whose choruses have one repeated word: 'All night?' To be honest, I'd rather have a chorus of one word repeated than a chorus of several shit words, a la Supersonic.

[harmless]

I was positive about "Lightning Bolt" until that damn chorus.

I felt the same way. I'm trying to tell myself "Maybe the way he sings that phrase on the album will be really melodically interesting and catchy and he just can't reproduce it live yet." But deep down inside I know I'm probably lying to myself. The rest of the song was interesting enough to make me want to hear the studio version.

I don't even mind that the end jam seemed like a whole lot of nothing, because it was a terrible recording so it could be... something else. We'll only know it was nothing by listening to the studio version's end jam. Which hopefully isn't the piano part of Unthought Known for 2 minutes.

I was there, and the ending jam definitely never took off like you could tell they expected it to. Hopefully it was just a product of playing it live for the first time and not an indication of an album version that meanders.

All of this stuff, all of it, is a definite consequence of caring less. Sadly.

[Lament]

It could be cool if it has that all night style layers vocals thing ed does some times going on.

But it won't, cause that would be interesting.

I wish Ed would use his voice as another instrument more often, like with the chanting at the end of W.M.A. and the layers in All Night and the bridge of In My Tree.

[BurtReynolds]

Bleh. Definitley a logical extention of backspacer. Maybe it'll sound better when I can hear the guitars and ed isn't midway through a concert. I like bits of it... kinda.

Whyyy are they naming a song after the album or vice versa, when this is the song and the phrase doesn't really sound good anyway.

Haven't listened to future days properly yet, but so far it sounds like a particularly boring ed solo song. Extra boring.

Spoiler: show

RIP PJ

I'm not hearing a lot of "Backspacer" in the new stuff. I wish I was. I like that album. My reaction to the first 3 songs I heard from it (Got Some/Fixer/Supersonic) were positive.
My reaction to the first 3 from this album are all very, very negative. I'm hearing boring music lacking the sense of urgency the band is known for.

To me they sound like they are pressing in these new songs. Ed's energy is there but seems phony and his sincerity obligatory. It's like they said "Oh we need a fast song" and we got MYM. Then we need a ballad because "Just Breathe" is tops on iTunes so here's "Future Days".

I wish the band would just go off in some weird new direction ala No Code. That's an album I love but one that is admittedly tough to access right away (especially in 1996).
Even if what they'd come up with is bad at least it would be "weird bad" and not "boring bad" like "Lightning Bolt" (dear Lord that f*cking title) is shaping up to be.

Also kind of distrurbed with this big merchandising push of the band. Opening up stores before the show. Not to mention I get an email update twice a month now on some article of clothing with their name on it. I'm a big free-market Libertarian guy too so if you're annoying me it must really be bad.

I mentioned backspacer cause it kinda has an 80s vibe to me...but not the good part of the 80s. And it kinda reminded me of amongst the waves and force of nature, but I haven't heard those in forever so I may be way off. But that 80s poppy cheeseball...Idk I don't like that whole sound and I wish they'd stop playing with it. It sounds like they're going for a specific style instead of just writing music, I'm sure they did that on the older albums too but apparently the.music they were inspired by was better. Maybe this is just thier sound now Idk. I bet this is a mike or ed song

As for the bolded part, please baby please baby please. They can't have just stopped knowing how to write interesting music,maybe they're just weeding all the good shit out cause ed thinks thats what it takes to write a catchy song I dunno. Either way

We still have soundcheck song! I think! Let's hope they don't fuck that up. I'm not too optimistic about that right now.

All this new uplifting mid tempo crap just sounds like Foreigner or Survivor or, if I'm really feeling generous, Journey or something like that. Not literally, but its that same fake, polished, silly bullshit. I dont know if they are still trying to rip off The Who or Bruce Springsteen or someone respectable, but it just comes out like 80s corporate rock. That kinda shit should only be enjoyed ironically.

and are we sure the soundcheck song isn't Lightning?

[harmless]

It's almost as if he's so embarrassed about old material, he never listens back to it, even if doing so would give him some great ideas and maybe refuel his creativity.