Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[LetMeSleep]

Fool me once internet.....

[Sgt. Crackpot]

The real singer is John Willemse. When Ed dies, this guy can take his place.

[Jorge]

Please stop posting that song.

[harmless]

I don't know man. So far I think all 3 of these songs are better than their closest Backspacer counterparts (and I like Backspacer).

This is shaping up to be a good album.

[harmless]

BTW, I think that after the first screechy "Lightniinng Boowwwll" towards the end, he slips in a "Fuck!" Any bets he'll do that in the studio version?

[HardTI]

I think this new album is going to be better on record than it is live. Maybe I should give them more than 1-2 shows to get it down, but fuck it. How I choose to feel is how I am.

[dprival78]

BTW, I think that after the first screechy "Lightniinng Boowwwll" towards the end, he slips in a "Fuck!" Any bets he'll do that in the studio version?

it almost looks like that it was directed at mike. eddie looks annoyed as if mike should be doing more at that point, like "fuck, would you get your head out of your ass and rock that e-bow already? i mean.. it's just such the sound.."

[Coach]

Dear Pearl Jam,

Please let Stone and Jeff write the songs for now on....my support for this request? See below:

1. "Once" Stone Gossard 3:51
2. "Even Flow" Gossard 4:53
3. "Alive" Gossard 5:40
4. "Why Go" Jeff Ament 3:19
5. "Black" Gossard 5:44
6. "Jeremy" Ament 5:18
7. "Oceans" Gossard, Ament, Vedder 2:41
8. "Porch" Vedder 3:30
9. "Garden" Gossard, Ament 4:59
10. "Deep" Gossard, Ament 4:18
11. "Release" Gossard, Ament, Dave Krusen, Mike McCready, Vedder 9:05

[dprival78]

Dear Pearl Jam,

Please let Stone and Jeff write the songs for now on....my support for this request? See below:

1. "Once" Stone Gossard 3:51
2. "Even Flow" Gossard 4:53
3. "Alive" Gossard 5:40
4. "Why Go" Jeff Ament 3:19
5. "Black" Gossard 5:44
6. "Jeremy" Ament 5:18
7. "Oceans" Gossard, Ament, Vedder 2:41
8. "Porch" Vedder 3:30
9. "Garden" Gossard, Ament 4:59
10. "Deep" Gossard, Ament 4:18
11. "Release" Gossard, Ament, Dave Krusen, Mike McCready, Vedder 9:05

you're livin' in the past man.. you're hung up on some band from the 90's man!

i don't disagree with you, but it seems like stone and jeff are resigned to the fact that eddie is running the show now. that's why they've created other outlets for their own material.

[harmless]

Dear Pearl Jam,

Please let Stone and Jeff write the songs for now on....my support for this request? See below:

1. "Once" Stone Gossard 3:51
2. "Even Flow" Gossard 4:53
3. "Alive" Gossard 5:40
4. "Why Go" Jeff Ament 3:19
5. "Black" Gossard 5:44
6. "Jeremy" Ament 5:18
7. "Oceans" Gossard, Ament, Vedder 2:41
8. "Porch" Vedder 3:30
9. "Garden" Gossard, Ament 4:59
10. "Deep" Gossard, Ament 4:18
11. "Release" Gossard, Ament, Dave Krusen, Mike McCready, Vedder 9:05

you're livin' in the past man.. you're hung up on some band from the 90's man!

i don't disagree with you, but it seems like stone and jeff are resigned to the fact that eddie is running the show now. that's why they've created other outlets for their own material.

Probably true. It's a bit late to ask Ed to get out the way. A bit more Stone presence on the songs would be nice, though, and surely not too much to ask.

[Coach]

Dear Pearl Jam,

Please let Stone and Jeff write the songs for now on....my support for this request? See below:

1. "Once" Stone Gossard 3:51
2. "Even Flow" Gossard 4:53
3. "Alive" Gossard 5:40
4. "Why Go" Jeff Ament 3:19
5. "Black" Gossard 5:44
6. "Jeremy" Ament 5:18
7. "Oceans" Gossard, Ament, Vedder 2:41
8. "Porch" Vedder 3:30
9. "Garden" Gossard, Ament 4:59
10. "Deep" Gossard, Ament 4:18
11. "Release" Gossard, Ament, Dave Krusen, Mike McCready, Vedder 9:05

you're livin' in the past man.. you're hung up on some band from the 90's man!

i don't disagree with you, but it seems like stone and jeff are resigned to the fact that eddie is running the show now. that's why they've created other outlets for their own material.

I really liked it when Stone/Jeff's outlet was Vedder's vocals. Maybe go back to an 80/20 split...meaning Stone/Jeff control 8 out of 10 songs? I dunno. I'm interested in the best Pearl Jam possible.

[JimX6]

Who the fuck are all these new posters? This isn't the pit, is it?

Anywho,....

I really enjoy Lightening Bolt, I appreciate Mind Your Manners, and I am very bored with whatever the fuck the name of the third song is. I see 0% chance of Ole being on the new album (thankfully), and 35% chance that Of The Earth is included (but hope it is). I'm more excited for the new material now than I was before the Wrigley show, so that's a plus.

new? I've been on this board since 2004..

I hope Olé isn't on the record.. that would make 3 songs i hate on one record..

[E.H. Ruddock]

Have we done an over/under on the number of times waves and oceans are going to be mentioned? We already have one...

[harmless]

I've just realised that this band has always been writing songs with generic and uninteresting third-person characters in: 'She scratches a letter...' That song may have been darker than this one, with insane asylums featured, but it's not really any more interesting than this woman crashing in the waves like a lightning bolt or whatever she's doing.

[Release_Me]

But it's just so much cooler when the songs are sad, dark and brooding. Can't they just get angry at something?

[harmless]

Well, I don't disagree - it is cooler. The same formula becomes bland when that edge is taken off it. So yeah, it was a pretty hackneyed approach to songwriting to begin with, but the darkness made up for it. The drama of it, if you will. Where's the drama here? With all these lightning and wave metaphors and this girl as a flying space rock, what's actually happening? What's the story?

[harmless]

I listened to the tour video music again, after having heard these two new ones, to see if my expectations were any different. I don't really know what I concluded. But that ambient music still sounds good. I wonder if it's part of a terrible song now.

[JimX6]

But it's just so much cooler when the songs are sad, dark and brooding. Can't they just get angry at something?

It's not that it's much cooler, it's whats established. To me, the themes in LB are just cheesy and NOT Pearl Jam. FD has kind of grown on me with more listens, and I can accept it for what it is. Lightning Bolt on the other hand, sounds like the kind of crap Bon Jovi would be singing about. That's not pearl jam (IMHO). Pearl Jam's themes in the past have been deeper and more serious.

[harmless]

But it's just so much cooler when the songs are sad, dark and brooding. Can't they just get angry at something?

It's not that it's much cooler, it's whats established. To me, the themes in LB are just cheesy and NOT Pearl Jam. FD has kind of grown on me with more listens, and I can accept it for what it is. Lightning Bolt on the other hand, sounds like the kind of crap Bon Jovi would be singing about. That's not pearl jam (IMHO). Pearl Jam's themes in the past have been deeper and more serious.

I can't fathom why you'd be vehemently against LB but coming around to FD. Different strokes and all that. I don't think either of these songs are outside the realms of Bon Jovi, who has written a fair few cheesy love songs. And PJ have written several songs about girls and waves and surf boards.

[Release_Me]

Well, I don't disagree - it is cooler. The same formula becomes bland when that edge is taken off it. So yeah, it was a pretty hackneyed approach to songwriting to begin with, but the darkness made up for it. The drama of it, if you will. Where's the drama here? With all these lightning and wave metaphors and this girl as a flying space rock, what's actually happening? What's the story?

I was being sarcastic. It's cool when you're a teen or young adult maybe. After a while, listening to songs that paint dark pictures about everything from love, parent-child relationships, death, etc. can become more cumbersome than edgy. It depends a lot on what stage of life you're at. The band members are nearly 50 with the best years of their life behind them. I would think they don't want to brood over things anymore and probably want to celebrate or reflect on life in a more positive way. It would sound completely ridiculous if Ed wrote Black part two now, despite the fact that it is my favourite song of all time. A song does not have to be dramatic or dark to grab my attention. To me, LB is a song about cherishing a loved one and it's much more light hearted than something like Black. I prefer it vastly to many of the songs on Yield, which sort of reflect the same uplifting approach. This is all subjective of course, I know how much Yield is appreciated around these parts