Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[dimejinky99]

So Sirius has the premiere of the new single on the 19th.
I'm betting Sirens

[Rangi Guy]

So Sirius has the premiere of the new single on the 19th.
I'm betting Sirens

It'd be nice to have another new track to add to the mix

[LetMeSleep]

So Sirius has the premiere of the new single on the 19th.
I'm betting Sirens

It'd be nice to have another new track to add to the mix

I think I can wait for the whole deal now. I'll listen to anything that leaks of course but the whole album may reveal something worthwhile.

[PHATJ]

I was blown away to wake up to these tracks this morning. It started a work day I had been dreading in the very best possible way. I have been working/traveling for the last 16 hours and I haven't had a chance to post yet, so here's my take:

1. Getaway - I love this track. Ed sounds sounds awesome and there is something there (echo effect?) that reminds me of The Gaslight Anthem (in a good way). Jeff and Matt are killing it. Seems like this will be another in the line of classic album openers that PJ almost always has.

2. Lightning Bolt - I loved the Wrigley version. The performance was far from perfect, but I knew there was a really really good song in there. Sure enough, here it is. This may be my favorite track we've heard so far but Getaway and MYM are great too. My only complaint is the fade out. I love the guitars at the end and I WANT TO HEAR THEM MORE! At least another 30 -40 seconds would've been perfect.

3. Let The Records Play - The into reminds me of a Soundgarden intro. The rhythm and guitars are very reminiscent of The Black Keys. I also hear similarities to U2's Love And Peace Or Else in there. Mike's solos are the highlight of this one for me. If we are supposed to be comparing this track to Big Wave (which I like) and Supersonic, then Let The Records Play kills those songs. It is also cool to hear PJ do something relatively new for them. The verses are far superior to the chorus (which is relatively weak), but the verses are very strong. I'm on board.

4. Swallowed Whole - Of the four tracks leaked today, this is clearly the weakest. That being said, I have come to expect less than this from songs solely composed by Ed (which I'm assuming this song is). Lyrically, I'm not inspired, but not offended. The melody is average at best, but the band sounds good. Mike's solo is nice again. If this is near the bottom of the barrel for Lightning Bolt then I am quite excited.

I already think this album will be miles better than Backspacer. For my tastes, I think LB has a chance at being my favorite since Yield. I now couldn't be much more excited to hear the rest of the album. Now I just can't wait to hear what the 19th and the new single bring!

[gems and rhinestones]

So Sirius has the premiere of the new single on the 19th.
I'm betting Sirens

Sirens is the rumor

[Norah]

Listened a couple more times. Yeah, they're pretty bad.

[gems and rhinestones]

Listened a couple more times. Yeah, they're pretty bad ass!

[Norah]

They're definitely not bad-ass.

[gems and rhinestones]

These songs have me crawling for more.

[Thenews15]

5 studio tracks plus 2 tracks in live or Uke form. Quite underwhelmed to be honest.

Getaway is a good opener and is growing on me. This will be good live. It's still the worst opener out of the ten. The Hey Hey before the last chorus pisses me off.

LB. No improvement on the live version. This song needs some space to it, too much Ed. Sounds forced and doesn't feel organic. Let the builds come naturally and not force them.

LTRP. This sounds like it's from a kids movie soundtrack and even then it wouldn't be particularly well received. Why oh why was this released. If I want to listen to this style I certainly wouldn't be playing the Pearl Jams.

SW. Is growing on me. A few of you mention REM. Maybe that's why I don't really feel it. There's a nice break at 2:06. This could have been a nice instrumental break for 15-20secs before Ed shites all over it before the solo. Ed actually pisses me off across these tracks.

MYM is standing out as the better of the pack and I don't really care for it. The opening of Getaway into MYM will work well (even if it's a poor cousin of GSMF>GS). FD and SBM don't hold much hope for me so after 7 tracks I have 2x3* (Getaway and SW), a possible 2* in album context (MYM), and 2-4x1stars (LTRP, LB, FD and SBM).

And after 4 yrs to be served LTRP and a rehashed SBM is a bit rich.

Can't help how you feel I guess. So 10 albums in, what are/were your expectations?

Oh man not again. I would like to have 4-5 really good/great tracks that make me want to play them for someone else. And it would be nice if I could listen to the whole album without the need to skip or rage up. That won't happen as I'm already skipping 2 tracks and that's after 5 listens.

The great thing about music is that there is no right or wrong answer, it's all objective. The same song that you want to skip some else might love. I've always skipped songs even 10 and VS. But if you're not digging these, that's cool. I am, they are solid rock songs to me. If you don't think they are then they aren't to you. Seems, from the cheap seats, that your tasted as moved beyond PJ and if true that's all good, can't blame you, that's how you hear things. No worries. I never compare them to 1990's PJ, perhaps why I can like these songs more then you do. To each his own. I respect your opinion and agree to disagree. IS that normal on this board? Aren't I supposed to start some drama? HaHa

[buckeye24]

[WtOB?]

love you all.

[SomethingCreative]

did nobody hear the guitar solo in Let the records play? its baddass and mike has the best tone he's had in years.


or i'm taking crazy pills i guess

[PHATJ]

did nobody hear the guitar solo in Let the records play? its baddass and mike has the best tone he's had in years.


or i'm taking crazy pills i guess

As I said above: "Let The Records Play - The into reminds me of a Soundgarden intro. The rhythm and guitars are very reminiscent of The Black Keys. I also hear similarities to U2's Love And Peace Or Else in there. Mike's solos are the highlight of this one for me. If we are supposed to be comparing this track to Big Wave (which I like) and Supersonic, then Let The Records Play kills those songs. It is also cool to hear PJ do something relatively new for them. The verses are far superior to the chorus (which is relatively weak), but the verses are very strong. I'm on board."

[WhyNotSweden]

Mikes solo in "Let it Ride" are badass. "Cold Confessions" is so sloow...

[LetMeSleep]

Listened a couple more times. Yeah, they're pretty bad.

Average. Since when was a day that half a PJ album leaked a pretty bad day.

[stip]

I'm actually quite curious to know what the reaction of these are compared to say when we first started listening to Backspacer - Stip?

i personally had a stronger initial reaction to Backspacper. I think I liked the fixer more than I did MYM, although I liked both. I didn't care about supersonic, or the speed of sound demo or got some on conan, but initial reactions to lightning bolt and future days were also underwhelming

when backspacer leaked, however, I was sold almost immediately. If I am remembering correctly it was love at first sight. I don't feel nearly as strongly about these songs. I think MYM is great. I was starting to really enjoy the wrigley version of lbolt and like the album cut even more. THe other three songs I think are pretty good, but if I was ranking them they are 3 star songs compared to the 4 I'd give MYM and Lbolt. They are songs I like and will be happy to listen to when they come on, but are not likely to be favorites.

To be fair, backspacer had two big advantages. It was a much better sounding leak (iirc) and the songs were in an album context, which usually helps when getting to know them. Backspacer remains one of my favorite pearl jam albums too, so for me backspacer is not a moment to be put behind me. It is one of my high water marks for the band, especially compared to the 5 albums preceding it.

S/T may be the better comparison (the other pearl jam album I heard leaked). I loved WWS to death when it first came out but I heard the leak and while a bunch of those songs are now among my very favorites it took me a lot of listens to start to connect with them. Even there, I think thus far I would rank Lightning Bolt below the previous two. On the other hand, the songs that we got on the S/T leak are both some of my favorites in the entire catalog AND, for the most part, the best songs on that record. From everything I've read, the songs that were likely to be my favorites I've yet to hear, so in some ways I may be hearing this record in reverse, and if these are lowlights this will be a very strong album. Even if these tracks are average for the record they're still pretty good. But Lbolt would likely be hanging out with Riot Act at the bottom of my list if they can't top these

[Lament]

Alright, new game. This band has been around for 23 fucking years . Let's name other bands who have been around this long who still or who did make relevant music like this. I am saying bands, not solo artist. Sure there have been bands around for this extent of time, but their music seemed to die a little with age. I know I am biased towards PJ , but this seems fresh to me and yeah maybe a little watered down from the early days, but they still seem to make you think and feel something from these songs. I don't know I think I'm wasted right now but I love it. I just want to hear Pendulum and Infallible so. Yeah it's gravy

Yeah, except there's two big problems with this. One problem is no matter who somebody names, you'll probably argue they aren't relevant. The other is that it's a pretty huge leap of faith to suggest that Pearl Jam is still relevant. It's a Pearl Jam board, so obviously people here are inclined to want to think Pearl Jam is still relevant and have no reason to necessarily think other bands are, but it'd be pretty hard to go to another band's message board and convince anyone that Pearl Jam is still relevant in 2013.

[WtOB?]

looks like others share the same feelings as me in regard to getaway being the best of the bunch. it's pretty cool and makes me want to go back for more listens to really digest it properly.

lightning bolt is still awful, probably even more awful than i originally thought. there's some of that classic bo'b cheese in there as well as those stupid forced "litnin bawwll!! litnin bawwll! never lettah gaww!!" things. euck.

let the records play is certainly not as bad as supersonic. or at least, i don't think it is yet. i was really turned off the first time i listened, and after a few more i still cringe at those verses. it sounds like they wanna be shania twain or something. thanks a lot stone.

swallowed whole starts out with an unbelievably generic and boring acoustic guitar part which makes me think it's an ed song. not sure about this one yet but at least it ends up going somewhere much better than the start lets on. i think it's ok. too early to tell. looking forward to listening to this one more.

overall there's some potential here for growers, but even if the songs grow on me it still sounds like a band with no direction. nowhere to go. no inspiration. they've forgotten how to write music so they look to their peers and try to write like them, sometimes making tolerable songs and other times falling flat. i thought eddie said this album was about what's going on in the world? where's all that?

[WtOB?]

i can't see myself ever not skipping lightning bolt on the record. that one is a real stinker.