A Guided Tour of Lightning Bolt: Infallible

[Kevin Davis]

A quick review suggests that only Cropduster and Bu$hleaguer have lyrics that I would consider flowery; all the other tracks are different shades of artful.

I totally agree that most of "Riot Act" is pretty unambiguous, and I certainly wouldn't describe anything other than "Bushleaguer" as flowery. I just wouldn't equate the album to Woody Guthrie; this is not PJ's version of "Living With War." It's an album about looking inward for sense and truth as the world around you explodes, and while its political position is unmistakable, I think it lacks the agenda that most "protest" music requires. For that you need to fast forward to the 2003 shows, where the political flavor of the between-song rhetoric and the selection of cover tunes rubs off on some of the original material (though admittedly as much onto songs like "DTE" and "Insignificance" as anything on "Riot Act"), or -- God help you -- to solo tracks like "No More" and "Here's to the State," which will have you longing for flowery language in a way you never thought possible.

[Norah]

Kevin Davis gets Riot Act better than anyone.

[epilogue]

A quick review suggests that only Cropduster and Bu$hleaguer have lyrics that I would consider flowery; all the other tracks are different shades of artful.

I totally agree that most of "Riot Act" is pretty unambiguous, and I certainly wouldn't describe anything other than "Bushleaguer" as flowery. I just wouldn't equate the album to Woody Guthrie; this is not PJ's version of "Living With War." It's an album about looking inward for sense and truth as the world around you explodes, and while its political position is unmistakable, I think it lacks the agenda that most "protest" music requires. For that you need to fast forward to the 2003 shows, where the political flavor of the between-song rhetoric and the selection of cover tunes rubs off on some of the original material (though admittedly as much onto songs like "DTE" and "Insignificance" as anything on "Riot Act"), or -- God help you -- to solo tracks like "No More" and "Here's to the State," which will have you longing for flowery language in a way you never thought possible.

I would tend to agree with you, KD. Riot Act isn't a "protest" album as such. And I think that's what, oddly, turned so many people off when it first dropped. I think that's also why we've seen so many folks come around on it over the years. People stopped trying to hear what they wanted to hear or what they thought it should be and started listening to what it was.

[epilogue]

Kevin Davis gets Riot Act better than anyone.

Well....

[stip]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

[stip]

and part of the reason why S/T is so obvious

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[epilogue]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

[E.H. Ruddock]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

agenda? or agency?

[Strat]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

Riot Act, for me, is about the struggle within. The agenda is learning to deal with your life as it crumbles around you. Inward. "To myself i surrender...." is the theme/agenda/agency

[stip]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

agenda? or agency?

aardvark

[epilogue]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

Riot Act, for me, is about the struggle within. The agenda is learning to deal with your life as it crumbles around you. Inward. "To myself i surrender...." is the theme/agenda/agency

To me the theme/agenda/agency/aardvark is the "but I still try."

[Strat]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

Riot Act, for me, is about the struggle within. The agenda is learning to deal with your life as it crumbles around you. Inward. "To myself i surrender...." is the theme/agenda/agency

To me the theme/agenda/agency/aardvark is the "but I still try."

[stip]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

Riot Act, for me, is about the struggle within. The agenda is learning to deal with your life as it crumbles around you. Inward. "To myself i surrender...." is the theme/agenda/agency

To me the theme/agenda/agency/aardvark is the "but I still try."

yeah, it's there. But I think it's also not totally clear how much he still believes it. it feels almost rote--I'm going to try because I don't know how not to, but starting to doubt the point.

That's not a criticism of the album, btw. I think Riot Act is one of their most conceptually interesting records.

[epilogue]

It's not that Riot Act lacks an agenda. I think it's not capable of formulating an agenda (which is very close but not precisely the same thing). That's part of the conflict of the album.

I think that's part of your conflict with the album.

Riot Act, for me, is about the struggle within. The agenda is learning to deal with your life as it crumbles around you. Inward. "To myself i surrender...." is the theme/agenda/agency

To me the theme/agenda/agency/aardvark is the "but I still try."

yeah, it's there. But I think it's also not totally clear how much he still believes it. it feels almost rote--I'm going to try because I don't know how not to, but starting to doubt the point.

That's not a criticism of the album, btw. I think Riot Act is one of their most conceptually interesting records.

Well, we've been through this a hundred times before, but I disagree. Again, I think this is your issue with the album. Maybe because of what you wanted it to be. Maybe because you don't like the songs as much. I'm not sure. But, once again, Riot Act is probably their most optimistic and hopeful album. It's there in every single song. There is an inward investigation, yes, but the theme, the goal of the album is hope in spite of it all. And I believe Eddie does believe it. He may have changed his mind by the time S/T rolled around. There is tremendous struggle in Riot Act. But the struggle is always in service of "but I still try." And that's honest. That's his/their truth at that time. I believe that. It isn't rote. It's an honest search, a real investigation, a NEED to overcome.

[stip]

I've got a 13 thousand word essay laying out my position, Joey.

As a final ‘official’ thought, I clearly have a dark interpretation of Riot Act—the first moment in Pearl Jam’s catalogue where there is no light, or, more accurately, that the light that’s there is extinguished during the course of the record. I think it is important to pay attention to the way Riot Act was crafted in order to make sense of what the band wanted to do. They could have made it an album of redemption, but they didn’t. Songs like undone and down were left off the record because they did not fit, and by that the band really means thematically. They don’t fit because that is not the story the band wanted to tell. Had they chosen to end the record with Love Boat Captain or I Am Mine, or even You Are, it might make sense to go back and interpret songs like TMW and All or None slightly more optimistically, and of course we’re all entitled to listen to the record we want to hear. But I don’t think it is the story the band wanted to tell. They have an entire catalogue full of redemption. We don’t need to force it into the spaces that it was never intended to fit, and now that we know the ultimate story has a happy ending, there shouldn’t be a need.

Spoiler: show

yes, I have wasted my life

You know I've been eagerly anticipating your reply

Spoiler: show

though, when that day comes, it should be its own thread

[epilogue]

I've read your thoughts. And I enjoyed reading them. And I've responded to a lot of those thoughts in the past so I won't rehash all of that here in the LIGHTNING BOLT THREAD.

But, I think, you're just dead wrong about Riot Act.

[stip]

I'm calling you out, Joey. If I was better at internetting I'd do it with a jared leto gif.

[Strat]

I'm calling you out, Joey. If I was better at internetting I'd do it with a jared leto gif.

[epilogue]

I'm calling you out, Joey. If I was better at internetting I'd do it with a jared leto gif.