Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[stip]

Opinions are like aholes as they say.

I generally find my opinions and my asshole to be pretty different from each other.

[stip]

Does anyone else have this ranked higher than Backspacer and S/T? It is better than Backspacer for me, and has an overall nicer sound than S/T, but I enjoy a lot of S/T songs way better live than on the album. Guess I'll wait and see how these songs hold up in concert.

not sure yet. Probably have it ahead of No code, binaural, Riot Act. It's up there with Yield/St/Backspacer. Could end up being better than all 3.

[harmless]

Opinions are like aholes as they say.

I generally find my opinions and my asshole to be pretty different from each other.

Sometimes I enjoy fingering my opinions.

[BootsToAsses]

Where would one find this CD rip?

[evenslow]

SNL please.

i bet they play Fallon or Letteman next week though. tape on thursday

Next Thursday would be their only free day in NYC so I'd bet they'll do Letterman.

yeah, thats my thought. Fallon is kind of the "it" show for music right now though. I imagine he could make a pretty good case for why they should play his show instead of Daves. younger audience

Also, the music booker at Fallon is Jonathan Coen, who literally wrote the book on Pearl Jam.

But Dave is their guy from way back, so that's what I'm guessing, if they only have one night.

[stip]

So Ed hinted at Lightning Bolt being a concept album in a recent interview, and that shouldn't be surprising given he loves the Who and they did two concept LP's (Tommy and Quadrophenia).

As I decipher and type out the lyrics I think I can make out part of the story, key words being I think.

I've been sort of working it out backwards, and I've certainly not figured it all out yet, but I think the lyrics will make it so much easier for everyone to see... Also, I can clearly see now why Sleeping By Myself was included and Future Days ends the LP... Subtle but key words in a few songs are I believe...

In Getaway the person clearly has his own way to believe - in God, what happens after death, etc. By mind your manners he doesn't believe - possibly the result of the catholic church sex scandals... the topic of the afterlife / heaven comes up in MYM...

I've not worked out My Father's Son yet, but the anger makes sense to follow MYM... By Sirens he is in love, possibly dying, certainly appreciates what he has with his love, and wants his significant other to know how much she is loved. He has turned the corner from all the anger.

The LP is very much about mortality and one's place in the world. What's important to be focused on (humans, the world, relationships), and what to not be distracted from and our responsibilities to act appropriately to help save the world (climate change - see Infallible) Stop focusing only on ourselves. Lyrics include "put your faith in big hands (God), pay those disasters no mind, they didn't get you this time, No friends left at the crime." Ed mentioned in a recent interview how there's so much happening we move so quickly from disaster to disaster without really addressing the first one completely. We become numb to it with overload from the news... We need to look at the world differently and mortality again is in play here... The chorus says it all.

Pendulum - again mortality is the focus and questions about the afterlife / heaven "understand what we don't know, we are here and then we go

By Swallowed Whole the person realizes he needs to focus on living life and enjoying the natural aspects of it. The lyrics are quite clear about this.

At some point, I think the singer's loved one dies and he is now alone.

Let the records play and sleeping by myself go together quite nicely as a result. The person is alone and drowning in sorrows and trying to heal.

Yellow Moon - the artwork makes so much sense... The barrel of the gun and single bullet. At this point the loved one has already died and I think the singer now has as well. They're both gone. Definitely the person singing in Sirens anyway... Lyrics towards the end of Yellow Moon incude "an echo that rings, a bullet unchained, one life, one grave, joins the parade. Under the sky grows dark with falling stars who've come so far, a headstone and grave, the colors turn grey, the black and white fade. Maybe the singer kills himself because he no longer can live in this world as it is, and without his loved one? Not sure, just an idea.

Future Days ties it all together. The lyrics make so much sense... The person is now in heaven, and he believes again... Perhaps because they are both there? If so, Pendulum might be where he lost his loved one. Dark quiet song, all about mortality and time ticking away in life... Anyway, the chorus addresses the believe word again. Full circle from the beginning... "I believe, I believe cause I can see, our future days, days of you and me... Listen to the heavenly organ sound playing during the chorus... Lyrics later in the song include "all the promises at sundown (death), I meant then like the rest, all the demons used to come around, I'm grateful now they've left. So persistent in my ways, here an angel I am to stay, No resistance, no alarms, please this is just so good to be gone." The climate change topic comes into play again, but never was stronger than the love they had.

The person has died and see he is or will be with his love in heaven. Again, the artwork image helps here. Also, the last part about "please this is just so good to be gone" alludes to the next life being in a better place than this world (cause there's so much going wrong on the earth now with so little being done to address it).

I'm quickly typing this while at home during a lunch break. I was excited to start seeing the puzzle pieces and wanted to share for discussion...

I love the LP. Happy to see more Jeff songs. The lyrics are brilliant and the performance is tight. Looking forward to shows starting in Brooklyn next week.

Standout songs to me are Getaway, MYM, Sirens, Lightning Bolt (will be awesome live-maybe even a set closer), Infallible, Swallowed Whole (another great song I expect live) and Yellow Moon. LOVE Yellow Moon...

Curious what you guys think... Again, the lyrics will be much more helpful... My apologies if this is rambling. Only had a few minutes to get this all out.

welcome to the board I think the issue I'd have with your take is that I see the record as an album about not needing faith, but about needing people. Not needing an afterlife but making the most of this one. And so the religious references are negative, not in that religion is necessarily stupid, but that it is distracting--interferes with the focus we should have on right now. But if you disagree with that a lot of what you wrote certainly makes sense

[mav22erick]

Didn't the news article say S/T was almost a concept album?

He said it could have been but it didn't end up being.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4025260/

But we don't know what the record is going to be about. It can be frustrating at times to have a blank page, especially with so many issues to choose from. One of the most interesting things about making a record is that you see where it grows. All of a sudden it really starts making sense. It would be really interesting to write a whole piece. In some ways that's what Pete Townshend did all the time -- he was always writing whole pieces. Even "Who's Next?" was a whole piece. It wasn't released as that, but it was. At some point, while making the Avocado record [2006's "Pearl Jam"], I kind of had the songs on a bulletin board, and I started scribbling ideas and patching them together. I thought, "It would be really easy" ... I'm not going to jinx myself, but it would be easy [to make a whole piece]! That album really could have been a story about two brothers who were soldiers. It could be a fucking play. It's too bad, because that would have been the time to do it. Because now there's a lot of that going on, and I hope it's all good, but I think that would be jumping on the bandwagon to write a musical at this point. I think what you could do is just write it and have the story be there and not tell anybody. In fact, we might have even done that.

Did you do that on this one? Let me think on that one. It was all easy until that question. Maybe we'll get back to that one.""

Sounds to me more like it is....

[darthvedder81]

Guitarists, when was the last time the guitarists in PJ did so much work with effects pedals? I'm hearing effects more than I have since Ten, or Yield. I think.

I'm not hearing that but quite frankly there's so many keyboards on this thing it's hard to tell what's a guitar sound and what's BOB wankery. Riot Act is the last heavy guitar effects PJ record I can remember. Lots of phase sounds, drum machine guitar loops, choruses, even an octave pedal on Ghost.

[harmless]

[Mine]

Didn't the news article say S/T was almost a concept album?

He said it could have been but it didn't end up being.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4025260/

But we don't know what the record is going to be about. It can be frustrating at times to have a blank page, especially with so many issues to choose from. One of the most interesting things about making a record is that you see where it grows. All of a sudden it really starts making sense. It would be really interesting to write a whole piece. In some ways that's what Pete Townshend did all the time -- he was always writing whole pieces. Even "Who's Next?" was a whole piece. It wasn't released as that, but it was. At some point, while making the Avocado record [2006's "Pearl Jam"], I kind of had the songs on a bulletin board, and I started scribbling ideas and patching them together. I thought, "It would be really easy" ... I'm not going to jinx myself, but it would be easy [to make a whole piece]! That album really could have been a story about two brothers who were soldiers. It could be a fucking play. It's too bad, because that would have been the time to do it. Because now there's a lot of that going on, and I hope it's all good, but I think that would be jumping on the bandwagon to write a musical at this point. I think what you could do is just write it and have the story be there and not tell anybody. In fact, we might have even done that.

Did you do that on this one? Let me think on that one. It was all easy until that question. Maybe we'll get back to that one.""

Sounds to me more like it is....

The musicals he's referring to are usually made from music that wasn't meant for them, from different albums even. Something similar could be said for most of their albums not only s/t in the sense that it isn't any more or less of a concept album than any he did all the lyrics for.

[bodysnatcher]

What's up with the red vinyl? Special edition? Available in stores?? I NEED TO KNOW!!

[nomorecrackpipes]

Didn't the news article say S/T was almost a concept album?

He said it could have been but it didn't end up being.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4025260/

But we don't know what the record is going to be about. It can be frustrating at times to have a blank page, especially with so many issues to choose from. One of the most interesting things about making a record is that you see where it grows. All of a sudden it really starts making sense. It would be really interesting to write a whole piece. In some ways that's what Pete Townshend did all the time -- he was always writing whole pieces. Even "Who's Next?" was a whole piece. It wasn't released as that, but it was. At some point, while making the Avocado record [2006's "Pearl Jam"], I kind of had the songs on a bulletin board, and I started scribbling ideas and patching them together. I thought, "It would be really easy" ... I'm not going to jinx myself, but it would be easy [to make a whole piece]! That album really could have been a story about two brothers who were soldiers. It could be a fucking play. It's too bad, because that would have been the time to do it. Because now there's a lot of that going on, and I hope it's all good, but I think that would be jumping on the bandwagon to write a musical at this point. I think what you could do is just write it and have the story be there and not tell anybody. In fact, we might have even done that.

Did you do that on this one? Let me think on that one. It was all easy until that question. Maybe we'll get back to that one.""

Sounds to me more like it is....

Hard to make a concept album for a record they struggled to create songs for.

[Mine]

What's up with the red vinyl? Special edition? Available in stores?? I NEED TO KNOW!!

Special edition as far as i can tell.

WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED RED VINYL VERSION OF "LIGHTNING BOLT"

[Habitman]

This album is as good as I could have expected. I am so excited that I have probaby 8 or 9 songs that will be part of my on going PJ listening. I got 5 songs off S/T and maybe 3 off BS. I am thrilled with how this album turned out.

[PHATJ]

So Ed hinted at Lightning Bolt being a concept album in a recent interview, and that shouldn't be surprising given he loves the Who and they did two concept LP's (Tommy and Quadrophenia).

As I decipher and type out the lyrics I think I can make out part of the story, key words being I think.

I've been sort of working it out backwards, and I've certainly not figured it all out yet, but I think the lyrics will make it so much easier for everyone to see... Also, I can clearly see now why Sleeping By Myself was included and Future Days ends the LP... Subtle but key words in a few songs are I believe...

In Getaway the person clearly has his own way to believe - in God, what happens after death, etc. By mind your manners he doesn't believe - possibly the result of the catholic church sex scandals... the topic of the afterlife / heaven comes up in MYM...

I've not worked out My Father's Son yet, but the anger makes sense to follow MYM... By Sirens he is in love, possibly dying, certainly appreciates what he has with his love, and wants his significant other to know how much she is loved. He has turned the corner from all the anger.

The LP is very much about mortality and one's place in the world. What's important to be focused on (humans, the world, relationships), and what to not be distracted from and our responsibilities to act appropriately to help save the world (climate change - see Infallible) Stop focusing only on ourselves. Lyrics include "put your faith in big hands (God), pay those disasters no mind, they didn't get you this time, No friends left at the crime." Ed mentioned in a recent interview how there's so much happening we move so quickly from disaster to disaster without really addressing the first one completely. We become numb to it with overload from the news... We need to look at the world differently and mortality again is in play here... The chorus says it all.

Pendulum - again mortality is the focus and questions about the afterlife / heaven "understand what we don't know, we are here and then we go

By Swallowed Whole the person realizes he needs to focus on living life and enjoying the natural aspects of it. The lyrics are quite clear about this.

At some point, I think the singer's loved one dies and he is now alone.

Let the records play and sleeping by myself go together quite nicely as a result. The person is alone and drowning in sorrows and trying to heal.

Yellow Moon - the artwork makes so much sense... The barrel of the gun and single bullet. At this point the loved one has already died and I think the singer now has as well. They're both gone. Definitely the person singing in Sirens anyway... Lyrics towards the end of Yellow Moon incude "an echo that rings, a bullet unchained, one life, one grave, joins the parade. Under the sky grows dark with falling stars who've come so far, a headstone and grave, the colors turn grey, the black and white fade. Maybe the singer kills himself because he no longer can live in this world as it is, and without his loved one? Not sure, just an idea.

Future Days ties it all together. The lyrics make so much sense... The person is now in heaven, and he believes again... Perhaps because they are both there? If so, Pendulum might be where he lost his loved one. Dark quiet song, all about mortality and time ticking away in life... Anyway, the chorus addresses the believe word again. Full circle from the beginning... "I believe, I believe cause I can see, our future days, days of you and me... Listen to the heavenly organ sound playing during the chorus... Lyrics later in the song include "all the promises at sundown (death), I meant then like the rest, all the demons used to come around, I'm grateful now they've left. So persistent in my ways, here an angel I am to stay, No resistance, no alarms, please this is just so good to be gone." The climate change topic comes into play again, but never was stronger than the love they had.

The person has died and see he is or will be with his love in heaven. Again, the artwork image helps here. Also, the last part about "please this is just so good to be gone" alludes to the next life being in a better place than this world (cause there's so much going wrong on the earth now with so little being done to address it).

I'm quickly typing this while at home during a lunch break. I was excited to start seeing the puzzle pieces and wanted to share for discussion...

I love the LP. Happy to see more Jeff songs. The lyrics are brilliant and the performance is tight. Looking forward to shows starting in Brooklyn next week.

Standout songs to me are Getaway, MYM, Sirens, Lightning Bolt (will be awesome live-maybe even a set closer), Infallible, Swallowed Whole (another great song I expect live) and Yellow Moon. LOVE Yellow Moon...

Curious what you guys think... Again, the lyrics will be much more helpful... My apologies if this is rambling. Only had a few minutes to get this all out.

I like your whole thought process here and I love the idea if being able to link all of the tracks in a meaningful manner, but I see the same issues that stip pointed out. Now some of those issues could potentially go away if the "heaven" you are referring to isn't some tangible place of bliss in the clouds, but more of an enormous release of stress, hurt, strife and anger upon death. And upon death the body and spirit return to the ground from which it came. This could definitely tie into the artwork for Future Days.

That's just my two bits of thought. Take it for what you will.

[harmless]

This album is as good as I could have expected. I am so excited that I have probaby 8 or 9 songs that will be part of my on going PJ listening. I got 5 songs off S/T and maybe 3 off BS. I am thrilled with how this album turned out.

[blueviper]

Does anyone else have this ranked higher than Backspacer and S/T? It is better than Backspacer for me, and has an overall nicer sound than S/T, but I enjoy a lot of S/T songs way better live than on the album. Guess I'll wait and see how these songs hold up in concert.

It's higher than both of those for me. My spreadsheet rankings (out of 5 stars) has LB 2nd place behind Ten. I think it's just the new album high, though. I could see this settling in the top 5.

[sward]

This is definitely some new album buzz/high, but right now..as of today...I have the albums like this:

Vs
Ten
Vitalogy
Yield
Lightning Bolt
No Code
Backspacer
S/T
Binaural
Riot Act

Please know that I am shocked to see it like this.

[Juvenal]

So Ed hinted at Lightning Bolt being a concept album in a recent interview, and that shouldn't be surprising given he loves the Who and they did two concept LP's (Tommy and Quadrophenia).

As I decipher and type out the lyrics I think I can make out part of the story, key words being I think.

I've been sort of working it out backwards, and I've certainly not figured it all out yet, but I think the lyrics will make it so much easier for everyone to see... Also, I can clearly see now why Sleeping By Myself was included and Future Days ends the LP... Subtle but key words in a few songs are I believe...

In Getaway the person clearly has his own way to believe - in God, what happens after death, etc. By mind your manners he doesn't believe - possibly the result of the catholic church sex scandals... the topic of the afterlife / heaven comes up in MYM...

I've not worked out My Father's Son yet, but the anger makes sense to follow MYM... By Sirens he is in love, possibly dying, certainly appreciates what he has with his love, and wants his significant other to know how much she is loved. He has turned the corner from all the anger.

The LP is very much about mortality and one's place in the world. What's important to be focused on (humans, the world, relationships), and what to not be distracted from and our responsibilities to act appropriately to help save the world (climate change - see Infallible) Stop focusing only on ourselves. Lyrics include "put your faith in big hands (God), pay those disasters no mind, they didn't get you this time, No friends left at the crime." Ed mentioned in a recent interview how there's so much happening we move so quickly from disaster to disaster without really addressing the first one completely. We become numb to it with overload from the news... We need to look at the world differently and mortality again is in play here... The chorus says it all.

Pendulum - again mortality is the focus and questions about the afterlife / heaven "understand what we don't know, we are here and then we go

By Swallowed Whole the person realizes he needs to focus on living life and enjoying the natural aspects of it. The lyrics are quite clear about this.

At some point, I think the singer's loved one dies and he is now alone.

Let the records play and sleeping by myself go together quite nicely as a result. The person is alone and drowning in sorrows and trying to heal.

Yellow Moon - the artwork makes so much sense... The barrel of the gun and single bullet. At this point the loved one has already died and I think the singer now has as well. They're both gone. Definitely the person singing in Sirens anyway... Lyrics towards the end of Yellow Moon incude "an echo that rings, a bullet unchained, one life, one grave, joins the parade. Under the sky grows dark with falling stars who've come so far, a headstone and grave, the colors turn grey, the black and white fade. Maybe the singer kills himself because he no longer can live in this world as it is, and without his loved one? Not sure, just an idea.

Future Days ties it all together. The lyrics make so much sense... The person is now in heaven, and he believes again... Perhaps because they are both there? If so, Pendulum might be where he lost his loved one. Dark quiet song, all about mortality and time ticking away in life... Anyway, the chorus addresses the believe word again. Full circle from the beginning... "I believe, I believe cause I can see, our future days, days of you and me... Listen to the heavenly organ sound playing during the chorus... Lyrics later in the song include "all the promises at sundown (death), I meant then like the rest, all the demons used to come around, I'm grateful now they've left. So persistent in my ways, here an angel I am to stay, No resistance, no alarms, please this is just so good to be gone." The climate change topic comes into play again, but never was stronger than the love they had.

The person has died and see he is or will be with his love in heaven. Again, the artwork image helps here. Also, the last part about "please this is just so good to be gone" alludes to the next life being in a better place than this world (cause there's so much going wrong on the earth now with so little being done to address it).

I'm quickly typing this while at home during a lunch break. I was excited to start seeing the puzzle pieces and wanted to share for discussion...

I love the LP. Happy to see more Jeff songs. The lyrics are brilliant and the performance is tight. Looking forward to shows starting in Brooklyn next week.

Standout songs to me are Getaway, MYM, Sirens, Lightning Bolt (will be awesome live-maybe even a set closer), Infallible, Swallowed Whole (another great song I expect live) and Yellow Moon. LOVE Yellow Moon...

Curious what you guys think... Again, the lyrics will be much more helpful... My apologies if this is rambling. Only had a few minutes to get this all out.

I like your whole thought process here and I love the idea if being able to link all of the tracks in a meaningful manner, but I see the same issues that stip pointed out. Now some of those issues could potentially go away if the "heaven" you are referring to isn't some tangible place of bliss in the clouds, but more of an enormous release of stress, hurt, strife and anger upon death. And upon death the body and spirit return to the ground from which it came. This could definitely tie into the artwork for Future Days.

That's just my two bits of thought. Take it for what you will.

Yeah. And, like yourself, I really like the guy's thoughts.

[Juvenal]

Actually if it is a concept album, perhaps that's why the track listing is poor.