Lightning Bolt: The Official Album Thread

[harmless]

My take on the album as a "concept"

Rejection

1) "Getaway" -- a snarky, second-person rejection of your narrow-mindedness and simplistic / fundamentalist belief. And the description of a "betterway" (sorry).

2) "Mind Your Manners" -- an angry rejection of their "religious" hypocrisy, and breaches of social justice and equality, all in the name of elitist social etiquette / "manners". And a suggestion of somethin' else.

3) "My Father's Son" -- a rejection of negative familial ties as a reason for political and social apathy, a need to be free from the chains of overbearing parental expectation.

The replacement for what is rejected

4) "Sirens" -- against the backdrop of the threat and violence of emergency sirens (possibly caused by any and all of the above), this describes the safety and love which can be found in family. It also considers mortality and death, but in an earthly, everyday way as opposed to a heightened religious or mythical sense. There is no "Heaven", and we don't get to take what we have with us. The song's melancholy celebrates this happiness but is awash with the inevitable sadness of death too.

5) "Lightning Bolt" -- This song could be about songwriting, as the EPK suggests. But in a more general sense, it's about inspiration and the "mustard seed" we put our faith in. It's a parable, in the vein of the wise man and foolish man. Christianity speaks of the doctrine of Biblical Inspiration -- how the scripture is God-breathed yet written by man, etc. This song seems to be about *your own* spark of inspiration, and the fact that you can't keep it in a book, or a box, or a bag (sorry, couldn't resist that either). It's uncontrollable, wild, and will have its way with you. There's a sense in which this "lightning bolt" -- this God-given miracle or flash of inspiration -- doesn't ultimately care about you any more than anyone else, and will eventually absorb you back into the earth in death. It's bigger than you, and all your ideas can't capture it.

6) "Infallible" -- This song also draws on a Christian doctrine, that of "Infallibility". The Bible is often described as "infallible" in the same breath as "inerrant". It makes no mistake, and its every jot and tittle is true, and good. That's the fundamentalist view of the Bible. This song is about political apathy due to our belief that, armed with our beliefs (and by extension, our Bibles), we're infallible, always right, never wrong. Therefore we needn't get caught up in the world's politics; we can happily sit on the fence, because positions need not be taken. As long as we all love each other, we don't have to fight against social injustice, because this world will all go up in smoke anyway. The replacement of "faith" here is a call to social action.

The loneliness and betrayal felt after the rejection of life-long belief

7) "Pendulum" -- The darkest song on the record, this is spoken by a character who feels like a shadow of his former self. He used to feel comforted by higher powers. Now he's a pendulum, swinging from left to right by some unseen manipulator. This song gets a bit more serious, as the second-wind of the feelings associated with what the protagonist has rejected. Whereas the first rejection was angry, this second one will be painful and heart-wrenching, like losing a loved one.

8) "Swallowed Whole" -- There's a major irony in the song in that it sounds triumphant, energetic and happy. But it's a "manic" episode of happiness, because the protagonist's message is "I'm so at home in all these beautiful, earthly and natural surroundings (literally and metaphorically), I could die here." It's a cry of the desire for oblivion, which in Christianity we call heaven, but could otherwise be called Shalom, or Nirvana. But rather than in the religious sense, we're just talking about wanting to lie in the earth, have our ashes scattered in the sea, be the sun -- to generate our own light, our own heat, and to govern our own universe. "Mine is mine..."

9) "Let the Records Play" -- This song is about a guy who goes and drinks himself silly, possibly to death. This is the culmination of these three songs. The protagonist -- possibly a religious teacher disillusioned by what he's having to teach, even after all these realisations and epiphanies -- drowns himself in drink. He puts a red dress on and listens to his favourite record. There's a rejection of heteronormativity in the red dress, and possibly the embracing of a trans* identity. Or he might just be wearing a dress for fun. But ultimately, the vignette mirrors the style: T.Rex-style glam rock, or "Spirit in the Sky" territory. These songs are as camp as they are legitimately rock music.

The resignation (and / or ironic happiness) in embracing new choices

10) "Sleeping By Myself" -- On face value, the song is about infidelity and betrayal. This was hinted at in a subtle and serious way during "Sirens", but that song focussed on the mortality aspect. This one's the other way round: it brings back the betrayal, but could also be metaphorically about death. There's a tongue-in-cheek aspect to the idea that "sleeping by myself" could mean going it alone, in the same sense as "flying solo". But it could also mean dying alone. Again, there's a darkly comic celebration of individuality, aloneness and oblivion here.

11) "Yellow Moon" -- The yellow moon rising is contrasted by death imagery in this song, "headstones" etc. It recalls apocalyptic imagery of the end-times, the beginning of an eternal "heaven", except that again, all of the imagery is earthly. There are no angels, just a reflection on how we are born, raised and die by the moon. What's arising here is the end of it all. The yellow moon, the controller of our universe, is also contrasted with the sun in "Swallowed Whole".

12) "Future Days" -- Until what's left is just the future days of two people -- two lovers -- or the singer and his audience, i.e. all of us. The lyrics, like in the title track and others, take various images and phrases from the book of Revelation: storms, waves, natural disasters. "Future days (also translated "end-times", "latter-days") and the line from the disciple Thomas: "I believe because I have seen...". Except Jesus is nowhere to be seen here; belief and faith are entirely, and rightly, focussed on the love of one other. We are our own inheritance, because we didn't wait lazily and apathetically for any heavenly rewards but we got on with living life as we saw it.

[PHATJ]

Happy Boner!!!

[Birds in Hell]

bagpipes make everything awful anyway

Bon Scott disapproves of this post

[Birds in Hell]

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.

I think it's better than Backspacer by virtue of having at least one song I really like but it's definitely not comparable to S/T which has a few.

I can't begin to understand anyone who's ranking this above anything from the Ten through Binaural stretch. I mean, really!

[gardenparty]

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

Bingo.

I'm not calling it a "concept album", but to my mind, the tracks do link together really nicely in a thematic sense

If it were a concept album i'm not sure why Mike wouldd have had to fight for "Yellow Moon" and Brendan for "Sleeping by Myself"

bc.... "Sleeping by myself under a yellow moon".

DUH.

[solace]

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.

I think it's better than Backspacer by virtue of having at least one song I really like but it's definitely not comparable to S/T which has a few.

I can't begin to understand anyone who's ranking this above anything from the Ten through Binaural stretch. I mean, really!

ditto...

it's better than Backspacer on the strength of probably 3 songs, and while it's more consistent than Riot Act, there's a few songs on there i like more than ANYTHING on here. Definitely not as enjoyable as S/T for me... i thought it might be close at first, but when i went back and listened, it's not even close.

and agreed... all of those 90's albums are 9+, Binaural like an 8.5, nothing since has cracked the 7.5 mark for me, and i'd give Backspacer a 4.5/10

[bada]

i'll throw it up on the Gmail...

edit: link is up

320kbps?

[Birds in Hell]

Holy Christmas, if all these liner note pictures get uploaded, I'm going to be listening to this today. Onward, noble internetters!

Spoiler: show

[Release_Me]

For me, at the moment, it sits comfortably at no. 4 breathing down Vs.' neck. It could overtake Vs. eventually if it's non-5 star songs age better than Vs.' non-5 star songs. But that decision will be taken after at least a year.

Vitalogy
Ten

Vs
Lightning Bolt
Backspacer
S/T=Yield

Riot Act
No Code
Binaural

LB has five 5 star songs which is the most of any PJ album for me bar Ten and Vitalogy. That's followed by four 4-4.5 star songs, two 3.5-4 star songs and one 3 star song. Overall, just a very strong album.

[stupidmop]

"Produced by brenden o'Brien" in big shiny letters

[Lounge Lizard]

PRODUCED BY
BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Sure, Brendan, don't forget to bold out that part lest anyone forgets about you

[Lounge Lizard]

"Produced by brenden o'Brown" in big shiny letters

great minds think alike

[EJ]

PRODUCED BY
BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Sure, Brendan, don't forget to bold out that part lest anyone forgets about you

Jeez, did he have input on the artwork too?

[stip]

My take on the album as a "concept"

Rejection

1) "Getaway" -- a snarky, second-person rejection of your narrow-mindedness and simplistic / fundamentalist belief. And the description of a "betterway" (sorry).

2) "Mind Your Manners" -- an angry rejection of their "religious" hypocrisy, and breaches of social justice and equality, all in the name of elitist social etiquette / "manners". And a suggestion of somethin' else.

3) "My Father's Son" -- a rejection of negative familial ties as a reason for political and social apathy, a need to be free from the chains of overbearing parental expectation.

The replacement for what is rejected

4) "Sirens" -- against the backdrop of the threat and violence of emergency sirens (possibly caused by any and all of the above), this describes the safety and love which can be found in family. It also considers mortality and death, but in an earthly, everyday way as opposed to a heightened religious or mythical sense. There is no "Heaven", and we don't get to take what we have with us. The song's melancholy celebrates this happiness but is awash with the inevitable sadness of death too.

5) "Lightning Bolt" -- This song could be about songwriting, as the EPK suggests. But in a more general sense, it's about inspiration and the "mustard seed" we put our faith in. It's a parable, in the vein of the wise man and foolish man. Christianity speaks of the doctrine of Biblical Inspiration -- how the scripture is God-breathed yet written by man, etc. This song seems to be about *your own* spark of inspiration, and the fact that you can't keep it in a book, or a box, or a bag (sorry, couldn't resist that either). It's uncontrollable, wild, and will have its way with you. There's a sense in which this "lightning bolt" -- this God-given miracle or flash of inspiration -- doesn't ultimately care about you any more than anyone else, and will eventually absorb you back into the earth in death. It's bigger than you, and all your ideas can't capture it.

6) "Infallible" -- This song also draws on a Christian doctrine, that of "Infallibility". The Bible is often described as "infallible" in the same breath as "inerrant". It makes no mistake, and its every jot and tittle is true, and good. That's the fundamentalist view of the Bible. This song is about political apathy due to our belief that, armed with our beliefs (and by extension, our Bibles), we're infallible, always right, never wrong. Therefore we needn't get caught up in the world's politics; we can happily sit on the fence, because positions need not be taken. As long as we all love each other, we don't have to fight against social injustice, because this world will all go up in smoke anyway. The replacement of "faith" here is a call to social action.

The loneliness and betrayal felt after the rejection of life-long belief

7) "Pendulum" -- The darkest song on the record, this is spoken by a character who feels like a shadow of his former self. He used to feel comforted by higher powers. Now he's a pendulum, swinging from left to right by some unseen manipulator. This song gets a bit more serious, as the second-wind of the feelings associated with what the protagonist has rejected. Whereas the first rejection was angry, this second one will be painful and heart-wrenching, like losing a loved one.

8) "Swallowed Whole" -- There's a major irony in the song in that it sounds triumphant, energetic and happy. But it's a "manic" episode of happiness, because the protagonist's message is "I'm so at home in all these beautiful, earthly and natural surroundings (literally and metaphorically), I could die here." It's a cry of the desire for oblivion, which in Christianity we call heaven, but could otherwise be called Shalom, or Nirvana. But rather than in the religious sense, we're just talking about wanting to lie in the earth, have our ashes scattered in the sea, be the sun -- to generate our own light, our own heat, and to govern our own universe. "Mine is mine..."

9) "Let the Records Play" -- This song is about a guy who goes and drinks himself silly, possibly to death. This is the culmination of these three songs. The protagonist -- possibly a religious teacher disillusioned by what he's having to teach, even after all these realisations and epiphanies -- drowns himself in drink. He puts a red dress on and listens to his favourite record. There's a rejection of heteronormativity in the red dress, and possibly the embracing of a trans* identity. Or he might just be wearing a dress for fun. But ultimately, the vignette mirrors the style: T.Rex-style glam rock, or "Spirit in the Sky" territory. These songs are as camp as they are legitimately rock music.

The resignation (and / or ironic happiness) in embracing new choices

10) "Sleeping By Myself" -- On face value, the song is about infidelity and betrayal. This was hinted at in a subtle and serious way during "Sirens", but that song focussed on the mortality aspect. This one's the other way round: it brings back the betrayal, but could also be metaphorically about death. There's a tongue-in-cheek aspect to the idea that "sleeping by myself" could mean going it alone, in the same sense as "flying solo". But it could also mean dying alone. Again, there's a darkly comic celebration of individuality, aloneness and oblivion here.

11) "Yellow Moon" -- The yellow moon rising is contrasted by death imagery in this song, "headstones" etc. It recalls apocalyptic imagery of the end-times, the beginning of an eternal "heaven", except that again, all of the imagery is earthly. There are no angels, just a reflection on how we are born, raised and die by the moon. What's arising here is the end of it all. The yellow moon, the controller of our universe, is also contrasted with the sun in "Swallowed Whole".

12) "Future Days" -- Until what's left is just the future days of two people -- two lovers -- or the singer and his audience, i.e. all of us. The lyrics, like in the title track and others, take various images and phrases from the book of Revelation: storms, waves, natural disasters. "Future days (also translated "end-times", "latter-days") and the line from the disciple Thomas: "I believe because I have seen...". Except Jesus is nowhere to be seen here; belief and faith are entirely, and rightly, focussed on the love of one other. We are our own inheritance, because we didn't wait lazily and apathetically for any heavenly rewards but we got on with living life as we saw it.

I saved this post for when I go back to do the tour thread in a few months, Harmless. good stuff

[stupidmop]

"Produced by brenden o'Brown" in big shiny letters

great minds think alike

Fricken auto correct but

[Jaeti]

PRODUCED BY
BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Sure, Brendan, don't forget to bold out that part lest anyone forgets about you

Ha. I've steered clear of the BO'B debates because I'm ignorant about all things production related. I even didn't get worked up about him doing so much press at first. But, coming from a guy who didn't really give a damn, seeing his name is huge letters like that is really off-putting.

[Farmer John]

I can't believe Brendan forced Jeff to increase the font size on that. What a dick.

[Lounge Lizard]

PRODUCED BY
BRENDAN O'BRIEN

Sure, Brendan, don't forget to bold out that part lest anyone forgets about you

Jeez, did he have input on the artwork too?

I'm a peaceful person as a rule.
But I'd break this guy's nose.

[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.

I think it's better than Backspacer by virtue of having at least one song I really like but it's definitely not comparable to S/T which has a few.

I can't begin to understand anyone who's ranking this above anything from the Ten through Binaural stretch. I mean, really!

ditto...

it's better than Backspacer on the strength of probably 3 songs, and while it's more consistent than Riot Act, there's a few songs on there i like more than ANYTHING on here. Definitely not as enjoyable as S/T for me... i thought it might be close at first, but when i went back and listened, it's not even close.

and agreed... all of those 90's albums are 9+, Binaural like an 8.5, nothing since has cracked the 7.5 mark for me, and i'd give Backspacer a 4.5/10

a lot of songs I just don't like that much on those records. And Binaural, No Code, and Riot Act have no 5 star songs on them. There's really only 3-5 truly strong songs on each of those records (to my ears) anyway

No Code: Hail Hail, Who You Are, In My Tree, Red Mosqutio, Present Tense
Binaural: NAIS, Grievance, Insignificance, Parting Ways, Rival
Riot Act: Save You, Can't Keep, I Am Mine

It's too early to tell where L-bolt will fall in but Mind Your Manners, Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Infallible, Pendulum, Yellow Moon, even Sleeping By Myself are all potentially up there, and every song but future days I still like quite a bit.

[harmless]

My take on the album as a "concept"

Rejection

1) "Getaway" -- a snarky, second-person rejection of your narrow-mindedness and simplistic / fundamentalist belief. And the description of a "betterway" (sorry).

2) "Mind Your Manners" -- an angry rejection of their "religious" hypocrisy, and breaches of social justice and equality, all in the name of elitist social etiquette / "manners". And a suggestion of somethin' else.

3) "My Father's Son" -- a rejection of negative familial ties as a reason for political and social apathy, a need to be free from the chains of overbearing parental expectation.

The replacement for what is rejected

4) "Sirens" -- against the backdrop of the threat and violence of emergency sirens (possibly caused by any and all of the above), this describes the safety and love which can be found in family. It also considers mortality and death, but in an earthly, everyday way as opposed to a heightened religious or mythical sense. There is no "Heaven", and we don't get to take what we have with us. The song's melancholy celebrates this happiness but is awash with the inevitable sadness of death too.

5) "Lightning Bolt" -- This song could be about songwriting, as the EPK suggests. But in a more general sense, it's about inspiration and the "mustard seed" we put our faith in. It's a parable, in the vein of the wise man and foolish man. Christianity speaks of the doctrine of Biblical Inspiration -- how the scripture is God-breathed yet written by man, etc. This song seems to be about *your own* spark of inspiration, and the fact that you can't keep it in a book, or a box, or a bag (sorry, couldn't resist that either). It's uncontrollable, wild, and will have its way with you. There's a sense in which this "lightning bolt" -- this God-given miracle or flash of inspiration -- doesn't ultimately care about you any more than anyone else, and will eventually absorb you back into the earth in death. It's bigger than you, and all your ideas can't capture it.

6) "Infallible" -- This song also draws on a Christian doctrine, that of "Infallibility". The Bible is often described as "infallible" in the same breath as "inerrant". It makes no mistake, and its every jot and tittle is true, and good. That's the fundamentalist view of the Bible. This song is about political apathy due to our belief that, armed with our beliefs (and by extension, our Bibles), we're infallible, always right, never wrong. Therefore we needn't get caught up in the world's politics; we can happily sit on the fence, because positions need not be taken. As long as we all love each other, we don't have to fight against social injustice, because this world will all go up in smoke anyway. The replacement of "faith" here is a call to social action.

The loneliness and betrayal felt after the rejection of life-long belief

7) "Pendulum" -- The darkest song on the record, this is spoken by a character who feels like a shadow of his former self. He used to feel comforted by higher powers. Now he's a pendulum, swinging from left to right by some unseen manipulator. This song gets a bit more serious, as the second-wind of the feelings associated with what the protagonist has rejected. Whereas the first rejection was angry, this second one will be painful and heart-wrenching, like losing a loved one.

8) "Swallowed Whole" -- There's a major irony in the song in that it sounds triumphant, energetic and happy. But it's a "manic" episode of happiness, because the protagonist's message is "I'm so at home in all these beautiful, earthly and natural surroundings (literally and metaphorically), I could die here." It's a cry of the desire for oblivion, which in Christianity we call heaven, but could otherwise be called Shalom, or Nirvana. But rather than in the religious sense, we're just talking about wanting to lie in the earth, have our ashes scattered in the sea, be the sun -- to generate our own light, our own heat, and to govern our own universe. "Mine is mine..."

9) "Let the Records Play" -- This song is about a guy who goes and drinks himself silly, possibly to death. This is the culmination of these three songs. The protagonist -- possibly a religious teacher disillusioned by what he's having to teach, even after all these realisations and epiphanies -- drowns himself in drink. He puts a red dress on and listens to his favourite record. There's a rejection of heteronormativity in the red dress, and possibly the embracing of a trans* identity. Or he might just be wearing a dress for fun. But ultimately, the vignette mirrors the style: T.Rex-style glam rock, or "Spirit in the Sky" territory. These songs are as camp as they are legitimately rock music.

The resignation (and / or ironic happiness) in embracing new choices

10) "Sleeping By Myself" -- On face value, the song is about infidelity and betrayal. This was hinted at in a subtle and serious way during "Sirens", but that song focussed on the mortality aspect. This one's the other way round: it brings back the betrayal, but could also be metaphorically about death. There's a tongue-in-cheek aspect to the idea that "sleeping by myself" could mean going it alone, in the same sense as "flying solo". But it could also mean dying alone. Again, there's a darkly comic celebration of individuality, aloneness and oblivion here.

11) "Yellow Moon" -- The yellow moon rising is contrasted by death imagery in this song, "headstones" etc. It recalls apocalyptic imagery of the end-times, the beginning of an eternal "heaven", except that again, all of the imagery is earthly. There are no angels, just a reflection on how we are born, raised and die by the moon. What's arising here is the end of it all. The yellow moon, the controller of our universe, is also contrasted with the sun in "Swallowed Whole".

12) "Future Days" -- Until what's left is just the future days of two people -- two lovers -- or the singer and his audience, i.e. all of us. The lyrics, like in the title track and others, take various images and phrases from the book of Revelation: storms, waves, natural disasters. "Future days (also translated "end-times", "latter-days") and the line from the disciple Thomas: "I believe because I have seen...". Except Jesus is nowhere to be seen here; belief and faith are entirely, and rightly, focussed on the love of one other. We are our own inheritance, because we didn't wait lazily and apathetically for any heavenly rewards but we got on with living life as we saw it.

I saved this post for when I go back to do the tour thread in a few months, Harmless. good stuff

There's more I could've said about MFS, but that'll do for now.