A Guided Tour of Lightning Bolt: Infallible

[E.H. Ruddock]

By the way, Ruddo, I quoted your last post just in case. I didn't want to bottom page you.

you learn quickly, young jedi. or young smaug. whatever is better

[epilogue]

By the way, Ruddo, I quoted your last post just in case. I didn't want to bottom page you.

you learn quickly, young jedi. or young smaug. whatever is better

Being a Jedi HAS to be better than being a dragon. Right?

Stip?

[E.H. Ruddock]

By the way, Ruddo, I quoted your last post just in case. I didn't want to bottom page you.

you learn quickly, young jedi. or young smaug. whatever is better

Being a Jedi HAS to be better than being a dragon. Right?

Stip?

See my avoidance of bottom-paging you, joey?

[epilogue]

By the way, Ruddo, I quoted your last post just in case. I didn't want to bottom page you.

you learn quickly, young jedi. or young smaug. whatever is better

Being a Jedi HAS to be better than being a dragon. Right?

Stip?

See my avoidance of bottom-paging you, joey?

It did not go unnoticed. Your bank account should reflect my appreciation shortly.

[LoathedVermin72]

jesus fucking christ stop talking about bottom paging you fucks

[epilogue]

jesus fucking christ stop talking about bottom paging you fucks

Would you really rather we talk about Sirens?

Be honest.

[LoathedVermin72]

.............touche

[epilogue]

[LoathedVermin72]

oops, i misspelled douche

[epilogue]

Hey now.

[E.H. Ruddock]

LV sure is grumpy today

[epilogue]

LV sure is grumpy today

He really hates Harold and Maude.

[LoathedVermin72]

It was a joke. Joey is not a douche.

[epilogue]

A profound circus, indeed.

[stip]

Wanna make that thread a series? I'm sure we could find a villain that Smaug COULD defeat.

I just laughed during a meeting where I wasn't supposed to be reading this thread.

[epilogue]

Wanna make that thread a series? I'm sure we could find a villain that Smaug COULD defeat.

I just laughed during a meeting where I wasn't supposed to be reading this thread.

Classic, Stip!

[stip]

Sirens

Sirens can trace its roots to songs like Just Breathe, Speed of Sound, and The End. These are some of the least aggressive songs pearl jam has written, which may be why My Father’s Son into Sirens is one of the most awkward transitions in the catalog. But when we look past the music and start to consider the two songs thematically, even narratively, it starts to make a lot more sense. If My Father’s Son is a nightmare, Sirens explores the moments after waking—lying in the dark, heart pounding, savoring the gradual realization that it was all a dream. Everything you still care about is lying there beside you. Peaceful, but vulnerable—the nightmare bringing the fragility of our lives into stark relief. Although it’s the direct transition, My Father’s Son is not the only nightmare song on the record. Pendulum, Yellow Moon, every moment of doubt, desolation and failure comes back to Sirens, and the things in our life that help the fear go away—if only we can keep them safe and make ourselves worthy of them. You can make a pretty strong case that Sirens is the most important song on the album for this reason.

Framing all this in a power ballad structure was an interesting call (controversial, given some of the reactions), but one of the things that makes Sirens compelling is the subtle way it plays with expectations. It challenges the listeners by offering a hushed dynamic in a song whose conventions demand that you go for broke—like it’s afraid to wake the person next to them, or voice its fears loud enough for someone else to hear. It’s a power ballad that demands privacy because it doesn’t have the self-confidence to put itself on display.

The music is the beating heart in the gentle aftermath of a vicious nightmare. So much of the song feels alternately muted or distant even as it swells—like it’s recalling images rapidly receding in the way dreams do, or in its refusal to voice delicate and tentative sentiments too loudly, for fear of disturbing the person lying peaceful beside them. It’s an image of beauty you can’t interact with because engaging it means marring the tranquility that is such an important part of the appeal. The doubts, the weakness, the terror has to be something private. It’s not a burden to share. This gives the song a curiously tragic element— its inability to share a gift that would be most graciously received and utter a sentiment that needs to be voiced, but it’s also what makes it disarming and compelling. And so Eddie sings his heart out, but he’s singing to himself (as opposed to a similarly dramatic song like Black, where the whole world needs to hear his pain). The subtle flourishes Stone adds to the song are the exclamation marks to sentences that can’t be spoken. The delicate background harmonies at the end of the song whispered sentiments. It’s not a surprise that the biggest misfire in the song is the solo, which is far too big and brash for the song that surrounds it.

Like so much of the record it's a middle aged song, concerned with the appreciation and preservation of what you already have, as opposed to what you're hoping to find. It's conservative insofar as it's concerned about what you have to lose, rather than what you stand to gain. The narrative details are pretty clear, so I'm not going to go line by line. They set the time and place. I imagine the sirens blurring the transition from dream and reality—the way your mind incorporates the sound that wakes you into the story it was telling you in your sleep. But the rest of the lyrics are simple and honest. They convey the doubt, the fear of loss, and above all the gratitude for possessing a peace and a love you never thought you’d have. Plus a warning. Don’t take it for granted, and don’t keep it to yourself.

[epilogue]

I've never found MFS into Sirens to be an awkward transition. Not even a little bit.

[stip]

I hated it for a long time. you were ahead of whatever curve I'm on

[epilogue]

I hated it for a long time. you were ahead of whatever curve I'm on

I'm a sucker for heart-on-sleeve sentimentality. Always have been. I think, as far as naked sugary sentiment goes the lyrics are actually fairly interesting and endearing and listenable.

The music moved me from the first listen. Pearl Jam is always talking about how such-and-such song was influenced by such-and-such band. But this one really hit home, for me. It really does sound (musically) like a Pink Floyd song. Since Pink Floyd is another of my favorite bands, it makes sense that this one touched a nerve.

Sometimes musicians overestimate their roles as storytellers and/or poets. Not the case here. It's hard for someone like me to not fall in love with this sort of genuine expression and honesty and emotion.