Re: Lightning Bolt - October 15
Posted: Tue July 30, 2013 5:48 pm
Religious themes and metaphors are SO widespread in our culture that it'd take much more than a couple references to cyclones and demons to make me buy into a deliberate post-apocalyptic concept-album or anything like that.harmless wrote:It might look like a stretch to say that FD by itself is a 'post-apocalyptic love song', but we've got other songs which also suggest apocalyptic literature / religious fundamentalism. The same "speaker" in MYM could've written FD and LB imo, and it's pretty clear from the lyrics, which refer to natural disasters, end times, religious fundamentalism and faith vs. reason -- "Seeing is believing." I'm only reading the lyrics to get all this, and I guess I'll only cool on my theory if we end up getting songs on the album which vastly disagree. PJ are very good at making almost-concept-albums, which are then let down by random 'whimsy' like Supersonic. If they keep that off, then given the artwork and the possibility we've heard 'Sirens' (complete with storm siren at the start), we might have a real unified piece of work on our hands. I think those of us who flat out deny this are probably so bored of Pearl Jam they're not open to being impressed. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until they show me a song on the awful-level of Supersonic.Walker Bait wrote:Exactly, after reading someones theory on LB about it having to do with the world and mother nature and us screwing everything up, I started to think about Future Days and the lyrics. They talk about hurricanes, cyclones, winds and dust, tides raising....and closer became us...like after it all happened...And I'm still hearing what sounds like a storm siren at the begining of that soundcheck song soooo....Thejambi wrote:If you look at the lyrics we have I don't think it's a stretch at all.Heathen wrote:yeah that looks like a huge stretchstupidmop wrote:Post apocalyptic concept album would be so cool. I wish i could see future days as some kind of lovers at the end of the word love ballad but i'm not, currently.
Heathen wrote:Religious themes and metaphors are SO widespread in our culture that it'd take much more than a couple references to cyclones and demons to make me buy into a deliberate post-apocalyptic concept-album or anything like that.harmless wrote:It might look like a stretch to say that FD by itself is a 'post-apocalyptic love song', but we've got other songs which also suggest apocalyptic literature / religious fundamentalism. The same "speaker" in MYM could've written FD and LB imo, and it's pretty clear from the lyrics, which refer to natural disasters, end times, religious fundamentalism and faith vs. reason -- "Seeing is believing." I'm only reading the lyrics to get all this, and I guess I'll only cool on my theory if we end up getting songs on the album which vastly disagree. PJ are very good at making almost-concept-albums, which are then let down by random 'whimsy' like Supersonic. If they keep that off, then given the artwork and the possibility we've heard 'Sirens' (complete with storm siren at the start), we might have a real unified piece of work on our hands. I think those of us who flat out deny this are probably so bored of Pearl Jam they're not open to being impressed. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until they show me a song on the awful-level of Supersonic.Walker Bait wrote:Exactly, after reading someones theory on LB about it having to do with the world and mother nature and us screwing everything up, I started to think about Future Days and the lyrics. They talk about hurricanes, cyclones, winds and dust, tides raising....and closer became us...like after it all happened...And I'm still hearing what sounds like a storm siren at the begining of that soundcheck song soooo....Thejambi wrote:If you look at the lyrics we have I don't think it's a stretch at all.Heathen wrote:yeah that looks like a huge stretchstupidmop wrote:Post apocalyptic concept album would be so cool. I wish i could see future days as some kind of lovers at the end of the word love ballad but i'm not, currently.
Right, well I've given you more than cyclones and demons so I'm not sure I get your point. Yes, religious language is spread all over our culture, but these are a few songs crammed into a tiny space. One of them could have been about cricket, the other about burglary and the next one about Christmas. They weren't; the dots are there to join up, all bound together with artwork evoking the same imagery. It seems kind of deliberate.Heathen wrote:Religious themes and metaphors are SO widespread in our culture that it'd take much more than a couple references to cyclones and demons to make me buy into a deliberate post-apocalyptic concept-album or anything like that.harmless wrote:It might look like a stretch to say that FD by itself is a 'post-apocalyptic love song', but we've got other songs which also suggest apocalyptic literature / religious fundamentalism. The same "speaker" in MYM could've written FD and LB imo, and it's pretty clear from the lyrics, which refer to natural disasters, end times, religious fundamentalism and faith vs. reason -- "Seeing is believing." I'm only reading the lyrics to get all this, and I guess I'll only cool on my theory if we end up getting songs on the album which vastly disagree. PJ are very good at making almost-concept-albums, which are then let down by random 'whimsy' like Supersonic. If they keep that off, then given the artwork and the possibility we've heard 'Sirens' (complete with storm siren at the start), we might have a real unified piece of work on our hands. I think those of us who flat out deny this are probably so bored of Pearl Jam they're not open to being impressed. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until they show me a song on the awful-level of Supersonic.Walker Bait wrote:Exactly, after reading someones theory on LB about it having to do with the world and mother nature and us screwing everything up, I started to think about Future Days and the lyrics. They talk about hurricanes, cyclones, winds and dust, tides raising....and closer became us...like after it all happened...And I'm still hearing what sounds like a storm siren at the begining of that soundcheck song soooo....Thejambi wrote:If you look at the lyrics we have I don't think it's a stretch at all.Heathen wrote:yeah that looks like a huge stretchstupidmop wrote:Post apocalyptic concept album would be so cool. I wish i could see future days as some kind of lovers at the end of the word love ballad but i'm not, currently.
Nothing is ever really outside the realm of possibility when it comes to interpretation. But yeah, the headspace thing, that's possible of course. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, deeper meaning or not this song still sounds like a terribly corny love song.stip wrote:Heathen wrote:Religious themes and metaphors are SO widespread in our culture that it'd take much more than a couple references to cyclones and demons to make me buy into a deliberate post-apocalyptic concept-album or anything like that.harmless wrote:It might look like a stretch to say that FD by itself is a 'post-apocalyptic love song', but we've got other songs which also suggest apocalyptic literature / religious fundamentalism. The same "speaker" in MYM could've written FD and LB imo, and it's pretty clear from the lyrics, which refer to natural disasters, end times, religious fundamentalism and faith vs. reason -- "Seeing is believing." I'm only reading the lyrics to get all this, and I guess I'll only cool on my theory if we end up getting songs on the album which vastly disagree. PJ are very good at making almost-concept-albums, which are then let down by random 'whimsy' like Supersonic. If they keep that off, then given the artwork and the possibility we've heard 'Sirens' (complete with storm siren at the start), we might have a real unified piece of work on our hands. I think those of us who flat out deny this are probably so bored of Pearl Jam they're not open to being impressed. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until they show me a song on the awful-level of Supersonic.Walker Bait wrote:Exactly, after reading someones theory on LB about it having to do with the world and mother nature and us screwing everything up, I started to think about Future Days and the lyrics. They talk about hurricanes, cyclones, winds and dust, tides raising....and closer became us...like after it all happened...And I'm still hearing what sounds like a storm siren at the begining of that soundcheck song soooo....Thejambi wrote:If you look at the lyrics we have I don't think it's a stretch at all.Heathen wrote:yeah that looks like a huge stretchstupidmop wrote:Post apocalyptic concept album would be so cool. I wish i could see future days as some kind of lovers at the end of the word love ballad but i'm not, currently.
it would, but given the album artwork it's not outside the realm of possibility yet. Although concept album probably goes too far, that could very easily describe the headspace the songs are coming out of
The remake of Dawn of The Dead was full of corny songs that made up the soundtrack. But that was deliberate and it helped to make it a decent film; and you could say the same about plenty of films. What if this was an album full of dark rock, pop and experimentation, with FD (a little light pop) right at the end? Wouldn't that change how you view it somewhat? Doesn't 'Soon Forget' or 'Thumbing My Way' or even 'Betterman' change what it's doing in the context of the album? I think so.Heathen wrote:Nothing is ever really outside the realm of possibility when it comes to interpretation. But yeah, the headspace thing, that's possible of course. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, deeper meaning or not this song still sounds like a terribly corny love song.stip wrote:Heathen wrote:Religious themes and metaphors are SO widespread in our culture that it'd take much more than a couple references to cyclones and demons to make me buy into a deliberate post-apocalyptic concept-album or anything like that.harmless wrote:It might look like a stretch to say that FD by itself is a 'post-apocalyptic love song', but we've got other songs which also suggest apocalyptic literature / religious fundamentalism. The same "speaker" in MYM could've written FD and LB imo, and it's pretty clear from the lyrics, which refer to natural disasters, end times, religious fundamentalism and faith vs. reason -- "Seeing is believing." I'm only reading the lyrics to get all this, and I guess I'll only cool on my theory if we end up getting songs on the album which vastly disagree. PJ are very good at making almost-concept-albums, which are then let down by random 'whimsy' like Supersonic. If they keep that off, then given the artwork and the possibility we've heard 'Sirens' (complete with storm siren at the start), we might have a real unified piece of work on our hands. I think those of us who flat out deny this are probably so bored of Pearl Jam they're not open to being impressed. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until they show me a song on the awful-level of Supersonic.Walker Bait wrote:Exactly, after reading someones theory on LB about it having to do with the world and mother nature and us screwing everything up, I started to think about Future Days and the lyrics. They talk about hurricanes, cyclones, winds and dust, tides raising....and closer became us...like after it all happened...And I'm still hearing what sounds like a storm siren at the begining of that soundcheck song soooo....Thejambi wrote:If you look at the lyrics we have I don't think it's a stretch at all.Heathen wrote:yeah that looks like a huge stretchstupidmop wrote:Post apocalyptic concept album would be so cool. I wish i could see future days as some kind of lovers at the end of the word love ballad but i'm not, currently.
it would, but given the album artwork it's not outside the realm of possibility yet. Although concept album probably goes too far, that could very easily describe the headspace the songs are coming out of
I'm with you. The whole "post-apocalyptic concept album" thing is as hilarious as that time RM convinced itself that Eddie's vocals in "Brother" were recorded by modern-day Eddie and made to sound like 1991 Eddie through the wonders of technology.Heathen wrote:Nothing is ever really outside the realm of possibility when it comes to interpretation. But yeah, the headspace thing, that's possible of course. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, deeper meaning or not this song still sounds like a terribly corny love song.
I don't find the lyrics to FD as trite as I did. I was sitting in the doctor's office and the line 'I believe 'cause I have seen' was suddenly quite profound, in terms of my life of the last couple of years and having moved from being someone with a deep faith to someone highly sceptical, angry / depressed and an agnostic. The only people left in the world that I really love and trust are my wife and family, and that's why I for one find this song more meaningful than some will here. It's like a worship song that you'd get in Church, thematically and stylistically (that horrible keyboard even works for this premise), but it's addressed to real people instead of metaphysical ideas.Thejambi wrote:This song could easily be about The narrator and Faith just as it could be about the narrator and a woman. Te overall theme I take from it is finding completeness in something. The problems and evils will live on and even when the world falls apart, the narrator has come to terms that there are somethings he can and can't control and that is a powerful realization.
I don't even believe that he is speaking to anyone that is alive and the Future Days are ones in the afterlife.
I know but for copyright purposes we are not allowed to discuss that until the album officially launchesMcParadigm wrote:You guys are being ridiculous. You know that, right?
Future Days and Lightning Bolt CLEARLY indicate a concept album about a love affair between Poison Ivy and the Batman.
harmless wrote:I don't find the lyrics to FD as trite as I did. I was sitting in the doctor's office and the line 'I believe 'cause I have seen' was suddenly quite profound, in terms of my life of the last couple of years and having moved from being someone with a deep faith to someone highly sceptical, angry / depressed and an agnostic. The only people left in the world that I really love and trust are my wife and family, and that's why I for one find this song more meaningful than some will here. It's like a worship song that you'd get in Church, thematically and stylistically (that horrible keyboard even works for this premise), but it's addressed to real people instead of metaphysical ideas.Thejambi wrote:This song could easily be about The narrator and Faith just as it could be about the narrator and a woman. Te overall theme I take from it is finding completeness in something. The problems and evils will live on and even when the world falls apart, the narrator has come to terms that there are somethings he can and can't control and that is a powerful realization.
I don't even believe that he is speaking to anyone that is alive and the Future Days are ones in the afterlife.
I don't hear much of anything 'post-apocalyptic', if that helps. I mean we have no zombies.theplatypus wrote:I'm with you. The whole "post-apocalyptic concept album" thing is as hilarious as that time RM convinced itself that Eddie's vocals in "Brother" were recorded by modern-day Eddie and made to sound like 1991 Eddie through the wonders of technology.Heathen wrote:Nothing is ever really outside the realm of possibility when it comes to interpretation. But yeah, the headspace thing, that's possible of course. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, deeper meaning or not this song still sounds like a terribly corny love song.
Thejambi wrote:That could be one of his points( possibly carried over from MYM). I think you find faith, hope, will through others and through your experiences. Often life and others apart of it are overlooked and deemphasized by the presence , belief or will of God.

Is all this a stretch? Not really, Ed's been writing about this stuff forever.Thejambi wrote:harmless wrote:I don't find the lyrics to FD as trite as I did. I was sitting in the doctor's office and the line 'I believe 'cause I have seen' was suddenly quite profound, in terms of my life of the last couple of years and having moved from being someone with a deep faith to someone highly sceptical, angry / depressed and an agnostic. The only people left in the world that I really love and trust are my wife and family, and that's why I for one find this song more meaningful than some will here. It's like a worship song that you'd get in Church, thematically and stylistically (that horrible keyboard even works for this premise), but it's addressed to real people instead of metaphysical ideas.Thejambi wrote:This song could easily be about The narrator and Faith just as it could be about the narrator and a woman. Te overall theme I take from it is finding completeness in something. The problems and evils will live on and even when the world falls apart, the narrator has come to terms that there are somethings he can and can't control and that is a powerful realization.
I don't even believe that he is speaking to anyone that is alive and the Future Days are ones in the afterlife.
That could be one of his points( possibly carried over from MYM). I think you find faith, hope, will through others and through your experiences. Often life and others apart of it are overlooked and deemphasized by the presence , belief or will of God.
Confess with your mouth.McParadigm wrote:Thejambi wrote:That could be one of his points( possibly carried over from MYM). I think you find faith, hope, will through others and through your experiences. Often life and others apart of it are overlooked and deemphasized by the presence , belief or will of God.
Which people? 'Sirens' has been rumoured and we're wondering whether it was a murky recording of a soundchecked song some of us heard.Lounge Lizard wrote:People are saying they heard a song called "Sirens" - where?
Oh the London thing. Nevermind then.harmless wrote:Which people? 'Sirens' has been rumoured and we're wondering whether it was a murky recording of a soundchecked song some of us heard.Lounge Lizard wrote:People are saying they heard a song called "Sirens" - where?