After thinking this season’s round
of the plague missed me, last night I came down with something hard. It ain’t
good, so let’s get this review out of my system while I can still (sort of)
function.
For the second straight review,
the Odyssey has landed on an album from 2013. For those who like statistics,
this is my fourteenth review of an album released in 2013. So far they have
averaged 3.3 stars.
Apologies – I’ve been working with
numbers a lot at work lately.
Disc 972 is…Lightning Bolt
Artist: Pearl Jam
Year of Release: 2013
What’s up with the Cover? Some sort of infographic? Maybe
a riddle embedded in pictograms? I’m going to interpret this one as “Playing
music at night is like a lightning bolt to the eye!” I love music at night, but
I don’t think I would enjoy a lightning bolt to the eye. This leaves me in
quite a quandary.
How I Came To Know It: I have been a Pearl Jam fan for a
long time, and this was just me buying their latest album when it came out.
How It Stacks Up: I have 11 Pearl Jam albums. “Lightning Bolt”
is pretty solid, but I like those other records a lot as well. I’ll put it 7th,
displacing their 2006 self-titled album from that spot in the process. Still
bottom half, but respectable. In many ways it is consistently better than “Vitalogy”
but because that album has a few absolute classics, I’m going to give it the
slight edge for 6th.
Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4
After 2009’s
“Back Spacer” (reviewed back at Disc 45) was such a big disappointment, I
was pretty nervous about buying their next release. I’d only heard two singles off
of it, and only liked one of them. Still, Pearl Jam had given me so much
happiness over the years that I decided to give them a chance. They did not
disappoint.
“Lightning
Bolt” is a return to form in a big way and a reminder on why Pearl Jam is one
of rock and roll’s great enduring bands.
The
production is layered, but never interferes with the song nor sounds busy. Both
McCready and Gossard sound powerful and rejuvenated on guitar and if Eddie Vedder’s
signature voice has lost anything over the years, it hasn’t been much. The
album consistently rocks out and has an energy that is – dare I say it? –
electric.
The
record opens guns-blazing, with “Getaway”
a song that feels like a throwback to nineties Pearl Jam: full of restless energy,
soaring melodies and more than a little groove around the edges. This should
have been the single for the album but band went with “Mind Your Manners” instead, maybe because it is a bit more punk?
“My Father’s Son” is a song about blaming
your less-than-ideal father whenever you screw up. The song walks the fine line
of recognizing you gotta own your decisions in this world, and claim your own
shadow even as you try to step out of someone else's. The frustration and
self-loathing of the song is real and powerful, and while daddy issues have
been so done, Vedder manages to add a fine entry to the canon.
“Sirens” is a slow love song with an
ambient energy that slowly builds as it progresses. The song is half apology
and half plea to stick with it one more time and work to make it better. Vedder’s
vocal here is the rock equivalent of soulful crooner, and his deep sense of
romanticism shines through even in a song where he is essentially admitting to
being an over-analyzing jerk.
The
record ends with “Future Days,” another
love song, this one the perfect book end to the unsteady ground of “Sirens.” If “Sirens” is power and majesty wrapped around frailty, then “Future Days” is stark production wrapped
around strength and certainty. First piano, then guitar take their turn playing
solemnly under Vedder’s trademark croon. Listening to Vedder sing:
“I believe
And I believe ‘cause I can see
Our future days
Days of you and me.”
You will
be convinced there is no hurricane, cyclone or demon - and the song references
all three - that is powerful enough to cleave a man from the girl he’s meant to
be with. The sirens can’t call you to the rocks if you hold each other back.
Listening
to this song I found myself thinking fondly of all those lovers out there for
whom this is “their’ song. It won’t be many people – that kind of romantic song commitment made when you're young, and “Lightning Bolt” is an album that is
likely getting listened to by a lot of folks who selected
“their” song long ago. It’s a nice thought though, and as romantic a song as
you’ll hear, young or old.
Back at
Disc 651 I marveled that Soundgarden was able to come back so strong so late in
their career with the amazing “King Animal.” To see grunge’s other surviving
elder statesman match that effort with “Lightning Bolt” is a reminder of just
how lucky we’ve been to have these bands in our lives for the past quarter
century.
Best
tracks: Getaway,
My Father’s Son, Sirens, Swallowed Whole Future Days
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