Lightning Bolt was released almost three years ago by Pearl Jam. They’re my favorite band, and probably one of the last great "Grunge" bands left from the days of the early 90’s revolution spearheaded by Nirvana. There’s been some drummer turnover, but not in the past 15 years or so since Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron joined. The band has otherwise stayed the exact same for the past 25 or so years.
Fronted by Eddie Vedder, who often plays guitar as well, the band has always had a very distinct sound with Mike McCready and Stone Gossard leading the guitar charge with bassist Jeff Ament in tow. There’s also a keyboardist in Boom Gaspar (BOOOOO) that tours with them. There are three guitarists, one of whom is the vocalist, and the bassist and the drummer and they all contribute to the lyrics and the songs and the structure. They were also produced by Brenden O’Brien. You know… the guy who produced Vs., No Code, Vitalogy, Backspacer and Yield, helping the band churn out great tunes as ‘Betterman’, ‘Do the Evolution’, ‘Given to Fly’, ‘Spin the Black Circle’ and everything else good or bad except Ten and the Pearl Jam self-titled debut.
This is, apparently, the best they could do in 2013. Or, it’s what they chose to put out that fateful fall.
This is a very ‘by the books’ album by one of the greatest, most enduring rock bands of the past 2 ½ decades. You have your opening few heavy hitting tracks, it goes soft, picks up again and ends on something of a mellow note. Not all of it is good or bad, but it’s hit that that new PJ standard of just being another OK Pearl Jam album. Just… OK.
It starts off heavy with the song ‘Getaway’ (or as my car stereo tells me, ‘Getwaway’). It’s a good lead-in, with a pretty good opening melody and Eddie’s lyrics come out strong. The guitars seem to take a backseat to the drumming of Matt Cameron in my opinion, which is all a backdrop for Ed’s vocal instability when he’s not in the chorus. I do like the message in the song as I interpret it, to keep your own faith and to not mind those that drag you down.
This goes into the punk-but-not-punk-wannabe-anthem ‘Mind Your Manners’, which is an odd little number. It’s the first single from the album, and the video is easily found on YouTube. This song basically questions God, uses the fearful side of the American dream in it’s lyrics and plays the politician/authority role of telling people to, well, mind your manners. The guitars here shine, as do the drums. I honestly believe Ed’s lyrics are the one thing holding the rest of the song down, even if he sings them with ferocity and conviction.
‘My Father’s Son’ is next, and it’s a pretty introspective piece. Ed’s lyrics reflect a deep dislike for the qualities (or lack thereof) that he shares with his father, and it seems a bit too lively for the subject material. That said, it’s a pretty revealing song, but not one that we haven’t heard before but better. It was better as ‘Release’, and that was over 20 years ago.
That leads us to the power ballad of the album, a song called ‘Sirens’. In the same song, it speaks about keeping your love and also driving her away. The guitar shines, second only to Ed’s emotion with his lyrics. You can feel the hurt and anger at himself in this song. This was the second single of the album, but I don’t think it was as meaningful as ‘Mind Your Manners’ even if it was a little bit more successful and did get more airplay.
The fifth song gets to the title track from the album, ‘Lightning Bolt’. This song speaks of someone coming into your life and, unknowingly, you taking their whims and needs above your own to a detrimental point in your life, and by the time you realize it, you’re dead. This has happened to everyone at some point, whether it be a toxic relationship or an overbearing family member or friend or whatnot, so it’s easy to relate to this song. The guitar and drums shine a little less than the lyrics, though Ed’s singing isn’t exactly suspect but there isn’t the same conviction as there is on other songs. Perhaps this should’ve been a slower song, with a darker tone.
‘Infallible’ is next, and it takes a dark and brooding beginning and puts some pop in it. Is there another way to describe it? This song just doesn’t work. It seems to go for a self-destructive candor, yet it touches on hints of being oblivious, deliberate, and being self-aware. The words don’t match the song, and it’s a shame because the melodies and the beat are strong, and the lyrics are also strong, but this is not the sum of its parts. It's like Pearl Jam just wasn't in sync here.
‘The next song, ‘Pendulum’, just works, up until the end. The lyrics are dark, the music is brooding to match, and Ed decides to sing in such a way that it’s an extension of the music rather than him either over-or-undercompensating. The end goes on for a little too long, and I didn’t like that this was a hard transition into the next song. It should’ve been a slight crossfade in my opinion, right into ‘Swallowed Whole’, which is as far a contrast as you’re going to get on this record. From a moody and bitter song about going nowhere to a song about sensory overload and… maybe, just maybe, a little bit of happiness! The slightly-off-kilter pacing of Matt Cameron shines here, and the guitars follow suit just enough to make it all work.
‘Let the Records Play’ is next, and the less said about this the better. It has a pretty sweet bass hook, to be fair. You’ve heard this before, and better, by just about every other band out there that’s ever done a rock-pop-country song of any kind. Ed’s vocals on whatever autotune is just awful, he sounds like he just wants to get through it, one of the guitars tries to go with the bass but it just doesn’t work and Matt’s drumming isn’t suspect but it isn’t as good as it is on the rest of the album. This seems like a worse attempt to sound contemporary than ‘Sirens’, and personally, this is easily the lowlight of the album, and one of Pearl Jam's worst album filler songs ever.
‘Sleeping By Myself’ is next, and is an overlap from Eddie Vedder’s miserable ‘Ukelele Songs’ album I also reviewed. ‘Ukelele Songs’ was a short, sappy version of this song and it apparently needed to be redone and heard again as a somewhat pop-infused full band song. It’s better than the version on the Eddie Vedder solo album, but it didn’t need to happen in the first place. The band in its’ entirety sounds about as powerful as a ukulele in this song, which is not a good thing. It also added a little over a minute from the solo version to the band version, so it’s basically an extended cut of a mediocre song we’ve heard before.
The penultimate track on here, ‘Yellow Moon’ starts out very promising. A powerful beginning, a steady drum beat, and a soft guitar accentuate Ed’s vocal choices here, but then almost at the end of the chorus it all falls apart with that one electric guitar chord. It didn’t need an electric guitar. This would’ve been the perfect place to put the traditional EV acoustic song, right before the end. This is begging for an acoustic version and a slower beat.
We end the album with ‘Future Days’, a song entirely composed by the main lyricist Eddie Vedder and it shows. It has deep lyrics, the melody is sublime and it’s a very mellow song to go out on. There’s just Ed, a guitar, and a keyboard here and if this was how the whole band chose to end the album it was a good choice. This ends out with a fade, which is appropriate.
This felt like a safe Pearl Jam album. The highs weren’t as high as they have been in the past, and the lows weren’t as low as they have been. The choice to end on a slower song is debatable, but it’s the choice they made. Altogether, the album is as good as the sum of its parts. Some good choices obviously work out well, and some bad choices mar a musically excellent album with uneven songs and transitions. It tries to take you on a ride of highs and lows but it kind of just stays the middle-of-the-road course, which is fitting of a middle-of-the-road album. Lightning Bolt is not a bolt of anything.
