Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt

After the release of the first single of this album, Mind Your Manners, I immediately pre-ordered it. I loved it.

The big question was, of course, can Pearl Jam get as good as they were in the 90s again? Well, they got pretty close with this album.

It starts out all punky with fast and aggressive songs like Getaway, Mind Your Manners and My Father's son. Those songs sound like they could have been on Vs. or even Ten.
After that we get in a stadium rock-setting with Sirens. Amazing song, it's like the new Black.
The next couple songs after Sirens, namely Infallible and Pendulum, show a little experimenting. Which is great, and the quality of the songs doesn't give in for it.

Then there is a little bridge from the 'first half' of the record to the 'second half' of the record, with the bridge being Swallowed Whole. Which is, in my humble opinion, a little too poppy of a song.

The 'second half' itself shows a more softer, slower side of the band, with as exception Let The Records Play, a bluesy and catchy song.
The second half feels as if it was needed to fill up the album, since all the experimenting and fiery stuff is in the first half.
There is no big news in the last couple of songs, to put it that way.

All in all a great record that almost (!) shows the Pearl Jam that we all love, the Pearl Jam in the nineties.



And, since we're on a drumming forum, let's talk a little about Matt Cameron's work on the album. He said himself that he really wanted to go all out on this record.
He succeeded, with examples as the big toms in Sirens, the off-beat intro to Mind Your Manners and the fast consistent hi-hat in My Father's Son.
But he is still no Dave Abbruzzese ;)

Pendulum is a great track.

Great review, thanks josephusz. I have to chime in on the drummer issue though...

Jack Irons was the best drummer they ever had. Perhaps not in a technical sense, Abbruzzese was ruthlessly proficient, but Irons was the best drummer for Pearl Jam. He perfectly suited their music. 'No Code' and 'Yield' (in my opinion the best and easily most underrated PJ albums) were both done with Jack Irons. 'Vs' is a close third for me (love the sound of Abbruzzeses drums on this album, so much so that I sought out a pair of Sabian AAX 13" Fusion hats that he used just to get the same sound), and although some of the Matt Cameron stuff has been good (saw them on the 'Binaural' tour - awesome), Cameron was BORN to play with Soundgarden, and we all know it. THAT band was/is perfect for Matt Cameron, he shone in it and nothing that he's done with Pearl Jam quite shows off his immense skills to the same capacity.

Let the backlash commence!