Mais Dois Reviews do Lightning Bolt

Acrescento mais dois reviews do novo álbum do Pearl Jam, um deles tem a duração das músicas incluídas!

O primeiro está no site da Alternative Nation, cliquem aqui para ler.


O segundo, com a duração de cada música, eu coloco abaixo:

Getaway (+/- 3:00)

I brought a stopwatch to time the songs, but I was too excited so I

forgot to time Getaway but it's about 3 minutes long. The song itself

sounds hip and fresh and could easily been written by one of the

current rock bands. The song started with the lyric "Everyone's a

critic", which I guess will prove itself once the record is out. 

Other lyrics included '"Find a lighthouse in dark stormy weather",

"it's ok,....make your getaway". The song had a start/stop feel to it

and ended with a guitar shredding outro.

Mind Your Manners (2:40)

The sound on this was much clearer than Getaway to me, but all the

songs were in a compressed format anyway so it was hard to tell

exactly what caused the difference.

My Father's Son (3:02)

This song begins with some spoken wordish lyrics a la 'Bushleaguer'

about insemination and getting a release. This song had a pleasant

rhythm (my notes read tadadadum), and halfway it descends it something

a bit slower and with more bass. The way the lyrics were sung here

reminded me of 'Johnny Guitar'. 

Sirens (5:37)

It starts off with the line "Hear the Sirens" x 3 and something about

a circus profound. I liked the start of the song but later on it

becomes a bit more like a power ballad, but the "Hear the Sirens" line

might save it. Need to hear it more to make a better judgement. It

ends with a guitar solo that reminded me of something you would hear

on a Guns N' Roses song. 

Lightning Bolt (4:35)

This song features a piano and a guitar fade out. It felt to me like

this song will work better live than on the album somehow. 

Infallible (5:15)

This is the song that was played during the soundcheck in London,

Ontario this year, only it has a different intro than the way it

started live. Lyrics featured lines such as "Keep on locking your

doors", "Won't get you this time", "Ships coming in and sinking",

"Thinking we're infallible, we're tempting faith instead". It features

a guitar solo and ends with a fade out. 

Pendulum (3:36)

This one starts with some drums and lyrics "We are here and then we're

gone", "My shadow left me long ago", "Understand what we don't know".

Later in this song the guitar sounds a bit like a slide guitar. It's

definitely a darker song, also because of the lyrics which further

include "Into the fire but still I'm cold", "Nothing works for me

anymore". Ed later on starts singing "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" and singing over

this as well. I liked the different layers of this song. Could become

one of my favourites on this album. 

Swallowed Whole (3:49)

I pictured this song to be more somber but it actually is quite a lot

more happy sounding. It begins with some nice strumming guitar sound

and the lyrics seemed to be more darker than the song itself. It

features some rhyme repeating words like drown, drown, drown and loud,

loud, loud, the currents pull me down, the songs are like wind,

breathing forgiveness. Thinking back on it, it could have the same

meaning as 'In Hiding' and it definitely features typically Ed ocean

imagery. Enjoyed this song as well, also because of the way it was

sung. Ends with a guitar solo. 

Let The Records Play (3:42)

The most blues rock song on the album but with a fun feel to it and

therefore it stands out from the others, like someone in a party mood

suddenly enters a room where others are having a serious discussion.

Typically a goofy Stone song. Lines include "When the kingdom comes,

he puts the records on", "Shaking but waking, wisdom in his bones".

Features a Stone solo and handclaps (according to my fellow companions

but I did not notice them myself) and ends with a fade out. This song

could go any which way after a few listens. Difficult to say if it

stays with you or not. 

Sleeping By Myself (2:59)

Considering the reactions this song got from the rest of the company I

was in, most people are going to shit all over this song. Brendan

O'Brien even said they had a hard time making this song sound less

commercial, which makes you wonder you even more about what the other

versions of this song sounded like.

This is definitely the Speed of Sound of this album. I actually still

kind of liked it. It's as if they made a happier sounding version of

this song, like it is actually quite swell to be sleeping by oneself.

I wrote down that this version reminded me of 'Soon Forget'. It still

features a uke as well. Looking forward to people's reaction to this

once the album is officially out. 

Yellow Moon (3:47)

Here we arrive at my personal favourite song on the album. I was even

singing along halfway into the song, which prompted Mirella to shush

me. Not really sure what made me like the song so much but it was just

like seeing a great jacket in a shop and when you try it on it fits

like a glove. It could have been the words as well, which went

something like "Here far away, feel the earth vibrate, the moon

chasing shape", "Round we go, where we stop no one knows", "As the sky

grows dark, we're falling stars". The chorus goes "Yellow moon on the

rise" with the rise part being sung as riiiiiiiise. Looking forward to

hearing this song again soon.

Future Days (4:20)

The album version opens with a piano, at least to me it sounded like a

real piano and not a keyboard. A lot of different instruments can be

heard on this song. A mandolin, a violin. I asked Brendan about it and

he said that only the violin was played by someone outside the band

and the rest was all played by the band itself and Brendan. The

beginning is just a single guitar with Ed singing. The song itself has

a Springsteen feel to it. It ends with the piano as well and

eventually fades out. Lots of fades on this record. There were two

songs which sort of seemed to blend into each other but I cannot

remember which ones these were.

So that is my take on these songs. It seems I enjoyed the second half

of the album more, and it looks like I will be in the minority on this

one, judging from other people reviews so far. Let me just say that I

found it very difficult to describe what I was hearing. The album is

not easily digestible in one go, which usually is a good sign. Time

will tell how all these tracks will hold up and how they will stand

when played live. I think we are in for an interesting ride to say the

least."