Review: Lightning Bolt [Pearl Jam]

Lighting Bolt- Pearl Jam

by: Kitty White

This past week Pearl Jam released their 10^th studio album ‘Lightning Bolt.’ I have been anticipating this even before I saw them July. Their concert at Wrigley only increased my need for this album to come and I had the vinyl preordered since then. The band had put a stream on itunes of the entire album about a week before the release but I held out until Tuesday the 15^th to listen. It was well worth the wait. I had already heard a few tunes off the album but I still eagerly waited to take it all in as a whole. Immediately I loved the opening track Getaway. Angry, fed up Eddie Vedder is a favorite character of mine. He also shows up quite prominently in the second track Mind Your Manners that was also the first single released off the album. It’s very reminiscent of their previous song Spin The Black Circle, which I totally dig. The whole album isn’t just hard hitting, angry Pearl Jam though. They show their softer side with the second single Sirens and also the closing track Future Days. Usually when it comes to an entire album the slower, more ballad-esque songs, they tend to not stand out to me. But the song writing on these songs is what really pulled me in rather than any other part of the songs. The whole album really encompasses the fact that these men aren’t 20 years old anymore. They are grown men with quite a lot of experience under their belts. Not only in the musical sense, but in life itself. It’s like a comforting hug from Eddie Vedder as he calmly whispers in your ear, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” Even the loud and fast songs or the haunting Pendulum have this same sort of heartening feel to them. Also featured on the album is an old solo piece of Vedder’s Sleeping By Myself from his ‘Ukulele Songs’ album that the band rerecorded. It really fits well in its place on ‘Lightning Bolt.’ Even though I have some songs I prefer more than others they all seem to belong exactly where they are on the album. There’s a song for every mood and at one point or another I’ve had each and every one of them stuck in my head at some point this past week. Pearl Jam are old friends who have been with you through thick and thin and you love everything about them and know they are always there for you. ‘Lightning Bolt’ is the reassurance that these guys haven’t lost their soul they’ve just become old men, but in a good way.