Lightning Bolt
*Lightning Bolt* leaves no question about Pearl Jam\'s enduring vitality. Opening with the one-two punch of “Getaway” and “Mind Your Manners,” the 10th studio album from the ’90s rock architects alternates between thrashing rock and soaring ballads. Tunes like “Lightning Bolt” and “My Father’s Son” channel the howling energy of The Stooges.
Pearl Jam on record have essentially been reduced to the rock ‘n’ roll version of wearing sweatpants: they’ve given up trying to impress anyone, so they may as well be comfortable. Their first studio album in four years continues the trend.
As the last classic-rock band the world might ever produce, Pearl Jam finds itself in a position familiar to its forebears—able to pack any venue it chooses to play, but largely disenfranchised from the world of mainstream popular music. In other words, like The Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam can move…
An expertly composed record though it is, there are few moments here that could stand next to the band's true classics.
It feels impossible that ‘In Utero’ is already two decades old, but even more unthinkable is that Nirvana contemporaries Pearl Jam are still trotting out their turgid rock blub-fests.
When Pearl Jam hit cruise control for their career is debatable, and it should be said that it beats the alternative that most bands eventually succumb to—namely, irrelevance.
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Now that Pearl Jam have, for all intents and purposes, been enshrined as one of America's great rock'n'roll bands, they face the question all those previously in their position had to answer: what's left to prove, if not to their fans, at least to themselves?
Pearl Jam is the new classic rock. With Lightning Bolt, the second album into what seems like a new return-to-classic-Pearl Jam era, the band has even further shunted any self-imposed notions of what it "should" be and seemingly morphed into what it is, o
Album review: 'Lighting Bolt', the 10th studio album from grunge veterans Pearl Jam, earns Clash's seal of approval...
Though Pearl Jam's 10th album is short on suprises, Eddie Vedder's vocals impress, writes <strong>Phil Mongredien</strong>
Pearl Jam has made a good vocation of staying carefully in their lane, and their new album, Lightning Bolt, is no exception.
While it’s trite to say that Pearl Jam are the elder statesmen of American alt-rock, such a banal description doesn’t make the assertion any less true...
Endlessly admirable, Pearl Jam have got their spark back on their new album – in parts, anyway, writes <strong>Dom Lawson</strong>
[xrr rating=2.75/5]After what is nearing a quarter of a century spent packing stadiums and thriving at the forefront of guitar rock (a genre that may becoming something of a relic in the present day), Pearl Jam has earned the luxury of occasionally resting on their laurels.
Tenth studio album from Seattle ex-grungists reveals hidden depths. CD review by Adam Sweeting