The song “Mind Your Manners” has the most punk rock balls ive heard on any PJ album and sounds like Dead Kennedys meets Kiss, “Pendulum” is a droning moody track that features McCready playing the bow on the guitar and “Infallible” has the best lyricism on the album and great melody. With that said I think “Sirens” is up front a power ballad, but i think its their most complex and technical composition that they have written. Lightning Bolt is easily my least favorite Pearl Jam album. After 4 years i didnt expect B-sides to fill the record… Other songs like “Let The Record Play” and “My Father’s Son” dont seem to fit anywhere.
Gonna hit you like a lightning bolt.” Other songs seem pulled from other sources as well like “Swallowed Whole” possibly an Into The Wild B-side and “Sleeping By Myself” a track originally released on Vedder’s other solo record Ukulele Songs, a song that sounded better as a uke solo anyway. Means there’s another one out there that is gonna happen quick, and is “If it’s not gonna happen quick then I don’t wanna do it, because it Even Eddie Vedder said this during the Backspacer era that leads me to think maybe that song was written then. For example Pendulum is a Backspacer B-side and the title track Lightning Bolt sounds like a Backspacer B-side.
I think Lightning Bolt lacks some cohesiveness but not in the natural artistic way that albums like Vitalogy and No Code had offered, but rather Lightning Bolt almost sounds like a mini Lost Dogs or record of B-sides. I reviewed Lightning Bolt when it came out in 2013. Click> Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt - Album Review