Lightning Bolt (Pearl Jam album)

Soon after completing Backspacer in 2009, Pearl Jam and producer Brendan O'Brien intended to soon repeat the experience given that according to O'Brien "we had a really good time doing it.". O'Brien considered that the studio helped the band get to a "submarine mentality, and everybody going into the ship together", and bassist Jeff Ament added that working outside the band's hometown Seattle led the musicians to work more efficiently. where they recorded seven songs. However, they decided to take a break, as guitarist Mike McCready explained, "we had to take some time to figure out what we wanted to do." Work on the album resumed only in March 2013 as the bandmembers regrouped with new compositions, mostly done separately in each member's home studio—though McCready at times worked along with drummer Matt Cameron—before the group reunited to finish the songs together. Ament recorded solo album While My Heart Beats and started the project RNDM, and McCready formed the group Walking Papers while also taking part in a partial reunion of Mad Season. Vedder still considered that all the diversions helped Pearl Jam to have "more importance placed on the records" and focusing on making the best album possible. Like with previous records the songs had their first recordings with all the musicians playing together, though O'Brien added that with Lightning Bolt "we don’t keep as much of [the live recordings] as we used to." After six weeks of new recording sessions, the album was mixed in Seattle at the band's desire, ==Composition==

In contrast to the short tracks of Backspacer, Lightning Bolt features longer songs and a more experimental sound that McCready declared to aim for "a logical extension of what Backspacer was". with the lead singles "Mind Your Manners" and "Sirens" being inspired by the Dead Kennedys and a concert in Roger Waters' The Wall Live, respectively. Neil Young was noted as an influence in "Yellow Moon". O'Brien considered the track listing to have "a lot of drama" from the intensity of the musicians' work, but that the band itself were united and enjoying themselves during the creation process. According to Gossard, the album's simpler arrangements, "sussed out" songwriting and less production than in Backspacer made for songs that were easier to learn and play live. The concernment in the songs also owed to Vedder being a father, as the singer detailed that "It’s going to be their world and what is their future? It feels like there is a lot that can be lost in the next 50 years if people don’t pay attention." ==Release and promotion==

on the Lightning Bolt Tour at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, November 26, 2013 Pearl Jam's website and social network pages were extensively used to create expectations and excitement for the upcoming album, with two countdown clocks being posted on the band's website. After the tour was revealed, the PearlJam.com countdown clock reset, showing a new countdown which was set to end on July 11, 2013, On the same day the band revealed lead single "Mind Your Manners" through digital download, radio airplay and an audio-only YouTube video. The track received heavy airplay on rock radio, debuting at 12th on the Billboard Rock Airplay charts, and with 14,000 downloads reached number 14 at Rock Digital Songs and 12 on the Alternative Rock Tracks charts. An official Pearl Jam app was made available on iTunes on July 25, 2013, and through the final week of August, the band's Twitter revealed Lightning Bolts track list through the artwork made by designer Don Pendleton for each track. "Mind Your Manners" was played live for the first time at their show in London, Ontario on July 16, 2013. Three days later the band debuted two more songs, "Lightning Bolt" and "Future Days," during a show at Wrigley Field. On August 23, 2013, the music video was released for "Mind Your Manners," directed by Danny Clinch. On September 18, 2013, the band released Lightning Bolt's second single, "Sirens", and put online a short documentary directed by Danny Clinch where the bandmembers discussed the new album with friends Carrie Brownstein, Judd Apatow, Mark Richards and Steve Gleason. Ament suggested the concept of the video inspired by the Vanity Fair Comedy Issue, thinking it would be a variant on traditional press interviews. A special listening party with fans was held by Sirius XM at Seattle's Studio X eleven days before the album's release. Monkeywrench Records and Republic Records sent the album's title track, "Lightning Bolt" to mainstream rock and modern rock radio on March 4, 2014, as the album's third single. Pearl Jam released the album through Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records in conjunction with Universal Music Group in the United States. The album also saw release through the band's official website, independent record stores and online retailers. It was made available to stream for free for a limited time on iTunes on October 7, 2013, in the run up to the official release. The band promoted the release of the album with a week-long programme of shows on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which included live performances of "Sirens" and the title track "Lightning Bolt". Pearl Jam also licensed the songs of Lightning Bolt along with 36 other tracks from their catalog to Fox Sports for the network's coverage of the 2013 World Series. Lightning Bolt Tour Pearl Jam promoted the album with shows in North America in 2013 before a tour of Oceania in January 2014. The band headlined the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience on November 1, 2013. The shows in Oceania were part of the Big Day Out festival. On November 15, 2013, drummer Matt Cameron announced that he would not be touring with Soundgarden in 2014, due to prior commitments promoting Lightning Bolt. On December 13, 2013, the band announced an eleven-date European leg starting on June 16, 2014. In May 2014, the band announced a ten-date tour of the American Midwest starting on October 1, 2014, to coincide with two appearances at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. To conclude the tour, the band played at the annual Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, California. In March 2015 the band announced a nine-date tour of Latin America, scheduled to start in November. Packaging The artwork for Lightning Bolt was made by Don Pendleton, who is best known as a skateboard graphic artist. Ament bought some of Pendleton's paintings "in 2008 or 2009" and later asked the artist to do a logo for their upcoming album, which would later develop into all the illustrations. The bassist then kept in contact with Pendleton to guide his work, sending him the song lyrics, some sketches he had done and an unmastered copy of the album. Pendleton tried to "keep it iconic with some symbols but also really heavy with archetypes", given the body of images could be used consistently with all of the promotion. While some of the graphics evolved directly from Ament's sketches, Pendleton took some inspiration from his past work, such as a series of skateboards he painted "based around icons and logos", and the very first image sent to Ament, an eye with a lightning bolt which Pendleton made back in 2006 for a failed project, that evolved into the album cover. Said cover was painted by hand as Pendleton wanted "something so geometric that there would be some flaws in it, especially compared to the vector/computer stuff". Republic Records art designer Joe Spix then handled the presentation, with particular detail in the vinyl packaging. Pendleton also painted Ament's bass, Pearl Jam-themed shirts for Volcom, and posters for the Barclays Center concerts in October 2013. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015, the album won the award for Best Recording Package. ==Critical reception==

Upon its release, Lightning Bolt was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Will Hermes of Rolling Stone gave the album three and a half stars out of five, saying that Eddie Vedder's earnest lyrics and vocals made for compelling tracks, and that the musicians "overthink, overemote and overreach — fruitfully". "My Father's Son" was described as one of Vedder's "most intense performances to date" and a "sturdy return to great form". Some reviewers still felt that Lightning Bolt was not up to the standards set by the band's previous work. Blue Sullivan of Slant Magazine gave the album three out of five stars, saying that the album had a "familiar spark" and was dragged down by "Pearl Jam's antiseptic '70s-album-rock-radio conservatism, along with frontman Eddie Vedder's ham-fisted lyrics", ultimately concluding that "Lightning Bolt is no masterwork. Years removed from the raw emotion and desperate appetites of youth, Pearl Jam has slipped into alt-rock elder statesmanship as one would a comfortable old sweater." Philip Cosores of Paste gave the album a 4.0 out of 10, saying "The album does grow on the listener, as Vedder's voice and the band's seeming ambivalence to all musical trends and developments outside of them is strangely comforting. And maybe some of these songs will come alive when performed, but there is not a single one to love in the set. Essentially, the cruise control is running onward with disregard for all the maintenance and repairs that an engine needs, and the result is the worst album of their career." ==Commercial performance==

Lightning Bolt became Pearl Jam's fifth studio album to have debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 166,000 copies in the United States. In its second week the album sold 46,000 copies holding the number two position on the chart. The album also debuted at number one in Canada, selling 23,000 copies in its first week, and becoming the band's second consecutive album to debut at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart. In Australia, Lightning Bolt became Pearl Jam's eighth chart-topper at the ARIA Charts. Lightning Bolt debuted at second at the UK Albums Chart, being Pearl Jam's highest-charting album in the United Kingdom since 1993's Vs. The album also topped the music charts in Belgium, Ireland, Croatia and Portugal, and held the second spot in the Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland. ==Track listing==

Pearl Jam • Eddie Vedder – lead vocals, guitar; ukulele on "Sleeping by Myself" • Jeff Ament – bass; bowed guitar and keyboard on "Pendulum" • Matt Cameron – drums, percussion; background vocals on "Sirens" • Stone Gossard – guitar; bongo drums on "Pendulum" • Mike McCready – guitar; six-string bass on "My Father's Son" Additional personnel • Ann Marie Calhoun – strings • Boom Gaspar – keyboards • Brendan O'Brien – keyboards, guitar, mixing, production ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==